East Village developer Ben Shaoul purchased the property last month for $15.5 million.

Renderings of the future 98-100 Avenue A.

EV Grieve writes that while Mr. Shaoul's name does not appear on records for the property, it did show up on asbestos abatement papers posted earlier this month. There are currently no plans on file with the Department of Buildings, but a listing by Ripco Real Estate last month described 9,767 square feet of ground floor and 5,850 square feet of basement area.

The site just below Tompkins Square Park was previously home to the East Village Farms convenience store.

(Credit: city-data.com)

The Clean Technology Entrepreneur Center will house 20 startups focused on solving urban energy and sustainability issues, NYU-Poly and the NYC Economic Development Corporation announced this morning at a breakfast held at NYU-Poly.

“New York City is committed to addressing the global challenges associated with climate change, and we in the Bloomberg Administration have taken a number of important steps to ensure that we are a world leader in sustainability and resiliency in the 21st century,” EDC President Seth Pinsky, in a prepared statement sent before the breakfast.

The proposal was selected following a request for proposals issued in January by the EDC, which will provide up to $750,000 in seed funding over two years.

Scheduled to open this fall, it will feature a 2,000-square-foot demonstration center to showcase new products and technologies.  The incubator will also organize education events, extending NYU-Poly's K-12 STEM programming and developing new initiatives.

The program expands upon existing NYU-Poly programs and collaborations with the Bloomberg administration, including the new PowerBridgeNY Proof of Concept Center and the New York City Accelerator for a Clean and Resilient Economy.

From 2009 through last year, NYU-Poly, the EDC and a consortium of other entities launched the Varick Street Incubator in Hudson Square; the NYC ACRE, which focuses on clean technology and energy startups; and the DUMBO Incubator in Brooklyn.

The three NYU-Poly incubators have generated $251 million in economic activity, created more than 900 jobs and contributed $31.4 million in local, state and federal tax revenue, according to NYU-Poly and EDC.

“This public-private-academic collaboration has a proven track record of assisting entrepreneurs in starting new energy-related business ventures, launching new products, and creating new jobs.”  said NYU-Poly President Katepalli Sreenivasan, in a statement.

Over 600 startup businesses and 1,000 employees are currently located at the city-sponsored incubators, raising more than $100 million in venture funding, according to the EDC.

To facilitate the process, JTRE conducted traffic reports and demographic studies to identify the right markets to pinpoint across the region.

“We explained to them, go to Fulton Street in Brooklyn and pay the big rent,” said Mr. Terzi, chief executive officer of Jack Terzi Real Estate. “Pay over $1 million in rent, because you’re going to make three times as much as you did outside [New York].”

Photo by Amanda Cohen

Since those early conversations, JTRE and Apogee have gone on to complete 12 transactions totaling 1.5 million square feet.

Mr. Terzi started JTRE in 2008, at the height of the Great Recession. Then a retail broker at Hidrock Realty, the Gravesend native noticed much of the firm’s focus was placed on hotel and office deals, and decided to concentrate on his passion for retail born from his family’s business, which sold clothing and toys.

“I had the relationships with the owners and the tenants,” Mr. Terzi said. “I was confident it was the right time.”

Mr. Terzi has worked aggressively since then, expanding the business from just two employees—he and a colleague—to 30, spread across JTRE’s brokerage, acquisitions and consulting divisions.

Waking at 5 a.m., Mr. Terzi begins his day with a workout and then gets to work, reading industry news and answering emails before tending to clients until 10 at night. “I’m always going,” Mr. Terzi said of his schedule. “I’m all-in, all day.”

JTRE likes to focus on clients from outside the market that are looking to expand to New York, like Apogee, or clients with ambitious growth plans, such as Organic Avenue.

“We don’t do the Duane Reades and CVSes,” Mr. Terzi said of JTRE’s business model.

Organic Avenue, an organic juice and food retailer, signed up with JTRE with hopes of expanding in New York, but Mr. Terzi had competition from a larger brokerage firm. As with the majority of his clients, Mr. Terzi insisted on an exclusive agreement.

“Not to sound arrogant, but with all the work we’re going to put in, it’s not worth it without it,” Mr. Terzi said. “If we’re going to give it everything, you have to commit to us.”

The agreement with Organic Avenue has yielded a unique retail platform. When the retailer first started working with JTRE, it was only interested in 1,000-square-foot spaces on the best corners, but the brokerage was encountering quality options in the 2,500-to-3,500-square-foot range, and the landlords could not be convinced to break up the spaces.

As a solution, JTRE offered to combine Organic Avenue locations with similar health and fitness tenants, unearthing quality opportunities.

