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Billy Gray

By Billy Gray 5/14 10:00am

The Power Broker

Jack, Eddie, Steven and Abraham Hidary

Banking on Hospitality: Hidrock Realty’s Hotel Play

Every day, Jack Hidary walks the same Garment District streets that his grandfather, an apparel businessman, walked in the 1940s. “We probably go to the same shoeshine guy,” he said.

Mr. Hidary, the founder and CEO of Hidrock Realty, works out of a building on West 36th Street, and the family bonds are far more palpable than the Hidarys’ garmento history in the Midtown neighborhood. Jack works alongside his sons Abraham, Eddie and Steven at the 31-year-old company. Read More

By Billy Gray 5/14 8:00am

Lease Beat

Industry City

Three Creative Tenants Sign Leases Totaling 26,000 Square Feet at Industry City

Three art and design tenants have signed significant five-year leases at Industry City in Sunset Park.

Next Door’s, a photography studio, will move into 11,601 square feet at 67 34th Street and use the space for production and art fabrication. Sebastian Errazuriz Studio inked a deal for 8,180 square feet in 32 33rd Street in the complex. And McConnell & Borrow Inc, a set designer and prop provider, signed for 6,206 square feet at 88 35th Street. Read More

By Billy Gray 5/13 1:51pm

Lease Beat

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Joffrey Ballet School Leasing Space at East 9th Street Multi-College Dorm

The West Village-based Joffrey Ballet School will take up the first two floors of developer Gregg Singer‘s controversial 500-bed dormitory at 605 East Ninth Street.

Joffrey inked a deal with the ownership of what will be called University House for about 120 beds in the Alphabet City building. It will pay about $1,550 and $1,650 per month per bed, reports The Wall Street Journal. Read More

By Billy Gray 5/10 2:21pm

Two Trees Grows In Brooklyn

domino_birds-eye-view

Two Trees’ Jed Walentas Talks Domino Sugar Plans at Brooklyn Real Estate Summit

The new Domino Sugar refinery will redefine the skyline of Williamsburg’s southside and potentially create 3,000 new jobs in the residential area, but its retail tenants will hew closely the neighborhood’s famed (and, at times, mocked) indie mindset, Two Trees Management Company Principal Jed Walentas told a crowd yesterday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Two Trees, which helped make Dumbo what it is today, will stress “small-scale independent” retail at the project. One slide in a  Power Point presentation of the Domino site presented by Mr. Walentas had “No Big Box” spelled out in big letters. Two Trees is aiming for dynamic merchants that will increase the all-hours livelihood of the area. “If you build more Duane Reades,” Mr. Walentas said, “you’ll only bring in people who need to buy toothpaste.” Read More

By Billy Gray 5/09 1:32pm

Lease Beat

1451-1455 Second Avenue

Pottery Barn Teen Renews Lease at 1451-1455 Second Avenue

Pottery Barn Teen signed a six-year, 1,650-square-foot lease renewal at 1451-1455 Second Avenue on the Upper East Side, The Commercial Observer has learned.

Mark Finkelstein of Retail Strategies represented the tenant. Bruce Spiegel and William Bergman, both of Rose Associates, represented the landlord, Storepark LLC. Asking rents were between $100 and $150 a square foot. Read More

By Billy Gray 5/09 7:45am

Lease Beat

59 Maiden Lane

Law Firm Douglas & London, PC Signs 14,807-Square-Foot Deal at 59 Maiden Lane

The malpractice law firm Douglas & London, P.C. inked a 10-year deal for 14,807 square feet at 59 Maiden Lane, The Commercial Observer has learned.

Brad Gerla and Jeff Sharon of CBRE represented the tenant, which will relocate from 111 John Street this August. Rob Sattler, Hal Stein and Brian Waterman of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented the landlord, AM Trust. Asking rent was $36 per square foot. Read More

By Billy Gray 5/08 4:24pm

Community Affairs

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Gregg Singer Faces LPC, Community Boards Over 500-Bed East Village Dorm

Last month, plans emerged for a 500-bed, multi-college dorm that will rise on the site of the old PS 64 at 605 East 9th Street in Alphabet City. Now, developer Gregg Singer, who leads the investment group behind the conversion, is seeking approval for the project from the Landmarks Preservation Commission and Community Board 3′s Land Use, Zoning, Public and Private Housing Committee.

