Malkin Holdings LLC is less than half of one percentage point away from gaining the number of votes it needs to launch the controversial real estate investment trust that would include the Empire State Building as an asset, according to a regulatory filing from Anthony and Peter Malkin.
The new filing states that 79.6 percent Read More
The Malkins’ quest to launch a $1 billion IPO that would include the Empire State Building continued today at the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan but concluded without a decision.
The plaintiffs in Meyers v. Empire State Realty Trust Inc. are asking Supreme Court Justice O. Peter Sherwood to block a plan by Peter and Anthony Malkin to buy them out for $100 a share if they do not vote in favor of the proposed IPO.
As of April 3, the Malkins had received 94 percent of the total votes needed to proceed with the IPO, but Justice Sherwood has said that he will throw those votes out if he rules that the buyout is illegal. Read More
A modern building feat has occurred.
In a new YouTube video that surfaced yesterday, user “Homeschooledman” alleges that it took him just “five minutes” to build the Empire State Building – and it wasn’t even challenging. Read More
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
LinkedIn inked a full-floor deal for 31,196 square feet at the Empire State Building, bringing its total footprint there to 109,719 square feet.
Sacha Zarba led a team from CBRE representing the tenant. William Cohen and Ryan Kass of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented the landlord, Malkin Properties. The social networking site became a direct tenant in the Midtown landmark in 2011, with 31,742 square feet on the 25th floor. It has since expanded to the 23rd, 24th and 39th floors. Read More
The Malkins are getting tantalizingly close to winning their bid to make the Empire State Building part of a Real Estate Investment Trust.
A letter sent today by Peter Malkin and Anthony Malkin to investors states that the controlling owners (the Malkins) have received 94 percent of the votes needed to proceed with the IPO that would launch the contentious REIT.
“I think it’s going to happen,” said one Malkin colleague, an executive at a leading real estate firm in New York City, upon hearing the news. “It seems like they continue to garner more and more positive votes.” Read More
Midtown Manhattan, the biggest and most expensive U.S. office market, is still adapting to New York’s post-financial-crisis economy, as technology and new media companies flood into the more affordable areas and banks remain wary of expanding in higher-priced real estate.
With construction getting under way on millions of square feet of planned Class A offices on the West Side, much of the leasing action for the year to date has centered on neighborhoods like Murray Hill, the Penn Station area and the Garment District, which are attracting companies that have been priced—or crowded—out of the technology hub in Midtown South, brokers said. Financial companies, traditionally the biggest occupiers of Midtown real estate, remained conservative, pursuing greater efficiency in their use of real estate rather than growth.
“The days of bigger is better are gone,” said Eric Thomas, senior vice president of Cresa, a specialist in tenant representation. “Capital preservation is still key. That’s why renewals still reign in many cases.” Read More
Image-licensing company Shutterstock is relocating to the Empire State Building, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The tech startup signed a lease for more than 80,000 square feet on two whole floors of the building, leaving behind 60 Broad Street after the addition of 50 employees following its public offering in October maxed out that space.
“We’ve been growing, and what we want is a more collaborative, open environment,” Shutterstock CEO Jon Oringer told the Journal. “We were looking for really big floor plates, but if you want to go around there [in Midtown], you’d have to look at three or four floors to get the same amount of space.” Read More
A giant gorilla-like creature scales the Empire State Building, clutching a beautiful blond woman. Fighter jets circle, machine guns shooting to kill. He pounds his chest, roaring, refusing to go down without a fight.
The final scene from the 1933 production of King Kong gripped viewers and put them on the edge of their seats Read More
The view from the Empire State Building observation deck was especially expansive on March 13, with crystal-clear skies hovering over the five boroughs, New Jersey and, visible to the north, Westchester County. Yet Coco Jones briefly dominated the panorama.
Ms. Jones, 15, was perched, alone, on the southeastern corner of the deck. The Disney Channel alumna—she appeared on the cable network’s short-lived sketch comedy series So Random!—had released her debut EP, Made Of, the previous day. And although its lead single, “Holla at the DJ,” had yet to chart on Billboard’s Hot 100, Ms. Jones was ready to celebrate its release on the Empire State’s Building’s 86th floor. Read More
The owners of the Empire State Building are reportedly edging closer to obtaining the number of shareholder approvals needed to support the once-controversial $1 billion launch of a public REIT that would include the storied building as an asset.
Owners Peter Malkin and Anthony Malkin of Malkin Holdings wrote in a letter to shareholders that, of those who have voted, 90 percent of the tower’s unit-holders have approved the plan; as well as 95 percent at 1 Grand Central Place; and 97 percent at 250 West 57th Street, Bloomberg reported.
“This remarkable level of participation in such a short period has exceeded our hopes,” the Malkins said in the letter, according to Bloomberg. “We encourage the very small percentage of participants who have voted against any proposal to consider now changing their votes to be for all the proposals.” Read More
Real estate tycoon Eugene Grant has sold his controlling stake in the behemoth St. John’s Terminal Building in SoHo for roughly $250 million, sources said.
The news comes on the heels of a report from the The Commercial Observer in September that said a provision in Mr. Grant’s agreement with the other owners could jeopardize his unrelenting, firm, and decades-long grasp on the property.
Mr. Grant sold his 50.1 percent share to the other owners, made up of Fortress Investment Group, Atlas Capital Group and Westbrook Partners, which owned the other 49.9 percent, sources familiar with the deal said, confirming what was first reported in the New York Post. Read More
Men’s Wearhouse has signed a 10-year, roughly 8,800-square-foot lease at 1219 Third Avenue in the Upper East Side, The Commercial Observer has learned.
The menswear company is taking a 6,665-square-foot ground floor space and 2,100 square feet in the basement, said Gary Alterman of RKF, who represented both the tenant and owner, Fraydun Realty, in the transaction. Read More
Alexander Chudnoff, a commercial leasing broker who takes pride in strengthening relationships with clients through “impeccable service,” was especially busy in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
The Jones Lang LaSalle executive managing director was dividing his time last week between volunteer efforts in the Rockaways, where he provided hot pizza and coffee to storm victims, and getting on the phone to make sure his Downtown Manhattan clients could stay open. Though it was a difficult time, the activity of making connections was just what attracted Mr. Chudnoff to the business in the first place.
“I love to make calls. I love to canvass,” he said. “I like to develop the relationship.”
In some cases, the storm required short-term arrangements, such as lining up space with other clients or in Jones Lang’s own offices, he said. In others, clients were able to proceed with minimal disruption, as when Dentsu Holdings USA returned to work at 32 Avenue of the Americas when Rudin Management opened the building the Monday after the storm. Read More
Human Rights in China, Inc. is set to move to 450 Seventh Avenue.
The non-governmental organization will be moving their operations from the Empire State Building in favor of a 2,639-square-foot space inside of the Kaufman Organization-owned 450 Seventh Avenue.
“They were leased out [of the Empire State Building] by an expanding tenant,” explained Barbara Read More
