By Al Barbarino 2/19 8:00am

Controversies

Joe Sitt

Retail Brokers ‘Kicking and Screaming’ as Landlords Skip the Middle Man

Some commercial real estate brokers are “kicking and screaming” about the audacity of some city landlords who they claim are disregarding their “exclusives” with retailers by attempting to land tenants on their own.

The idea of “skipping the middle man,” once thought of as a tool for efficiency, is enraging some brokers, who tell The Commercial Observer that large retail owners including  Joe Sitt, Jeff Sutton and Joe Moinian, are steering out of their way – but digging deep under their skin.

“Totally not kosher,” one perturbed president of a top city brokerage wrote in an email to The Commercial Observer.  “It puts the retail brokers in a difficult spot and it is morally incorrect.” Read More

By Karsten Strauss 12/06/12 7:15am

ICSC2012

Lower Manhattan

Condé Conundrum Brews in Lower Manhattan

Condé Nast, the mega-publisher behind such magazines as Vogue, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, holds several events per month at the Lambs Club on West 44th Street, two blocks from its 4 Times Square headquarters. It’s also been known to hold events at Michael’s on 55th Street, and a host of other venues.

Now, with the company having leased over 1.1 million square feet at 1 World Trade Center and saying goodbye to its old quarters, a new posh venue for its gatherings will have to be found, all of which has brokers asking the question: will high-end dining and retail come to Manhattan’s southern tip?

Retailers are hungry for Manhattan retail space at the moment, but lower Manhattan luxury stores may take time, said Steve Rappaport, senior managing director with SINVIN Realty. For that to change, a high-end retailer may need to stake a claim early on and wait for value to grow, Mr. Rappaport said. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 10/08/12 2:08pm

Lease Beat

HM

The H&M Zone: Discount fashion retailer nabs former ESPN restaurant

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

By Daniel Geiger 9/18/12 5:01pm

retail beat

4 Times Square Retail (Formerly Occupied by ESPN Zone)

Despite Rumors of an H&M Deal, Space at 4 Times Square Remains Open

Executives involved in leasing a prominent Times Square retail space are preparing to release a new wave of marketing materials for the storefront, dampening speculation that the space is spoken for.

About 45,000 square feet of retail has been available at the office tower 4 Times Square since former tenant ESPN Zone vacated in 2010, but recent reports and rumors had it that the fast fashion giant H&M was in advanced talks to take the whole space for a flagship store. Read More

By Carl Gaines 6/27/12 4:05pm

Lease Beat

4 Times Square.

CBRE Tapped to Lease 4 Times Square Retail

CBRE has been tapped to lease up the retail space at the Durst Organization’s 4 Times Square, former home of ESPN Zone, which closed in June 2010, a victim of the recession.

Amira Yunis, an executive vice president, and Gary Trock, a senior vice president—both at the CBRE Retail Group—will lead the team marketing the Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 6/19/12 9:30am

The Sit-Down

Anita Durst and colleague Kim Schnaubert, development director of Chashama. (Photo courtesy Kiki Conway)

Anita’s Way: Douglas Durst’s Eldest Daughter Merges Art with Real Estate

Since launching Chashama 17 years ago out of her father Douglas Durst’s building on 44th Street in Times Square, Anita Durst has helped locate affordable or free studio and gallery space for hundreds of artists in all five boroughs. With a portfolio of 17 spaces, donated by the likes of Rockrose Development and New York City, Chashama currently manages an estimated $2 million in real estate. On the eve of the group’s Gala Monday, Mr. Durst’s eldest daughter spoke to The Commercial Observer about lessons learned from her famous family, what’s in store for her arts program in the upcoming months, and how dad helped her land a role on the sitcom 30 Rock. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 4/10/12 8:30am

The Sit-Down

Tara Stacom.

The Woman Who Sold the World: Cushman’s Tara Stacom on Leasing at 1 World Trade Center

When The Commercial Observer caught up with Tara Stacom last year, the Cushman & Wakefield vice chairman was positively beaming about leasing opportunities at 1 World Trade Center, the 1,776-foot, 3.1-million-square-foot tower she’s been billed with filling with tenants. “I’m more bullish today than I was in 2007,” she said last year, shortly after news surfaced that Condé Nast would serve as anchor tenant at the building. “I did not think one of the first tenants would be a million-plus feet.” Last week, Ms. Stacom’s confidence in the building, which remains far from leased up, was still brimming over. She spoke with The Commercial Observer about the impact of the Condé Nast deal, how the Downtown office market fared in the first quarter and what to expect in the next quarter. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 3/13/12 4:00pm

The Sit-Down

Jody Durst. Illustration by Paul Kisselev

The Power Generators: Douglas and Jody Durst on Generating Their Own Electricity at 1 Bryant Park and 1 WTC

Douglas and Jody Durst of the family-owned Durst Organization are well known in the real estate industry for their firm’s progressive stance on environmentally sustainable building practices. Last week, the cousins spoke to The Commercial Observer about co-generator power, a revolutionary, albeit costly, method of generating electricity in buildings they own at 4 Times Square, 1 Bryant Park and, soon, 1 World Trade. Read More