By Michael Ewing 5/31 4:51pm

Lease Beat

Courtesy of Panoramio

Banco Itaú Takes Most of the GM Building’s 50th Floor in an Unprecedented Deal

In an unprecedented deal that reached upwards of $200 per square foot, Itaú BBA USA Securities Inc., a branch of the Brazilian Banco Itaú, will increase its operation from 25,000 square feet to 35,000 square feet on the prized 50th floor of 767 Fifth Avenue.

With outstanding views of the Central Park and Midtown, the floor plates at the 50-story tower, otherwise known as the General Motors Building, span 40,000 square feet, leaving a mere 5,000-square-foot office to share the view, brokers said. Read More

By Gus Delaporte 4/03 10:00am

Retail

wholefoods

Up, Up and Away: Retailers Pushing Boundaries on Upper East Side

National retailers are pushing north from 72nd Street on the Upper East Side, chasing changing demographics and searching for value, according to several brokers active in the market. Both 86th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues and Madison Avenue north of 72nd Street have seen strong activity and booming lease prices.

“I did deals up there 10 or 15 years ago and was hard-pressed to push $110 to $120 per square foot,” said Patrick Breslin, executive vice president of global retail at Studley. “Today, if you can find good real estate on Lex on 82nd to 85th, you’re looking at $400, $500, $600 per square foot.” Read More

By Billy Gray 9:00am

Lower Manhattan 2013

23 Wall Street

Cornered: So Far No Takers for 150,000-Square-Foot Retail at 23 Wall, But Repositioning in the Works

A onetime citadel of finance is proving to be a complicated sell.

The former J.P. Morgan headquarters at 23 Wall Street has been without a tenant for about seven years. And ambitious plans to woo a large retailer are being reconsidered.

Built in 1914, 23 Wall Street—also known as The Corner—has had a dramatic and occasionally fraught history. It was bombed in 1920, possibly by an Italian anarchist. The blast killed 38 people. The New York Stock Exchange is across the street, but despite the foot traffic its location generates, the property’s fortified address is a major reason why retailers—and large department stores in particular—have been reluctant to move in. Read More

By Gus Delaporte 3/06 8:00am

Lease Beat

100-104 fifth

Springs Global Signs Lease at 100-104 Fifth Avenue

Brazil-based Springs Global, a company that manufactures home furnishings, has signed a 10-year lease for a 10,666-square-foot showroom at 100-104 Fifth Avenue. Asking rent was $60 per square foot.

Springs Global is moving from a neighboring building where it will sublease its space. 100-104 Fifth Avenue is jointly owned by the Kaufman Organization, also the landlord, and Invesco Real Estate. The lease was reported yesterday by Crain’s. Read More

By Billy Gray 1/29 9:00am

In Transit

To 42nd Street

A Grand Century: 100 Years of Grand Central Terminal

The December 2011 opening of the Grand Central Terminal Apple store was another in a long line of developments that bolstered the station’s status after years of sooty neglect not only as a thriving, glimmering transportation hub, but also as a destination for people with no plans to board a train.

“It’s a fantastic place to manage, and it’s a great place for any kind of commercial activity,” said former Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman and New York mayoral hopeful Joe Lhota. “Apple moved in and was another transformation that led to more and more people coming through.”

Apple arrived 35 years after the campaign to save Grand Central accelerated under the stewardship of Jacqueline Onassis. When the grand old Pennsylvania Station was demolished in 1963 to make way for today’s Penn Station, it jolted Ms. Onassis and others in New York’s incipient landmark preservation movement.

iPad kiosks and a genius bar attest to Grand Central’s general comeback and emergence as a retail destination. But its central function as a railroad station hasn’t budged over the course of 100 years that have seen the advent of commercial air travel and spiffy, modernized transit centers around the world. Read More

By Al Barbarino 12/12/12 8:00am

Sales Beat

309 West 57th Street

Apartment Building, Former Church, Music Legend Hangout Nets $42.5M

A property at 309 West 57th Street in Midtown West that once housed a Victorian Gothic church and later saw the likes of John Lennon and Frank Sinatra pass through its doors has changed hands for $42.5 million.

The 16-story, 75,600-square-foot rental property with 102 apartments and nearly 14,000 square feet of commercial space – currently home to night club Providence NYC – was purchased by New York City-based real estate investment firms Imperium Capital and Bronstein Properties.

