House Party: Scenes From the REBNY Gala

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»

Will Gehry's $3,000 Studios Strip Downtown of a Bikini Bar, or Save It?

By Matt Chaban | November 29, 2010 | 11:19 am

Who doesn't love bartenders in bikinis? Besides the prudish Gray Lady, that... MORE >

Developers are vying for the two parcels at left.

And Then There Were Three: Fishing for a Finalist at Hunters Point South

By Matt Chaban | November 29, 2010 | 10:55 am

Will Hunter's Point South be a new paradigm for public housing or just another blase bunch of apartment... MORE >

"Pretty Close": Mr. Gosling.

Nearing Release of All Good Things, Durst Organization Pivots Away From Legal Action

By Zeke Turner | November 29, 2010 | 8:20 am

Robert Durst, the estranged son of Times Square developer Seymour Durst, thought Ryan Gosling did a decent job playing him in Andrew Jarecki's new film All Good Things. The movie follows Mr. Durst through a failed marriage and three alleged... MORE >

Inflation and Commercial Real Estate

By Sam Chandan | November 25, 2010 | 11:31 am

Rekindling popular concerns that current monetary policy interventions will ultimately foment an uncontrolled rise in inflation, the Federal Open Market Committee announced on Nov. 3 that it would purchase $600 billion in long-term treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011.... MORE >

Busy Bean Counters Balloon at 1411 Broadway

By Laura Kusisto | November 24, 2010 | 12:26 pm

1411 Broadway Nothing goes better with accountants than mid-priced fashion. Now EisnerLubin LLP will stride into the home of Jones Apparel Group and LeviStraussCo. The cautious number crunchers will expand by 50 percent with the move from their current home at 444 Madison Avenue. But with plenty of head-scratching deals being done, along with tax season on the way, they'll likely need the 19,000 square... MORE >

Financial Tech Firm Stretches in Durst’s 675 Third for 10 Years

By Laura Kusisto | November 24, 2010 | 10:28 am

675 Third Avenue SS&C Technologies has already proven it can gobble up smaller companies; now it turns out it's got a similar appetite for space. The financial technology firm, which has acquired several companies in the last year, including TD Ameritrade last month, has now taken 26,000 square feet of extra legroom at 675 Third Avenue. The deal more than doubles its space in the building to 51,000 square... MORE >

Gobble, Gobble! SL Green Inks 142,000 Feet in Deals

By Laura Kusisto | November 23, 2010 | 6:14 pm

220 East 42nd Street While most of the city rolls over from its Thanksgiving feast, SL Green is sprinting to the year's end, with 142,000 square feet of deals signed in various buildings in one month. The landlord's biggest thanks goes to the U.N. Development Programme, which has inked a 42,931-square-foot lease for the entire 20th, 21st and 23rd floors at 220 East 42nd... MORE >

Good News for the Fellas? Harry Winston Expands HQ

By Laura Kusisto | November 22, 2010 | 5:41 pm

1330 Sixth Avenue With the holidays coming, the twinkle in many a young woman's eye will soon be on her finger. Just in time, Harry Winston has doubled its corporate headquarters in the Pearson... MORE >

The Brooklyn Kid Who Done Good: Grubb & Ellis’ Corporate Services Chief Helps Connect Firms and Locations

By Jotham Sederstrom | November 22, 2010 | 5:25 pm

"Whenever I bounce from meeting to meeting in Manhattan I tend to walk by my favorite manholes--to this day. And my favorite has always been my last one." Marty Cottingham grew up among the bright row houses of Windsor Terrace, drinking at neighborhood fixture Farrell's, where his uncles bartended, and working at the little deli next door before it became an Italian... MORE >

Gary Rosenberg Has a Feeling He’s Been Here Before

By Jotham Sederstrom | November 22, 2010 | 5:21 pm

Since founding the law firm Rosenberg & Estis, Gary Rosenberg has hurdled from representing the landlords of rent-controlled outer-borough apartment buildings to the city's most successful developers, most notably the Durst Organization, which he has worked with since the 1970s. The 60-year-old Bronx native sat down last week to discuss the considerably smooth assembly of One Bryant Park, his current role at One World Trade Center and how his work as one of New... MORE >

A typical Walgreens.