Having created a presence in the New York market, JTRE is expanding nationally, working with Italian furniture store chain Modani on locations in Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta and other major cities. In support of his national business, Mr. Terzi was in Miami last week and spent the early part of this week in Los Angeles.

Mr. Terzi’s travel schedule is all to maintain his firm’s focus on its clients, which includes a concierge service.

“Whatever our clients need, we try to add more value,” Mr. Terzi said, noting that he does not like to use the term “full-service,” because most firms that make that claim don’t deliver. Services offered by JTRE include hotel and dinner reservations, car service and assistance with apartment searches.

“If the client needs something, we do it,” Mr. Terzi said.

Catering to client requests includes offering unique solutions to difficult problems. When Spanish retailer Desigual approached JTRE about securing both retail and office space in New York, it requested something desigual: different.

Though the task of finding retail space in Herald Square near Macy’s proved relatively simple, finding corresponding office space was more trying. A commercial space at 35th Street and Avenue of the Americas fit the bill, but a restriction on billboards made branding difficult.

Searching for a solution, JTRE showed renderings of branding painted on the side of the building to the landlord, an owner-operated pizza shop. Both the tenant and the landlord were pleased with the outcome, and now Desigual operates its corporate headquarters out of the property.

The Desigual deal is an example of JTRE’s emphasis on people and relationships, which, rather than a specific sector of the retail industry, is the firm’s niche, according to Mr. Terzi.

“I want you to tell me exactly where you want to be, and I’m going to create that opportunity for you,” Mr. Terzi said. “That’s our specialty.”

Mr. Terzi’s open discussion of his business is at odds with his hesitance about the press. A New York Post story from last year describing a tempestuous relationship with a former employee, who was suing him for six months’ wages, more than $120,000 in unpaid commissions and $5 million in damages, has made him wary of publicity.

The lawsuit, settled out of court, accused Mr. Terzi of throwing scissors at his former employee and urinating on the man’s clothes, according to the Post. The lawsuit also claimed that the employee’s contract included 12-hour days, fines for lateness and a four-year noncompete clause, according to the report.

Mr. Terzi filed a lawsuit against the former employee asking the court to uphold the noncompete clause, a case Mr. Terzi said he won.

“A former employee we were suing for violating a noncompete and trying to steal clients went to the press with crazy allegations and lies, and the Post wrote it on page four,” said Mr. Terzi, who was awarded a settlement from his accuser, according to the Post. “When I won the case, they put out a little blurb.”

Mr. Terzi’s wariness of the press is in spite of the fact it was the Post itself, specifically the paper’s real estate column, that motivated his career in the business.

“It looked easy: $100 million here, $200 million there,” Mr. Terzi said of the industry, adding that he had enlisted the help of many mentors along the way. “There’s no better business in the world than real estate.”

Though he lives in Manhattan, Mr. Terzi was raised in Gravesend, Brooklyn, where his family’s retail business also motivated his career in real estate.

“My family was in the retail business, so when we had dinners it was always about retail,” he said. “Everywhere we would go, it would be either retail or real estate, so we pretty much combined them.”

The future for JTRE includes a handful of flagship deals currently in the pipeline, including one for Hello Kitty in Times Square, where the company is targeting 15,000 square feet.

“It’s going to be American Girl-esque,” Mr. Terzi said of the potential space. “It’s their 40th anniversary next year.”

In the shorter term, Mr. Terzi’s summer plans never get in the way of potential business.

“I probably get more leads going to St-Tropez and Capri in the summer than I do here,” he said.

The media company will remain on the building’s entire fourth floor, which it had previously leased under an assignment from another tenant, according to Charles Laginestra of Trinity Real Estate. When that lease expired, New York Media signed a direct lease at the property.

“This is Trinity’s flagship,” Mr. Laginestra said of the property, adding that negotiations for the lease, which was signed recently, went smoothly.

Trinity’s tenant roster at the 100-percent leased One Hudson Square includes Getty Images, The Jackie Robinson Foundation, Metropolitan College and Omnicom Group.

As reported by The Commercial Observer, Getty Images signed a 15-year, 82,844-square-foot lease at One Hudson Square in 2011.

“One Hudson Square exemplifies the progress and diversity of Hudson Square and we are delighted that Getty Images has made this long-term commitment to the building, demonstrating its belief in the strength and vitality of the neighborhood,” said Jason Pizer, president of Trinity, at the time.

Mr. Laginestra, Tom Lynch and Peter Fontanetta represented Trinity Real Estate in-house on the New York Media lease. The tenant was represented by Robert Martin of Jones Lang LaSalle.

Mr. Martin did not immediately return requests for comment.

Scott Panzer (Photo: Sasha Maslov)

The Commercial Observer: When did you get involved in real estate?