The property, site of a former church and later a prominent recording studio, is located near a number of popular amenities and development projects, and it’s the latest in a string of high-profile acquisitions made by Imperium Capital. Read More

By Al Barbarino 12/06/12 7:30am

ICSC

Armani Exchange at the City Point Development

Fulton Maul: Culture Clash Ensues in Downtown Brooklyn

With the long-awaited Barclays Center open and new residential and mixed-use development projects popping up across Downtown Brooklyn, a retail conundrum is growing along the 17-block Fulton Mall.

The national and in some cases high-end retailers moving onto the strip paint a stark contrast to the long list of mom-and-pops, local discounters and jewelry shops that once almost exclusively lined the street. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 7/16/12 9:25am

retail beat

121 Greene Street

Warby Parker Inks First Brick-And-Mortar Lease

Eyeglass maker Warby Parker has signed a lease for its first permanent retail location, taking about 2,500 square feet at 121 Greene Street in Soho.

Warby Parker rose to prominence successfully selling prescription eyeglasses online, a product many shoppers had preferred to buy in person even well into the age of Internet commerce. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 6/21/12 3:38pm

Lease Beat

100-104 Fifth Avenue

Yelp Taking An Additional 20,000 Square Feet at 100-104 Fifth Avenue

Yelp, the user-generated review site, has signed a 7-year lease to take an additional 20,000 square feet at 100-104 Fifth Avenue, The Commercial Observer has learned.

All told, the San Francisco-based tech company will be occupying 29,505 square feet in the building, which is jointly owned by The Kaufman Organization and Invesco Real Estate. 

Yelp signed a 9,505 square foot lease in the Fall of 2011.  Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 4/24/12 10:30am

Power Broker

Grant Greenspan.

From Denim to Digital: How Scarsdale’s Grant Greenspan Became Manhattan’s Top Broker to the Tech Start-Ups

It was some time around 2010 when Grant Greenspan—a 50-year-old real estate broker to denim makers in the 1980s and 1990s—came around to his company’s view that investing in a building in Midtown South would be, shall we say, a financially prudent decision.

His company, the Kaufman Organization, had been considering the acquisition of 183 Madison Avenue and 100-104 Fifth Avenue, but both buildings came with risk. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 12/07/11 2:30pm

Power Broker

Robert Cohen.

Robert Cohen / Robert K. Futterman

As Soho continues its 20-year transformation from bohemian enclave to luxury retail bazaar, brands like Apple and Uniqlo have added to the neighborhood’s near impenetrable aura of luxury and glitz by converting old spaces into fashionable shopping destinations.

But simply boasting a Soho address isn’t always enough for some retailers.To M.A.C. Cosmetics, which operated a storefront on 113 Spring Street for more than 15 years, foot traffic appeared enviously higher throughout the nearby Broadway corridor.

“They were definitely leaving some money on the table by not having all the footfall that Broadway provides,” said Robert Cohen, 39, a Robert K. Futterman & Associates retail broker who represented M.A.C. Cosmetics in its move earlier this year to Broadway. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 11/21/11 3:22pm

Lease Beat

Infor

What you Infor? Georgia-based software firm becomes latest "Alley" cat

As the old adage goes, you only have one chance to make a first impression.

For Infor, a business software company whose roster of 70,000 clients – Saab, AB World Foods, Foxwood Casinos, et al – are far more recognizable than they are, moving into New York City’s growing tech market is as good as telling the world you’re ready to play with the big boys.

Infor signed a long-term lease at 641 Avenue of the Americas, an eight-story building owned by Atlas  Capital Group, officials announced earlier today. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 11/15/11 11:20am

The Sit-Down

Ian Schrager

Ian Schrager's PUBLIC Display of Affection

Hotel legend Ian Schrager announced yesterday that his newly-formed PUBLIC brand will be teaming up with residential developers Durst Fetner Residential to launch a new hotel/rental apartment hybrid on 855 Sixth Avenue. Called PUBLIC New York, the 250-plus key New York hotel will be Mr. Schrager’s second site in his PUBLIC brand since unveiling PUBLIC Chicago in September. The building will also feature 60,000 square feet of retail and 315 rental apartments. Fresh from a recent trip to Chicago, Mr. Schrager spoke with The Commercial Observer yesterday about the design of PUBLIC New York, the status of the Clock Tower building, and his love for all things Apple and Trader Joe’s.

Read More