At a LPC meeting last night, city councilmember Rosie Mendez, along with representatives from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and the East Village Community Coalition, spoke against the $40 million proposal. Mr. Singer will need the LPC’s approval for any exterior changes to the landmarked building. Read More

By Billy Gray 5/08 12:02pm

Lease Beat

184 Kent (Credit: Fortis Properties)

Williamsburg Pizzeria La Nonna Expanding to Luxury Building 184 Kent This August

The Bedford Avenue pizzeria La Nonna will add a second Williamsburg location after signing a 15-year lease for 3,761 square feet at the luxury rental building 184 Kent. The pie slinger will join Soul Cycle (which opens this weekend), Pudge Knuckles Coffee and Pure Cleaners in the waterfront property’s 18,000-square-foot retail base.

The tenant represented itself in the transaction. Geoff Bailey of TerraCRG represented the landlord, JMH Development. Mr. Bailey said asking retail rent is $65 a foot. Read More

By Billy Gray 5/07 3:13pm

Report Card

Times Square

REBNY’s Spring Retail Report Sees 55% Surge in Times Square Rents, Overall Growth

The Real Estate Board of New York released its spring retail report today, and the numbers back up the board’s sentiment that “the retail market continues to be one of the healthiest sectors” in the city.

While across-the-board Manhattan average asking rents rose a mere 2 percent ($116 this spring compared to $114 last spring), prime corridors enjoyed dramatic gains. Average asking rents in the Times Square submarket spiked 55 percent to $2,175 per square foot compared to $1,400 a foot last spring. The Broadway corridor between 14th and 23rd Streets in the Flatiron District was not far behind, with a 50 percent increase to $320 a foot from $215. REBNY attributed the Times Square leap to a limited supply and a bump in tourism numbers. Read More

By Billy Gray 5/07 2:26pm

Sales Beat

Joe Sitt

Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities Buys Barclays-Area Mixed-Use Development for $23 Million

Thor Equities has closed on the $23 million off-market purchase of Atlantic Gardens, a mixed-use development abutting the Barclays Center.

Atlantic Gardens consists of 24 rental units and nine retail spaces at 525-541 Atlantic Avenue between Third and Fourth Avenues. The seller, Bennat Berger of BCB Properties, bought the assets for $10.93 million just two years ago.  Read More

By Billy Gray 5/07 11:01am

Power Broker

Lipa Lieberman (Photo: Darcy Rogers)

The Rabbi of Realty: Lipa Lieberman of Eastern Consolidated on Balancing Religion with Real Estate

Growing up in the Hasidic community of Midwood, Brooklyn, Lipa Lieberman noticed early on that his most successful neighbors owned real estate.

“Real estate was always in the back of my mind,” said Mr. Lieberman, 33, a senior director at Eastern Consolidated. But before he entered the industry, Mr. Lieberman earned a bachelor’s degree in Jewish studies at Rabbinical College of America and attended the Central Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch, where he was ordained as a rabbi.

“You’re ordained because you study Jewish law in college and then take the rabbinical equivalent of the bar exam,” Mr. Lieberman said. “You don’t necessarily do it to practice in a synagogue.” Although he never led a congregation, Mr. Lieberman’s religious background—he’s a member of the Chabad sect and spent time abroad at a Chabad center in Venice, Italy—did inform his secular career choice. Read More

By Billy Gray 5/07 7:45am

Sales Beat

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348 Atlantic Avenue, Home to Mile End Deli, Hits the Block at $9.15 Million

A four-story, 5,975-square-foot mixed-use building at 348 Atlantic Avenue, home to Mile End Deli in Boerum Hill, has hit the market with a price tag of $9.15 million, The Commercial Observer has learned.

Eastern Consolidated Senior Director Lipa Lieberman, Associate Director Michele Nicoletta and Director of financial services Gary Meese are marketing the property on behalf of the seller, identified as 348 Atlantic Avenue LLC. Read More

By Billy Gray 5/06 3:22pm

Sales Beat

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Eastern Consolidated Reps US Bankruptcy Court in Sale of Restaurant Row Mixed-Use Building

Eastern Consolidated is exclusively marketing the sale of 334-336 West 46th Street, which will be listed at a bankruptcy auction sale on June 4, 2013 with a starting all-cash bid of $9.25 million, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The two adjoining four-story mixed-use buildings include 10 residential rental units and one commercial unit spread over a total 9,299 square feet. The ground floor retail is currently occupied by the Irish pub O’Flaherty’s, whose lease expires next year. The property is the subject of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy bearing case. Read More