Mr. Panzer: Back in 1985, I was working for the British publisher Robert Maxwell on his M&A team. By ’87 we’d amassed about six million square feet of real estate and 600 properties in the Americas. We didn’t have anybody in the organization that was responsible for that or knew what to do. The Maxwells came to me and said, “Why don’t you pick up all the real estate and see if you can make heads or tails of this, make hay out of it?” That was my initial foray into the real estate world.

And how did you land at Newmark?

I joined Newmark in early ’94. [Current Newmark Grubb Knight Frank Chief Executive Officer] Barry Gosin and I were courting each other and finally made a deal. I remember Barry and [President] Jimmy Kuhn asking, “What are the five things you think you need to be successful here?” And I said the first thing they needed to do was get a color copier. They were still doing presentations on these oak-tag boards that were made up the night before. I remember one meeting, walking in, where half the words in the presentation were misspelled. And there was nothing you could do.

We did a litany of good corporate deals, and Barry and I had a good run.

And why did you decide to leave the firm for Jones Lang LaSalle in 2009?

Let’s just say there were philosophical differences of the direction where that firm was going versus what my team was saying it wanted to be a part of.

You made that transition with a team of 13 people. That’s a bulky move. How did it go?

Well, everyone knew it was happening. We’d spoken at length about it in our own little war room. At the time, there were really only three options under discussion: Cushman [& Wakefield], CB[RE] and JLL. And each of the firms offered something similar, but then there were nuances. In the end, we felt that JLL was the better fit for us. And it was unanimous, not me saying I wanted to do it.

Without the Staubach merger [of 2008], I’m not sure we’d have made the jump. We’d have been way too entrepreneurial for the legacy JLL. The merger brought a bit of entrepreneurship to the firm. And we felt comfortable that we’d come in here and wouldn’t be absorbed by JLL, but rather put our own brand on top of what was starting to morph. We brought a lot of scrappiness and tenacity to an organization that was very structured. And they’ve smoothed out some of our rough edges.

You made the leap six months after Lehman Brothers and the markets collapsed. Looking at New York real estate almost five years later, how is the industry faring?

It’s schizophrenic. It’s Jekyll and Hyde. You have this excitement around Hudson Yards and Downtown. And this emergence of traditionally California-based companies, the web component. New York is now clearly on par with Silicon Valley. California’s a cool place to be; New York’s cooler.

It’s certainly boom times at 9 West 57th Street, where you recently closed nearly $200-a-square-foot deal with Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb Inc. Can you talk about the resurgence of triple-digit rents? There have been 27 so far this year, compared with 35 in all of 2012.

Unlike having developable land and sites, like at Hudson Yards and Downtown, there’s a limited availability of Central Park-view tower space. So, similar to how the residential developers are recording record sales prices for residential towers with park views, the commercial buildings that [are] available to those same tenants are booming.

It’s not like they’re mortgaging the future of their business or taking away from the shareholders. They do happen to make enough money where it’s a rounding error in some cases. Now, it’s not as well-publicized, because companies are more concerned with perception than certain individuals are. If a company’s paying $200 a foot, there may be a question of “Why are they doing that?

People say that. But that’s fueled by our global legislation. I’m not going to say, “Oh, Obama’s going after this sort of thing.” But I’d argue that it was frivolous for Obama to spend $7.5 million to fly back from his vacation in Hawaii, only to fly back two days later, for something he could have done by videoconference. It’s all relative, and it’s all about who’s yelling the loudest.

What’s the latest on 130 Fifth Avenue, which you’ve been shopping for The Olnick Organization?

We were awarded the agency in September of last year. We had been positioning the first three or four months. We had a tenant, BLACK ENTERPRISE, in place for the top three floors. And the space was just a disaster because of the tenant who had been there. It was very hard to get prospective tenants through the space where they can get some kind of vision. The tenant only moved out a month and a half ago. So we were dabbling, but only started truly marketing about a month and a half ago

It’s priced right. When we finished the white-boxing, it showed really nicely. And that’s in the sweet spot of where a lot of companies really want to go.

And what kind of tenants are you looking for there?

That’s all tech, media, publishing and creative advertising.

On the tenant side, you’ve worked with the U.N., IPG, NBC Universal and North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, among others. It’s a fairly eclectic group. What’s a common thread?

I don’t think it’s any one SIC code or affinity group that I work with. What excites me, and why I’ve gotten into my career, is a comfort level to pick and choose: one, the type of assignment I want to work on; two, deals where people say, “that can’t get done,” and I’ll figure out how to do it; three, clients I can learn from; and four, deals I’ll have fun with.

Those are the criteria I live by now. It’s not about the money anymore. I’ve gotten to a point and never lived above my means. I’m comfortable and don’t need to worry about closing every deal. And I’ve consistently said that when I stop having fun with this, I’ll go do something else.

