Walking the Floor at the International Council of Shopping Centers conference
By Jotham Sederstrom December 7, 2011 3:00 pm
reprints11:35 – Chase Welles, an executive with the retail brokerage Northwest Atlantic is en route to his company’s booth. “We have a 12:00 meeting,” Mr. Welles says. He is getting together with a developer from New Jersey with a big box retail project in the planning. “We’re talking about maybe putting in a Whole Foods,” says Mr. Welles, who is a broker for the Texas-based grocery chain.
12:00 – Cory Elbaum, an executive from Thor Equities strides in. “I just got here,” Mr. Elbaum says. The company has just acquired 520 Fifth Avenue, a group of buildings on Fifth Avenue just north of Bryant Park that Thor will raze and develop into a 300,000 square foot mixed use property with retail, hotel and residential space. “We’re really excited.”
12:15 – Forest City’s private room next to the entrance to the south wing has a huge lunch spread with dozens of sandwiches and desserts.
12:20 – Frank Fiorella a broker with Princeton Realty Group is waiting for a meeting with one of Forest City’s executives. “I’m shopping around a fast food tenant,” Mr. Fiorella says. The Commercial Observer tells him that Cogswell is looking for this type of tenant for its building on 125th Street. “You’d earn a renewal fee for that,” Mr. Fiorella said. How much we asked? “Well I’m guessing a deal like that would be about a $60,000 commission, so you’d get about $7,000.” That’s pretty good we tell him. “You see? That’s what this is all about.”