Can Walgreens Cure Harlem's Scurvy?

By Laura Kusisto | November 22, 2010 | 2:41 pm

The marketplace bears some of the responsibility for turning Harlem into a barren wasteland of chips and cheap takeout. Could it also save it?  Walgreens, which along with many big chains has been accused of failing to sell decent produce and turning many areas of Manhattan into so-called "culinary deserts," has launched a fresh food section as a pilot project, with 10 locations around Chicago selected based on their lack of nutritional... MORE >

3 Columbus Circle: Yay or Nay?

3 Columbus Circle: Luxurious or Lipstick on a Pig?

By Matt Chaban | November 22, 2010 | 1:28 pm

Columbus Circle has been the victim of bad architecture for decades, since Robert Moses built the Coliseum on its western flank in the 1950s, a building derided at the time as "utterly pedestrian," among other epithets. It has since been replaced by the far nicer though not always beloved Time Warner Center. Just across Broadway is the banal Trump... MORE >

The Real Footprint

The Brooklyn Paper Pans the Atlantic Yards Play

By Matt Chaban | November 19, 2010 | 11:38 am

Could anyone have hoped to make an interesting play out of Atlantic Yards? On the one hand, it seems to have all the drama and excitement necessary: heroes and villains, race and class issues, a beautiful Brooklyn setting. On the other hand: internminable lawsuits and ULURP. Fort Greene-based theater company The Civilians appears to have gone with the latter route in its new show, "In the Footprint," which even includes a song about the city's... MORE >

If It Quacks Like a Lame Duck …

By Sam Chandan | November 18, 2010 | 11:01 am

Expectations are low for the final weeks of the 111th Congress, which convened yesterday for the first time since before the midterm elections. It is unclear how much legislative business will be brought to closure given the entrenched positions of the... MORE >

About That Third Quarter

By Robert Knakal | November 18, 2010 | 10:57 am

One of the market segments we always pay close attention to in New York City is the multifamily building sales market. Rent-regulated properties are always in high demand, as they possess the greatest amount of upside given the artificially low rents that regulation creates. Given their limited downside, these properties are always the easiest upon which to obtain financing. Additionally, there are more multifamily properties in New York City than any other product type.... MORE >

Break on through to the New Jersey side.

They Can't Even Afford a Second Manhattan Station, But Now the 7 Train Will Stop in Secaucus?

By Matt Chaban | November 17, 2010 | 7:34 pm

Westward, ho... after... MORE >

Pyramids? Dumbo Says Not In My Backyard

By Laura Kusisto | November 17, 2010 | 5:17 pm

As architectural gems go, pyramids are great. So are historical open-air warehouses. What's less clear is whether the two really belong... MORE >

Jerusalem

Israeli Real Estate Bubble? It's a Tale of Two Cities (At Least)

By Mark Goldfarb | November 17, 2010 | 2:51 pm

There has been much talk lately about the potential of a dangerous real estate bubble in Israel's cities.  The Observer's Laura Kusisto asked last week if Israel -- where foreign buyers of luxury properties have not only rapidly and substantially driven up the cost of housing, but have created a fragile market -- may compare to Dubai's and to the US, whose real estate crashes were felt around the... MORE >

Take me to your Landmarks Commission.

Hive Mind: Morris Adjmi Loves His Alien Additions

By Matt Chaban | November 17, 2010 | 1:24 pm

Yesterday was indeed a busy one at the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Not only were Paul Rudolph and Robert De Niro there, but so was Morris Adjmi, defending yet another wild addition to one of the city's historic... MORE >

The Fashion Sensor: First, Garry Steinberg ‘Made’ It in Retail; Then He Turned to Brokering Space for the Same

By Jotham Sederstrom | November 17, 2010 | 11:38 am

Before diving into the commercial real estate industry, Garry Steinberg honed a reputation as a fashion maven, first as a shaggy-haired young assistant to the disco-era equivalent of shoemaker Jimmy Choo, and later as the owner of a chic women's knitwear... MORE >