Do you think you’re near the point where you’ll stop having fun?

I don’t know. The business is competitive, which is part of the fun. So I think I’ll stick around for a while.

On the landlord side, you’ve done several deals with the Solow Realty and Development Company. What’s your relationship like with Sheldon Solow?

Well, I typically haven’t done a lot of landlord agency work. It’s only in the last four years that I’ve considered it. The young guys on my team like having the agency business. My run with Solow ... it’s been a wonderful relationship.

In the past year, Mr. Solow filed a lawsuit over the LIBOR manipulation scandal. And Steven Cherniak, Mr. Solow’s former colleague, sued him over withheld retirement funds. Have those been major bumps in the road?

Not with me. The key with Sheldon is honesty. He may not always like what you’re going to tell him, but as long as it’s the truth, I’ve never had an issue with him. The problem with this business is it’s not very transparent.

Tell me about your portfolio outside New York.

I’ve worked on Lowe in Hamburg, Draftfcb in Chicago, Health Net’s corporate HQ in Woodland Hills, Calif. The beauty of real estate is it’s fungible and transportable anywhere in the world. The approach, at least in my mind, is always to do all your homework up front. You choose your direction, validate it with numbers and pummel the other guy. Then you have to be able to walk out of the room together, shake hands and have a beer.

That’s interesting, because the New York City real estate world can sometimes seem quite insular.

Well, there are cultural differences. Do I wear cowboy boots when I go do a deal in Dallas? Sometimes I do. Do I end up talking with a twang down there? Not necessarily, but you start adapting. The key to this business is to be somewhat of a chameleon ... without pissing anybody off.

And yet plenty of real estate chieftains do piss a lot of people off.

I’m sure you’ve heard the stories! I’m certain that not everybody loves me. But my guess is that far fewer people disrespect me.

“I nearly fell off of my chair when I read that,” said one broker, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Most of my banking clients would have a hard time justifying that decision.”

“The foreign banks should know better,” he went on, unleashing a tirade on fiscal responsibility.

Brazil, however, was mostly spared the cataclysmic effects of the European sovereign debt crisis, in the same way that New York City was spared the economic devastation that rolled through the country during the Great Recession. So it makes sense that in the shadow of that enormous deal, amid an emerging air of post-recession optimism, lies a tremendous rebound in triple digit-leasing across Midtown.

As the second quarter of 2013 comes to a close, 28 triple-digit leases have been recorded, according to data from Cushman & Wakefield. Annualized, the number of triple-digit leases soars to approximately 60, the highest number since 2008 and one that would trounce last year’s 35 such deals.

The trend is not a reflection of a tangible boom in the financial sector at large—not yet, anyway. But the increase represents an elite group of small, prestigious boutique financial firms across the city that are perhaps intent on savoring another taste of pre-recession glory, amid a shortage of high-end space.

“These are the Chanels of the real estate community—and it seems clear that there is plenty of demand for the finest fashion that New York has to offer,” said Michael Cohen, tristate president at Colliers International. “There are a growing number of firms that can make decisions that are not based solely on economics. It’s a reflection of ego, importance, personal tastes and desires, and ultimately it reflects that kind of mentality.”

If these firms are the Chanels of the real estate world, then the Guccis of the financial building stock include the General Motors Building at 767 Fifth Avenue, the Seagram Building at 375 Park Avenue and the Bank of America Tower at 1 Bryant Park, each boasting premium spaces on high floors with sweeping city and park views.

The desire for companies to be in such space is to some degree a product of a need to impress clients in a heavily client-dependent business. Buildings catering to these firms also offer premium build-outs and harbor cooling and other infrastructure systems that accommodate the 24/7 equipment and trading systems that many financial firms depend on.

“It has all the infrastructure,” said David Emden, director at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, after bringing Waterfront Capital Partners and Oak Circle Capital Partners last month to 540 Madison Avenue, where rents stretch above $100 per foot. “High-end financial service guys don’t want to lift a finger building-out space.”

In addition, much of it boils down to the simple desire to feel and look the best, because for the firms that can afford these spaces, the difference between $80 and $120 rents is negligible.

“If a guy making $600 million a year has the opportunity to overlook Central Park in an environment where he feels good and his people feel good, and it’s a $2-million-a-year incremental difference, you’re going to see leases like this,” said Robert Alexander, chairman of CBRE’s tristate region. “And I think you’re going to continue to see leases like this.”

As the economy continues to improve, Mr. Alexander, like many others, is confident that larger firms will begin taking triple-digit space despite the greater financial implications—and potential consequences.

