Cohen Commercial Properties has acquired a 12,212-square-foot, two-tenant, retail property at 1800 Williamsbridge Road in the Bronx for $11.425 million, The Commercial Observer has learned.
“It is a conservative investment, but it’s in an area that currently and in the longer term is going to appreciate in value,” Andrew Cohen, chief executive officer at CCP, said of the acquisition. Read More
Cognolink has made another connection at 411 Fifth Avenue, a.k.a. The Fashion Accessories Center, where the firm has signed an eight-year, 5,600-square-foot lease, The Commercial Observer has learned.
The research firm, which connects business professionals across various industries, takes the 10th floor in the 11-story building as part of its expansion and relocation from its previous location just around the corner at 35 West 36th Street.
“They liked the neighborhood and they wanted to stay in the same location because it’s convenient to their employees,” said Evan Margolin of Studley, who represented the tenant and was promoted to senior managing director at the firm last summer, adding that the firm doubles its space with the transaction. “It has a wide open loft-style feel – it’s open, bright and great for a collaborative environment.” Read More
7 West 57th Street Realty Co., a real estate company controlled by Sheldon Solow, filed a lawsuit in federal court yesterday against Citibank, Bank of America, Barclays, JPMorgan and a number of other banks for allegedly conspiring to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor).
The complaint alleges the defendant banks’ conspiracy to manipulate Libor resulted in the seizure of Mr. Solow’s $450 million bond portfolio by Citibank. The portfolio was pledged as collateral for Libor denominated loans, the complaint says, and was comprised largely of high-grade municipal bonds. Subsequently, Solow was obligated to pay a $100 million judgment. Read More
Got a chunk of change lying around? With a book of business north of $5.5 billion, Rosemary Vrablic, a managing director in the asset and wealth management division at Deutsche Bank, can help.
Private banking is loosely defined as personalized financial services offered by banks to their high-net-worth clients. And the top providers are largely holding steady, according to 2011 year-end results from U.K.-based private wealth management consultancy and research firm Scorpio Partnership.
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A joint venture between Madison Capital and an institutional owner has purchased a portfolio of five Citibank retail bank branches across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx for $80.55 million.
A team from Newmark Grubb Knight Frank led by Kenneth Zakin arranged the sale and is exclusively marketing seller FGP West Street’s New York portfolio of 18 Citibank-leased properties purchased from Citibank in 2007.
“We are thrilled to complete the sale of this core group of properties, which consisted of the most valuable assets in the entire portfolio,” said Mr. Zakin, who brokered the transaction with Randall Liberman and Hymie Dweck, adding that Madison Capital solidified the deal following a competitive bidding process. “Madison Capital stepped up and submitted an aggressive bid for the five-property portfolio.” Read More
Harbor Group International has closed on the acquisition of 1420 Broadway and 246-248 West 125th Street for a combined $20.3 million.
The first building is located adjacent to the firm’s New York headquarters at 1412 Broadway, owned by an HGI affiliate, and the latter lies amid Harlem’s burgeoning retail sector.
The property at 1420 Broadway is a three-story, 7,200-square-foot building constructed in 1911 and located between the Times Square and 34th Street retail corridors. Read More
The Financial Protection Bureau established its first New York outpost by signing a 21,000-square-foot lease at 2 Grand Central Tower. The bureau will occupy part of the third floor and the entire fourth floor at the Midtown building purchased last year by Rockwood Capital. The 10-year lease was done for rents around $50 per square foot. Paul Amrich, Vice Chairman in CBRE‘s Brokerage Services Group, led a team representing the landlord. David Leest, a broker with Brody Realty Corp., represented the bureau.
The regulatory agency was established last year as a result of the Dodd-Frank Act, legislation passed to guard consumers in the wake of the financial crisis and Great Recession. The bureau sought a space that would place it near the financial services companies it works with–the headquarters of Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and Wells Fargo are within a few blocks of 2 Grand Central Tower, on 45th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. Read More
Earlier this year, approximately 150,000 square feet opened at the Midtown office tower 399 Park Avenue when the law firm WilmerHale, a tenant in the building, left to relocate to Lower Manhattan.
The property, a 1.75-million-square-foot skyscraper owned by the large commercial owner Boston Properties, is home to the global headquarters of Citibank and is widely considered one of the finest office buildings along Park Avenue, an exclusive and highly desirable corridor in Midtown.
Boston Properties had found takers for the building even in the worst of times, filling the few hundred thousand square feet that suddenly became available in 2008 when Lehman Brothers, a former tenant, collapsed and sparked the financial crisis.
Fast-forward to 2012, a market several years removed from the depths of the recession, and this time around, Boston Properties wasn’t taking any chances. According to the leasing agent at the property, Peter Turchin, an executive at the real estate services firm CBRE, Boston Properties quickly switched to the leasing strategy du jour: finding takers for the space one floor at a time rather than waiting for one big user to fill a large portion or all of the space. Read More
Sublease space has begun to weigh on the Manhattan office market according to a report released Monday by the real estate services company Cassidy Turley.
The company said that sublet availability rose during five of the past seven months and shot up by 200,000 square feet in July, hitting a peak level over the past year. Read More
Citibank is cutting loose more space in Midtown.
After deciding to give up 230,000 square feet at 666 Fifth Avenue, the bank is offering two floors for sublease at 909 Third Avenue totaling over 60,000 square feet.
Citibank is making the 1.3 million-square-foot building’s entire 18th and 19th floors available. Read More
A real estate executive who was formerly one of the top officers in the real estate empire of billionaire owner and developer Sheldon Solow has filed what is likely to be a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Mr. Solow for unpaid retirement funds, The Commercial Observer has learned.
Steven Cherniak worked with Mr. Solow for 26 years before abruptly leaving Mr. Solow’s firm, Solow Realty and Development Company, in 2008. In a case filed in U.S. District Court on July 19, Mr. Cherniak alleges Mr. Solow dismissed him without cause and didn’t pay him a previously agreed-upon retirement package. Read More
At least two tenants are circling a block of office floors at the Midtown tower 399 Park Avenue several sources have revealed to The Commercial Observer.
Epoch Investment Partners, an investment management firm, is considering two floors, about 50,000 square feet at the 1.75-million-square-foot office tower, which is owned by the large REIT Boston Properties.
Epoch is currently located at Read More
Citibank has renewed its nearly 500,000-square-foot office lease at 601 Lexington Avenue.
Merrill Lynch, a subsidiary of Bank of America that has an asset management office at the iconic slant-roofed skyscraper, also just renewed its lease at the property, for all of floors 46 and 47, which total about 60,000 square feet.
Citibank’s decision to renew at the property appears to be a sharp about-face from previous efforts to dispose of the space. During the economic downturn, several real estate executives familiar with the location said that Citibank had quietly made the real estate market aware that it was interested in divesting itself of the space. It never actually went through with efforts to shed block of offices however. Read More
Officials at Investment Technology Group, a brokerage and market research firm with offices across the globe, knew there was no such thing as a dull moment when it comes to behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing at a Manhattan office tower. Read More
Is he the most prolific attorney in the city you’ve never heard about?
Probably not.
Still, it’s possible to lose track of just how many deals Fried Frank partner Meyer Last inked in 2011. Call it the Jon Mechanic effect. Read More
