Clothing company Perry Ellis International has inked a new lease to take a total of 39,000 square feet at the 530 Seventh Avenue, it was announced earlier today.
The company will be relocating a chunk of its operations from 1411 Broadway to the Fashion District building, which is owned by the Savitt Partners. Read More
“This is a schlock fest.”
So sniffed one junior real estate broker last week, who was standing in a raw, white-washed space on the 29th floor of 650 Fifth Avenue. Formerly known as the Plaget Building, 650 Fifth Avenue now had an ownership group and a new leasing team that were both aggressive in their efforts to simultaneously lease space and erase any lasting impressions left by the building’s alleged ties to an Iranian bank.
The broker’s snarky critique was overheard as that person sipped from a complimentary martini glass filled with gazpacho, garnished with a singular shrimp. The marketing event was arranged in part by the new CBRE team that was hired this summer to lease out the 140,000 square feet of vacant space in the 36-story building. Read More
Of all the dates accountants and their clients face in the upcoming weeks and months, Oct. 15 may be the kindest. Not only is it the date when those who filed for an extension must submit proper tax forms, it’s also two months removed from three other looming deadlines that could prove to be fiscal headaches for real estate investors.
Indeed, by the close of 2012, the George W. Bush era tax cuts will expire, President Barack Obama’s healthcare initiative will begin and capital gains taxes will shoot to 39.6 percent.
Then there’s the presidential election itself, with each nominee providing a different tax scenario should he be elected into office. To be sure, the terrain for accountants is murky at best. Read More
Parsons Brinckerhoff, an engineering firm, is relocating a good portion of its administrative staff from its headquarters at One Penn Plaza to Lancaster, PA, The firm, which labels itself as a global consulting firm that works in all aspects of planning and construction of “critical infrastructure projects around the world,” will be moving 146 members of its administrative staff to Pennsylvania. The company, as “PB Americas, Inc.” has 207,193 square feet leased out at One Penn Plaza, according to CoStar data. Read More
Swedish fashion retailer H&M will be taking the entire 42,510-square-foot Times Square space that was previously the home to the ESPN Zone.
By moving into 4 Times Square, the fashion chain becomes the latest in a line of affordable clothing retailers that are willing to brave high rents for a Times Square storefront, H&M was represented by Bob Gibson of Cushman & Wakefield. Amira Yunis, Gary Trock, and Matthew Krell, all of CBRE, represented the Durst Organization, the owners of 4 Times Square. Read More
Cassidy Turley and its board of directors have voted in Joseph Stettinius Jr. as the new Chief Executive Officer of the commercial real estate company, it was announced this afternoon. Read More
Hip hop impresario Jay-Z kicked off the opening of Forest City Ratner’s Barclays Center with a series of eight sold-out concerts last week. And while thousands of rap and pop music fans descended on Brooklyn to welcome Hova back to his native borough, more surprising, perhaps, were the boldface real estate titans who lined up as guests of Bruce Ratner to witness the spectacle. Besides Dan Tishman of Tishman Construction and Vornado Realty Trust’s Michael Fascitelli and Steven Roth, Mary Ann Tighe of CBRE described the evening as electric. “The only Jay-Z song I recognized is his New York song, which he performed early in the show,” wrote Ms. Tighe, who added in an email to The Commercial Observer that she also enjoyed the arena’s menu of Brooklyn-based restaurants. “Best arena/stadium food ever,” she wrote.
Perhaps the one attendee who was most impressed with the Barclays Center and its booming sound system, however, was Larry Silverstein, the iconic developer behind the ongoing redevelopment of the World Trade Center. Mr. Silverstein revealed his first impressions of the Barclays Center with The Commercial Observer and shared his opinions on Jay-Z and the venue’s body-shaking bass system.
The Commercial Observer: So a tipster told us they saw you at the Jay-Z show last Friday.
Mr. Silverstein: We attended the concert Friday night, and it was a transformational experience.
Read More
John Sinon, formerly of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank and Capstone Realty Advisors, has been hired by Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation as vice president of showroom leasing, the company announced this morning. Read More
Temco Service Industries, a company that provides janitorial, security, and maintenance services to buildings, will be relocating its New York City headquarters to 417 Fifth Avenue from One Park Avenue, The Commercial Observer has learned.
The company will be taking a 22,000-square-foot office on a portion of the 9th floor in the 11-story building. Read More
Both Westchester and Fairfield counties saw a drop in leasing activity in the 3rd quarter of 2012, CBRE announced in its market report today.
Fairfield County saw 34 fewer lease deals in the 3rd quarter from the 2nd quarter, tallying a total of 563,074 square feet as opposed to 604,790 square feet from the quarter before, according to market statistics. Read More
International media company Fujisankei Communications International, Inc. re-signed its lease for 21,222 square feet at Tower 52, a Class A office building in Midtown East, The Commercial Observer has learned.
The company, which serves as the overseas division of Fuji Media Holdings, will continue to occupy the top three floors (33, 34, and 35) of 150-156 E 52nd Street in its lease renewal. Terms of the lease renewal, including the length of lease and the asking rent, were not disclosed. Read More
He entered the court room looking stockier and better-dressed than he did in January. Back then, fresh off a plane from Hong Kong, attorney Douglas Arntsen was gaunt and thin, wearing a black track suit and a look of exhaustion following the extradition that brought him to 100 Centre Street to stand charges for his larcenous ways.
This afternoon, inside the court room of Judge Jill Konviser, Mr. Arntsen, the Staten Island kid who grew to become an accomplished corporate barrister at Crowell & Moring LLP, was ready to admit his guilt. Through his own attorney Alan Lewis, and after an initial not guilty plea and months of negotiations with Manhattan prosecutors, Mr. Arntsen agreed to plead guilty to three counts of grand larceny in the first degree and one count of scheming to defraud in the first degree. He is expected to face 4-12 years in state prison. He will be sentenced on October 17. Read More
Midtown South continues to bring in the tech tenants while neighboring markets like Midtown North are becoming cheaper alternatives, Colliers International said in its third quarter report released yesterday.
Leasing in the Manhattan market improved overall, with law firms, financial services firms, and media companies contributing to a modest 6 million square feet leased in the third quarter. The result was still 1.4 million square feet fewer than the 7.4 million square feet that was leased in the second quarter of 2012. Read More
By the end of 2011, it had appeared to David Ash that Prince Realty Advisors, his fledgling startup, was on the cusp of going bust.
The 31-year-old entrepreneur had seen five of his deals—a mix of office buildings and development sites that, if closed, would have been valued in the millions—go from near-closure to sudden death.
Slow business had already forced him to live off of a family loan that would allow him to stay in his Upper East Side apartment and eat for another six months. But that loan was running out quickly.
The outlook was bleak enough for him to try to drum up new business while simultaneously interviewing at Cushman & Wakefield, Jones Lang LaSalle, and Eastdil Secured for possible jobs as a broker. As each deal collapsed, so too did his hopes for his company’s future.
“I’m a positive guy in general, but when you go through what I went through, it’s not so easy to be positive,” said Mr. Ash. Read More
Eastdil Secured has been given the nod to sell 550 Madison Avenue for Sony after the electronics and entertainment giant announced it would be exploring a possible sale of the Class A office tower.
The real estate banking investment firm, which handled Google’s $1.8 billion purchase of 111 Eighth Avenue, beat out CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, and Newmark Grubb Knight Frank for the right to sell 550 Madison Avenue, The New York Post reported. Read More