“If I’m representing UBS and I’m looking at 900,000 square feet, at $80 a foot versus $120 a foot, then there are implications that have to be looked at,” he said. “So do I see that we’re going to have an influx of million-square-foot-type users coming in and paying $120 a foot? Probably not. Would I see a 300,000-square-foot tenant paying $120 a foot? Maybe.”

The trend comes at a time in the city’s history when major slices of the commercial arena are once again vying for national, if not global, attention. Trophy towers are being acquired at record pace, the epicenter of lower Manhattan, at 1 World Trade Center, is now the tallest building in the Northern Hemisphere, and turnout at the annual ICSC ReCON convention—which long ago became far more than just a retail convention—was its highest since the boom years.

And overall Midtown leasing is strong. The first five months of the year saw 6.6 million square feet of new leases signed, an increase of 24 percent over last year’s volume and the third-highest leasing volume of the past seven years, according to data from Cushman & Wakefield.

“The high-end market is showing a resurgence, but it doesn’t stand alone—demand in Midtown has picked up,” said Richard Persichetti, vice president of research at Cassidy Turley, adding that 1.5 million square feet of positive absorption was posted in April and May.

At least 65 percent of the triple-digit leases recorded so far are from the financial sector, with an average square footage of just 10,344 square feet, he said. Among recent deals, Ellis Lake Capital took 5,400 square feet at 444 Madison Avenue in April and CVC Capital Partners took 20,000 square feet at 712 Fifth Avenue in February, according to published reports, both with asking rents at or above $100 per square foot.

“High-end tenants have had more confidence within the financial markets,” said Lance Leighton of Studley, who along with Evan Margolin represented LH Financial last month in a 6,553-square-foot, 10-year lease at Boston Properties’ 510 Madison Avenue, also at asking rents of at least $100 per foot.

Developed by Harry Macklowe and targeted toward hedge funds and boutique financial services companies, the brand-new 355,598-square-foot building features an executive fitness center, a lap pool and a 6,500-square-foot garden terrace.

“We looked at the usual suspects for high-end office space in the Plaza District, with a focus on buildings around Central Park,” Mr. Leighton said. “With the improvement of the financial markets, tenants have been less apprehensive to commit to these types of deals.”

Job growth in the financial industry, considered a primary indicator of overall prosperity, has been tepid at best. At 166,500 jobs, the current securities employment level is still 22,000 below the last peak of 189,000 jobs in 2008, and commercial banking has lost jobs so far this year, said Eastern Consolidated chief economist Barbara Byrne Denham.

The stock market, however, has far surpassed bullish investors’ dreams for positive returns so far this year. And many financial services firms are showing more resilience than many would have argued months ago, when the doom and gloom of the European debt crises spread uncertainty through the markets.

“Financial services firms are still the largest occupiers of space in Manhattan,” said Ken McCarthy, chief economist with Cushman & Wakefield. “And if you look back at growth cycles of the past, financial services has always been an important contributor. So, to me, you have to expect that they will come back and there will be growth in the industry.”

In addition, homing in on the high-end office leasing space, the most recent Trophy Report from Jones Lang LaSalle, which tracks the correlation between hedge fund assets under management and Midtown trophy building rents in Midtown, predicts a further pop in rents for high-end space in Manhattan. That could tip more spaces over the triple-digit mark, resulting in an even greater rate of triple-digit deals being signed during the second half of this year.

As assets under management grew by $122 billion in the first quarter of 2013, property owners became more optimistic about the value of trophy space, in part due to the record-setting gains in the Dow and increasing demand, the report noted.

A slew of trophy tower sales accounted for $3.8 billion of the city’s first-quarter dollar volume, creating a 46 percent year-over-year jump, according to data from Avison Young. More recently, two foreign investors bought a 40 percent stake in the General Motors Building, valued at $3.4 billion, Crown Acquisitions and Highgate Holdings paid $1.3 billion for 650 Madison Avenue, and Boston Properties and its partners sold 125 West 55th Street for $470 million.

“If the cost of these types of spaces is rising, it’s going to boil down to supply and demand,” Mr. Cohen said. “There is a very limited supply of this type of trophy space, and New York City is a society of the haves.”

The store, already open, is the northernmost Manhattan location of Le Pain Quotidien, which also has Brooklyn and suburban offshoots. CBRE's Amira Yunis and Matt Krell repped the tenant. Rose Associates Senior Managing Director Bruce Spiegel and Commercial Leasing Manager William Bergman represented the landlord, MSMC Residential Real Estate LLC. Asking rent was $150 per square foot.

“This is a very well trafficked area in one of Manhattan’s leading residential neighborhoods,” Mr. Spiegel said in a prepared statement.  “Le Pain Quotidien should surely enjoy having a presence here.”

