By Billy Gray 6/04 10:00am

The Sit-Down

Michael Phillips (Credit: Jamestown)

Jamestown Properties’ Michael Phillips on Feeding Chelsea

As chief operating officer of Jamestown Properties, Michael Phillips has helped create and oversee a portfolio of more than 80 properties across nine states, totaling over 25 million square feet. But the jewel in his and Jamestown’s crown may well be Chelsea Market, the wildly popular foodie mecca in the Meatpacking District. Jamestown is currently working on a contentious expansion of that Ninth Avenue destination that will result in an additional 330,000 square feet of office space (an earlier plan for a 90,000-square-foot hotel was scrapped).

The Commercial Observer grabbed a few minutes with Mr. Phillips inside Jamestown’s swank, canopied, free-crepe-dispensing booth at ICSC’s RECon global retail real estate summit in Las Vegas. There, the James Beard Foundation vice chair and Real Estate Board of New York governor shared some morsels about Jamestown’s unannounced plans for a second sit-down restaurant at Chelsea Market, its imminent foray into the Brooklyn culinary world, and marquee projects in Georgia and California. Read More

By Damian Ghigliotty 5/31 8:00am

Mortgage Observer

Cover_gentrification

Brooklyn’s Retail Financing Redux: Hipper Shopping En Route

As the economy continues to build steam, a new Brooklyn finds itself craving a new retail culture—and developers and financers are keeping close watch. While New York’s most populous borough has seen a large number of residential buildings take shape in the past year, financing for retail construction projects and acquisitions are just now beginning to catch up.

When asked, the developers behind several of the latest big retail projects told The Mortgage Observer that many of those properties would have a more chic look and feel and a more versatile use than traditional shopping outlets and malls. One common point of comparison has been Jamestown’s Chelsea Market, the high-end urban food court and shopping center with galleries and production studios mixed in. Read More

By Gus Delaporte 4/25 7:30am

Market Report

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Midtown South Rents Fall for First Time in Two Years

After two years of consecutive increases, rents in Midtown South dropped during the first quarter of 2013, according to CompStak’s effective rent report for the Manhattan office market, provided exclusively to The Commercial Observer.

Effective rent, which includes landlord concessions, in Midtown South fell during the first quarter to $44.62 from $46.44 in the fourth quarter of 2012, a decrease of nearly 4 percent. Starting rent fell from $49.47 to $47.14 during the same period. Read More

By Gus Delaporte 4/12 9:00am

Postings

CO 4-9 Postings

Midtown South, Northbound Rents

Midtown South has continued its meteoric rise, overshadowing the traditional office market in Midtown. Demand remains strong in the market, where more than 12 million square feet of space has been leased in the past three years.

As large tech tenants like Google—which subleased 83,000 square feet at Chelsea Market in the last quarter—continue to snap up space, the market only stands to continue its growth.

Jonathan Mazur, director of research at Cushman & Wakefield, spoke with The Commercial Observer last week to shed light on some of the key numbers from the firm’s recent Midtown South office market report for the first quarter of 2013. Read More

By Gus Delaporte 3/01 3:48pm

Lease Beat

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Google Expands at Chelsea Market

Google has completed a deal to expand its presence at Chelsea Market by approximately 90,000 square feet, a source familiar with the deal confirmed with The Commercial Observer.

The tech giant’s total space at the Market will now total about 250,000 square feet. The new space is spread throughout the building, according to the source.

News of the lease was reported by the New York Post earlier this week. According to an earlier report by Crain’s, the deal includes a sublease of market research firm GFK’s fifth-floor space of 58,523 square feet. Read More

By Al Barbarino 1/29 7:45am

Sales Beat

450 West 15th Street

Jamestown Properties Pays $284 M. for Milk Studios Building

Jamestown Properties has purchased the Milk Studios building at 450 West 15th Street from Stellar Management for more than $284 million, city records show.

The 325,000-square-foot, eight-story office building, home to photography studio Milk Studios and an eclectic mix of tech, fashion and creative tenants, borders the High Line.

It’s a symbolic and strategic move for Jamestown, which owns the Chelsea Market across the street and looks to expand its footprint in the heavily-traveled Meatpacking District.

Ironically, city records show that Stellar provided a $150 million loan to Jamestown, which suggests that the move was perhaps more than a kind gesture, but also a play to complete the deal before the end of 2012, as imminent capital gains taxes loomed (the city record was filed on Friday, but shows the deed was finalized December 21). Read More

By Billy Gray 1/25 2:21pm

Food & Drink

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Local Residents Fear Food Vendors Will Lose Out in Chelsea Market Expansion

Shortly after the City Council approved developer Jamestown Property‘s 300,000-square-foot expansion of the gourmet destination Chelsea Market last September, council speaker Christine Quinn ensured that 75 percent of the current ground floor retail space would stay devoted to food vendors.

Locals are wary. The council’s Land Use Committee almost simultaneously signed a legal agreement with vaguer specifications, DNAInfo reports today. That document protected just 60 percent of ground floor space as retail-oriented, with no reference to the allotment for food shops. Read More

By Al Barbarino 1/10 10:43am

Retail

Chelsea Market

Eight New Stores to Hit Chelsea Market Next Month

Ownership at the Chelsea Market is reportedly renovating 5,700 square feet of space to make way for eight new vendor kiosks, where cooking and food preparation will be on display for its 120,000 weekly visitors.

Most of the space was created when Amy’s Bread moved part of its operations off-site, and the rest will come from the renovation of a loading dock and an office, the New York Times reports.

Leases are currently being negotiated and rates will run in the $200 to $400 per square foot range, and the stores, to be delivered in plug-and-play condition and geared towards start-ups and “less-established” businesses, will be operational as soon as mid-February, said Michael Phillips, COO of Jamestown Properties, according to the Times. Read More

By Alessia Pirolo 12/14/12 6:46pm

Lease Beat

450 West 15th Street.

Giorgio Armani Moves to the Milk Studios Building

Giorgio Armani is getting a view over the High Line. The Italian fashion company has inked a lease for a 60,000-square-foot space at 450 West 15th Street in the Meatpacking District, sources familiar with the transaction confirmed to The Commercial Observer, and is due to move its headquarters and showroom to the space in October 2013. Read More

By Al Barbarino 12/11/12 7:30am

Sales Beat

368 8th Avenue

Marcus & Millichap Arranges Sale of Two Chelsea Buildings for $7.2M

Real estate brokerage Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of two apartment buildings in Chelsea for a combined $7.2 million, with both properties going to 1031 exchange buyers, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The buildings, at 368 8th Avenue and 311 West 29th Street, bring the private investors who purchased them an opportunity to realize significant upside through upgrades and renovations, brokers at Marcus & Millichap said. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 7/11/12 5:19pm

Sales Beat

90 Fifth Avenue

90 Fifth Avenue In Contract For $115 Million

90 Fifth Avenue is being acquired by the Atlanta based investment group Jamestown for $115 million sources have revealed to The Commercial Observer, a price that equates to a lofty over $800 per square foot.

The deal, if it closes, would finally end a years long effort to sell the 140,000-square-foot property, which is mostly Read More