By The Editors | January 24, 2011 | 6:14 pm
Who was ravishing in red? Who wore a velvet tux? Whose arm was around whom's?Well, REBNY's 115th annual gala was no Golden Globes, but as far as the real estate biz is concerned, it was simply the biggest night of the year. All the big shots were there, at... READ MORE»
By Sam Chandan | January 13, 2011 | 12:35 pm
For the recovery in commercial real estate investment, and for the policy makers that have worried over the systemic implications of mass mortgage defaults, historically low interest rates have proven one of the downturn's few blessings. The last few quarters' sharp rise in property sales, in New York City and other major markets, would have been impossible under a scenario of significantly higher... MORE >
The Observer, along with the rest of the city, has eagerly, anxiously been awaiting the deconstruction of 130 Liberty Street, the dark monolith nearly destroyed on 9/11 that has haunted the site ever since. There have been construction delays a dozen times over, as well as a deadly fire.... MORE >
When CBGB closed and was replaced with a John Varvatos boutique, many an obituary was penned for the Bowery. Between all the new hotels and eateries, the area was over. But today's news signals a passing of another sort, not of the Bowery's punk prestige but of an even older legacy dating back at least a century, that of the city's skid... MORE >
10 West 33rd Street While we may have just uncovered the shopaholic's Holy Grail, sadly plebeians are not admitted. A specialty building in the garment district caters to retailers, who come to browse high-end accessories to purchase in bulk for their spring line. No mere Web surfing will do, Adams & Co.'s David Levy told The Commercial Observer. "The buyer needs to see the item that they're buying," he said. "It's not like you and me... MORE >
Not since that ebullient fall of 2006 have Manhattan office brokers been so busy. Leasing activity hit a four-year high in 2010, according to Cushman & Wakefield's fourth-quarter Manhattan office report. Activity rose 61.4 percent in 2010 compared to the year... MORE >
123 Baxter Street Spending $600 on sneakers is so 2005. Now Dave's Wearhouse will open a Soho spot for sneakerheads and skateboarders with budget sheets in... MORE >
119 West 40th Street Even a travel company has discovered there's no place like home. Tzell Travel, which specializes in arranging trips for businesspeople, just signed a long-term renewal for its 64,141-square-foot headquarters in midtown. The company already occupies 47,987 square feet on the entire 13th through 15th floors, as well as the penthouse and part of the basement, and now it will migrate to 16,154 square feet on the 12th floor as... MORE >
By The Editors | January 11, 2011 | 2:30 pm
Our colleague Jotham Sederstrom broke some shocking news recently and nobody noticed. Why? Because they're not subscribed to the new Commercial Observer Now tri-weekly newsletter. Subscribers get the first word on the big deals going on in the city before anyone else, such as Marty Markowitz's dream finally coming... MORE >
863 Washington Street Whether the High Line yet smells sweet remains open for debate, but at least for Bond No. 9 it certainly smells of success. The New York City-based perfumery released a new fragrance this fall in honor of the erstwhile industrial wasteland, capturing the aroma of "wildflowers, green grasses," and just "a hint of industrial grit." Now the perfumistas have followed their noses to a new 1,000-square-foot store at 863 Washington... MORE >
When Edward S. Gordon tapped Patrick Murphy to manage the company's New Jersey office in 1998, the firm was ranked a dismal fifth in the region and housed 37 employees. Still, at the recommendation of then--and later--colleague Stephen Siegel, Mr. Murphy shifted from the firm's brokerage group in midtown Manhattan to Saddlebrook, N.J., where the operation was languishing under poor... MORE >
The Journal has a story today about the efforts it's taken to sell the penthouse at One Jackson Square, a wavy glass condo on the northern edge of the West Village designed by the typically-staid-but-a-standout-here KPF and developed by Hines and Aby Rosen's RFR. It took more than a $2.8 million price-cut, to $18.5 million, though. It also took... MORE >
This Friday, the international law firm Proskauer Rose moves into 11 Times Square as the SJP Properties-owned building's anchor tenant. Amid piles of boxes, the 51-year-old co-chairman of the firm's Real Estate department, Ronald Sernau, spoke with The Commercial Observer about the challenges of representing his own employer in one of last year's biggest real estate deals and the benefit of having SJP as a former client. What challenges did you face in getting the... MORE >
In a recent article in The Times, developer Douglas Durst complained that too many of New York's fallen developers—the Macklowes and Eichners and Glucks of the world—were getting off too easy from the bursting of the real estate bubble... MORE >
Back in the fall, The Observer profiled development scion William Macklowe as he stepped out on his own. His father, Harry, along with Billy, had lost much of the Macklowe empire in the bursting of the real estate bubble, and parting ways seemed best. He launched the William Macklowe Company last year. "So much has been written about the past and all that, it's just not an area that I really wish to... MORE >
By Robert Knakal | January 6, 2011 | 3:01 pm
There's no doubt that the mood of participants in the commercial real estate market coming out of 2010 was significantly more positive than it was when we exited 2009. The capital markets for lending are in much better condition than they were a year ago, and underlying real estate fundamentals have firmed up. Rent concessions, in both the commercial and residential markets, are down significantly and vacancy rates have appeared to stabilize. These developments... MORE >
By Sam Chandan | January 6, 2011 | 2:54 pm
A necessary condition for last year's positive trends in commercial real estate investment, credit conditions for new deals, as well as for the refinancing of existing debt, have improved substantially. These improvements have been uneven... MORE >
The fourth-quarter Manhattan housing numbers came out on Tuesday. The Times said up, The Journal said down. Corcorcan saw one thing, Halstead another. Who's right, who's wrong, what... MORE >
For the past six years, Sara Bacon had been working for herself, running her design firm COMMAND C. But working solo made her realize she missed other people. And she's not alone in hating to work alone. According to new data from Deskwanted.com, the number of coworking spaces in the U.S. doubled in 2010 to about 650 locations. Worldwide nearly one coworking space opened per... MORE >
While he may be busy in Albany today, Mayor Bloomberg still found time today to announce a $5 million settelement with Bovis Lend Lease, one of the city's largest general contractors. Bovis has worked on projects ranging from Riverside South to the Langone Medical Center, as well as the 9/11 Memorial and, infamously, the deconstruction of the Deutsche Bank... MORE >
Back in the dark old days of Ground Zero, when it still seemed like nothing would ever get built, the state, along with the city, Port Authority and Feds, agreed to the first leases at 1 World Trade Center, taking 600,000 square feet of office space in the building, just under a quarter of the tower's total... MORE >
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