The somewhat high-minded chain--organic ingredients, communal tables, Francophile appeal--was founded in Brussels in 1990 and has since developed a presence just about everywhere in Manhattan below 96th Street. There are currently 29 stores, including one in Central Park (at 69th Street) and prime areas like Rockefeller Center and 50 West 72nd Street, near Central Park West.

The building is owned “tenancy in common”--a form of simultaneous ownership in a single property by two parties—by F.M. Ring Associates and an investor, reportedly Gary Barnett’s Extell Development.

The external investor, reported to be Extell, has consistently argued the building is badly managed, according to Joshua Stein, court appointed referee. As with any tenant-in-common, a partition of the property can be requested but since the single-structure property cannot divided, a sale of the property is dictated. In March, a state judge signed an order requiring the property go to auction.

It would not be the first time a property jointly owned by Mr. Barnett and the Ring family has gone to auction. In 2011, Mr. Barnett won 20 West 47^th Street at a judicial sale for $73 million, according to The Real Deal. Prior to the auction the property had been owned 75 percent by Mr. Barnett, with the remaining 25 percent controlled by F.M. Ring Associates.

Bidding for 251 Park Avenue South, which begins at zero, is open to all parties, including current ownership. Early interest in the property has come from both hotel developers and traditional real estate investors, Mr. Stein noted.

“It’s a beautiful, classic old building with magnificent ceilings and unbelievable light,” Mr. Stein told The Commercial Observer. “You can’t buy it for the income; you buy it because you’re going to put capital into it. It’s a development play.”

Built in 1909, the property at 251 Park Avenue South was at one time a distribution center for woolens for the menswear industry. The top three floors of the building are occupied by a fabric design firm, while the ground floor retail space is occupied by Sovereign Bank. Floors two through 13 are vacant and space has recently been marketed at 7,500 rentable square feet per floor.

Mr. Barnett has previously clashed with his New York real estate colleagues, namely Bruce Ratner, who’s Forest City Ratner Companies he outbid by $100 million for control of Atlantic Yards at the last minute, despite the fact Mr. Ratner had invested years of planning and millions of dollars in the development. The Atlantic Yards affair was just a few years after Mr. Barnett had tried block FCRC and The New York Times’ acquisition of land on Eighth Avenue for construction of the Grey Lady’s new headquarters. Mr. Barnett, who owned parking lot on the site, organized nearby landlords in an attempt to raise the Times’ bid.

Jason Sheftell

News editor-in-chief Colin Myler told the newsroom that Mr. Sheftell’s “dedication to his role as a real estate reporter was legendary. He will leave a void that will never be filled in the Daily News family. To use his own phrase when his father passed a couple of years ago: 'He was a good man, with a great heart, and that's all we can ask of anyone'."

Mr. Sheftell, who was born in Brooklyn, was first exposed to real estate by his mother, Karen, a broker in Connecticut.

The News' obituary said that in a 2010 interview, a reporter from Brick Underground asked Mr. Sheftell to describe his dream home.

“An old historic house in Red Hook near the water with a big backyard,” he said. “That would be heaven.”

Our condolences go out to Mr. Sheftell's colleagues, friends and family.

Oh, and no smoking either.

Yes, following the completion of a pilot program launched in 2009, Related Companies is banning smoking across more than 40,000 rental residences it owns and manages.

Under the new rules, new tenants – and those whose leases expire – will have to sign a contract promising not to smoke anywhere in the building.  And the company really means anywhere, including private terraces or balconies; or, tenants face eviction.

“It’s not unlike somebody playing their tuba at two in the morning and compromising their neighbors’ efforts to enjoy their apartments,” Jeffrey Brodsky, president of Related Management, told The New York Times. “There’s an expectation of certain behavior.”

The ban applies to the company’s new rental buildings, including a 386-unit rental in Hudson Yards at 500 West 30th Street and projects slated in Santa Monica, California, Chicago and Boston.

The move comes with declining smoking across the city over the last decade, which came with major legislation banning smoking in restaurants, bars and, more recently, parks.  The Times noted that the smoking rate declined to 15 percent in 2011 from 22 percent in 2002.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg is also trying to raise the age limit for cigarette purchases to 21.

"This policy should serve as an example to other residential building owners across the country,” said Donald Distasio, EVP of the American Cancer Society's Eastern Division, in a prepared statement.  “There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke and the American Cancer Society applauds this action."

Related began its antismoking program in 2009 at TriBeCa Green in Battery Park City and the Sierra in Chelsea.  While courts have generally supported smoking bans in apartment buildings, guaranteed lease renewals on subsidized apartments complicate the situation, the Times noted.

“Condos are trickier,” the Times noted, because two-thirds of residents need to approve the law, but examples exist in that space: the 32-story Ariel West, a condo on the Upper West Side, banned smoking in 2011; last winter, the 98-unit One Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn banned smoking in all spaces except for private terraces and its roof; and this spring, the 670-unit Zeckendorf Towers at Union Square staked a claim as the largest apartment complex in the country implement the ban.

Faith Hope Consolo, Joseph Aquino and Arthur Maglio of Douglas Elliman were named exclusive leasing agents for the 25,000-square-foot portfolio covering 216, 218, 229, 231, 233, and 235 West 135th Street, 2312 Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard and 2518-2524, 2540 and 2542 Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

"We're already talking to a big wine store and maybe a wine bar," Ms. Consolo said. She said that if conversations with Mr. Meyer are productive, the man behind Shake Shack, Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Gotham Bar & Grill, The Modern and other blockbuster restaurants would bring a modest--though not Shake Shack modest--bistro concept to Harlem.

The square footage of units in the portfolio ranges from 500 to 5,000 square feet. Average asking rents are $75 a foot.

The Douglas Elliman retail team has been very busy in Harlem. In the past six months, they've brought the Children's Aid Society, Tribeca Pediatrics and Sunshine Day Care to the changing neighborhood. Ms. Consolo noted the need for similar community services in this central area of Harlem, but also spoke of several "name" stores interested in the block.

"This is a huge portfolio," said Ms. Consolo, adding with characteristic understatement that "we run all of Harlem."

Representatives for Mr. Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group could not immediately be reached for comment.

]]> The restaurateur Danny Meyer is considering opening a bistro in central Harlem, according to retail brokers leasing a nine-building portfolio around the intersection of West 135th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

Faith Hope Consolo, Joseph Aquino and Arthur Maglio of Douglas Elliman were named exclusive leasing agents for the 25,000-square-foot portfolio covering 216, 218, 229, 231, 233, and 235 West 135th Street, 2312 Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard and 2518-2524, 2540 and 2542 Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

"We're already talking to a big wine store and maybe a wine bar," Ms. Consolo said. She said that if conversations with Mr. Meyer are productive, the man behind Shake Shack, Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Gotham Bar & Grill, The Modern and other blockbuster restaurants would bring a modest--though not Shake Shack modest--bistro concept to Harlem.

The square footage of units in the portfolio ranges from 500 to 5,000 square feet. Average asking rents are $75 a foot.

The Douglas Elliman retail team has been very busy in Harlem. In the past six months, they've brought the Children's Aid Society, Tribeca Pediatrics and Sunshine Day Care to the changing neighborhood. Ms. Consolo noted the need for similar community services in this central area of Harlem, but also spoke of several "name" stores interested in the block.

"This is a huge portfolio," said Ms. Consolo, adding with characteristic understatement that "we run all of Harlem."

Representatives for Mr. Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group could not immediately be reached for comment.

]]> http://commercialobserver.com/2013/06/danny-meyer-in-talks-for-bistro-in-harlem/feed/ 0 billygray Untitled http://commercialobserver.com/2013/06/madison-capital-management-draws-on-cw-team-for-444-west-55th-sale-recap/#comments Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:30:54 -0400 http://commercialobserver.com/2013/06/madison-capital-management-draws-on-cw-team-for-444-west-55th-sale-recap/ Carl Gaines http://commercialobserver.com/?p=253326 Cushman & Wakefield Equity, Debt & Structured Finance has arranged $39 million in financing for, as well as the sale of, 444 West 55th Street, The Mortgage Observer has learned exclusively.

444 West 55th Street.

The building, located between 9th and 10th Avenues, houses Cirkers Fine Art Storage and Hutter Auction Galleries.

The 100,000-square-foot, 6-story building was owned by Madison Capital Management, which the C&W team of Steve Kohn, Dave Karson, Chris Moyer, Sridhar Vankayala and Tara Hovey advised on the transaction.

California-based Redwood Trust provided the ten-year senior and mezzanine financing.

MCM and Redwood didn’t return calls in time for publication seeking information about the purchase price and buyer. Cushman & Wakefied declined to identify the buyer.

“We had very aggressive bidding from both the debt and equity markets, and the buyer had great options to finance this building,” said Mr. Karson, executive managing director. “The debt markets are particularly liquid right now, and Redwood offered a very attractive package that met all of the buyers needs.”

cgaines@observer.com

The burglars would ultimately admit to having photographed documents and wiretapped phones during that incident and a previous burglary.  While the details regarding how, exactly, the burglars were able to break into the building are murky, there was likely little more than physical locks and barriers—and a security guard—preventing their entry into the building.

It goes without saying that, four decades after the incident, the access control industry has come a long way.  As such, The Commercial Observer caught up with Datawatch Systems, the company that currently provides access control and security services at that very same Watergate office tower, at 2600 Virginia Avenue, to see how much the industry has changed—and, the likelihood of a similar break-in at a government complex occurring today.

“If the latest technology is being utilized and the building is providing multiple layers of control, the chances are very, very small,” said Robert Dike, vice president of sales at the Bethesda, Maryland-based firm.

During the Watergate break-in, a security guard discovered the intrusion after noticing tape covering the latches on doors in the complex, which allowed the doors to close but remain unlocked. He removed the tape but found them re-taped an hour later.

“Prior to ‘74 there really wasn’t a lot of electronic control in these buildings,” Mr. Dike said.  “Later in the 1970s, after Watergate, is when that really got jumpstarted. Access control came along to make sure that doors were unlocked and locked at preset times, giving you tracking ability to know exactly who was in the building and when.”

The building at 2600 Virginia Avenue no longer houses government entities, but Datawatch works with a range of them, from the DOJ to the IRS to the ATF to the DEA, and a long list of others, which to varying degrees have embraced technology that would make a Watergate-style break-in today nearly impossible because of the “layers of control” Mr. Dike described.

They include, but are not limited to, card readers in garages, perimeter doors, elevators and on entryways to individual floors and tenant spaces; external and internal camera systems; and a human component made up of guards.

Today’s motion-activated cameras also allow companies like Datawatch to send video clips to clients via the Internet anytime something—or someone—trips the system. Other tenants use smart phone applications to access buildings and unlock computers.

Others systems seem straight from the movies. Though used on a “limited scale,” some government agencies require biometrics, such as retinal scans and thumbprint-detection software, for movement within buildings; while Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities are used as “safe rooms” for classified discussions.

Interestingly, however, New York City building owners are much less likely to utilize even the most basic access control when compared to Washington D.C.

“It’s dramatic the difference,” Mr. Dike said. “New York tends to use a lot of guards and less electronic control, and I think part of it is the federal government being in Washington D.C.”

“So the guards are obviously doing their job.”

“We wanted a fresh start and the name EVO comes from the word evolution,” Ira Fishman, chief executive officer, told The Commercial Observer “It is the evolution of the company.”

Mr. Fishman

As reported by The Commercial Observer, Mr. Fishman acquired Winoker Realty in partnership with Dana Moskowitz, Nathan Halegua and Josh Halegua less than a year after the death of the firm’s president, David Winoker, in a parachuting accident.

Mr. Fishman was formerly a member of the Winoker Realty team from 1998 to 2008 and a partner of Mr. Winoker’s for seven years. Prior to acquiring Winoker Realty, Mr. Fishman and Ms. Moskowitz were business partners at ID Real Estate Partners, which has been absorbed into EVO Real Estate Group.

The renamed firm will focus its attention on Midtown South, keen to tap into the popularity of the submarket with the technology and creative industries.

“It is the most active market in Manhattan and the buildings we handle are mainly located in Midtown South,” Mr. Fishman noted. EVO Real Estate has set up shop in the Winoker Realty offices at 462 Seventh Avenue, but the firm is currently seeking to relocate to Midtown South in the near future.

“We are very excited, we feel the timing is good and the market is on a rebound,” Mr. Fishman said of the relaunch. “We felt this was the right time to do it, it all came together.”

Courtesy of Swig Equities

Helbraun, Levey & O'Donoghue LLP has signed a direct lease with Swig Equities at 110 William Street.

The law firm, which specializes in legal and licensing of New York's restaurants, has been subleasing in the building but will now take a 4,472-square-foot office on the 14th floor.

Jonathan Dean, an in-house broker at Swig Equities, noted that the space is "clean, modern, and efficient for their needs." Mr. Dean's colleague, Kent Swig, added that the building construction "lends itself to the 'tech look' that many are seeking with concrete floors and exposed ceilings along with outstanding views from the tower floors."

The law firm's deal was signed during the same period as another with music publisher Carl Fischer LLC and an engineering firm EP Engineering LLC. In combination, the three are expected to take approximately 14,500 square feet in the building.

"Leasing activity has been great," added Mr. Dean. "We have about 36,500 rentable square feet that is currently vacant, and we're in negotiations on a 23,000 rentable square foot deal. [That] would leave about 12,000 rentable square feet out of 867,600 in the building, a 1.4 percent vacancy [rate]. "

In addition to Mr. Dean's initiatives, 110 William Street also invested in a capital improvement program to upgrade the amenities and lobby of the building. 

“We are thrilled that our FiDi portfolio continues to show great success with strong interest across an array of industries,” said Mr. Swig. “Tenants realize the value of this prime business location as well as appreciate the beauty of these historic properties coupled with state-of-the-art amenities.”