By Al Barbarino 4/24 8:00am

Sales Beat

(Credit: GID)

Upper West Side Residential Towers Sell for Record-Breaking $400 M.

A joint venture led by The Carlyle Group has sold two newly-developed residential towers on the Upper West Side for a reported $400 million to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.

Completed in 2010, the The Aldyn and The Ashley, 38 and 23 stories-high, respectively, include a mix of rental and condominiums for a total of 345 units and a mixture of studio, one-, two-, three-and four-bedrooms that average roughly 1,000 square feet.

The Sacramento-based pension fund, also known as Calpers, made the purchase through Boston-based GID Investment Advisers LLC, its real estate manager for residential transactions.

“The Ashley and Aldyn provide GID an opportunity to expand our exposure in New York City in a single transaction,” said Bill Chiasson, senior vice president and director of eastern region acquisitions for GID, in a statement.  “Manhattan is a market that has historically provided consistent revenue growth versus the national average and where valuations hold up better over time versus other core, U.S. markets.” Read More

By Stephen Kleege 4/02 7:00am

Cover Story

TO GO WITH AFP STORY: US-economy-propert

Midtown Madness: Leasing Still Sluggish in Manhattan’s Priciest Market

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

By Alessia Pirolo 1/11 12:08pm

Mortgage Observer

Zach_Montoya_Eurocrisis2012

Making Waves: European Banks Exit, Asian Banks Sail On

Last fall, a group of lenders—including debt funds, insurance companies and international banks—competed for the $80 million assignment to refinance Lehman Brothers Holdings’ On The Ave Hotel on New York City’s Upper West Side.

Ultimately, the borrower tapped Singapore-based United Overseas Bank, which in the last two years has been behind several large office loans in New York and hotel loans on the West Coast, but which was essentially a newcomer to the city’s hotel lending scene. UOB inked the deal during the same late November week when Bank of China closed a $465.9 million loan on the iconic Plaza Hotel, after having refinanced the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for $170 million earlier in 2012. Read More

By Michael Ewing 12/07/12 3:00pm

Lease Beat

Courtesy of Emporis

Dr. Nileh Patel Joins 20 East 46th Street

Dr. Nilesh Patel has signed for a new office at 20 East 46th Street.

The ear, nose, and throat medical specialist will be taking a 2,514-square-foot office on the eighth floor of Extell Development‘s 20 East 46th Street in Midtown. The lease, signed for 10 years, will consolidate his practices in Queens and Manhattan into Read More

By Michael Ewing 11/07/12 3:44pm

Shameless Promotions

Jared Kushner.

Masters of Real Estate Event Breaks Record

Featuring an all-star line up of the city’s most formidable real estate professionals, this year’s annual Masters of Real Estate fetched a record 450 RSVPs, The Commercial Observer has learned.

Observer Media Group executives began preparing for the event, now in its third year, six months in advance with an eye toward creating an eclectic mix of speakers. Larry Silverstein of Silverstein Properties, Michael Fascitelli of Vornado, William Rudin of Rudin Management, Jeff Blau of Related Companies and Glenn Rufrano of Cushman & Wakefield are all scheduled to appear. Rob Speyer of Tishman Speyer bowed out.

Jared Kushner, the owner of The Commercial Observer and president of Kushner Companies, will lead the event with remarks. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 9/19/12 4:38pm

Billionaires And Their Toys

Aliko Dangote, possibly requesting that his apartment be 1 trillion times larger than the space between his hands.

Is Either of These Two Nigerian Billionaires Among One57′s Billionaire Bad Boys?

What timing! No sooner was it revealed that a number of the world’s billionaires have bought into Extell’s One57 tower than Forbes releases its annual list of the world’s billionaires. Good luck figuring out who some of the Chinese or British money men who bought in the building are—they number in the dozens by now—but how about the Nigerians? With only two billionaires in the country, it would appear one of them has to be among Gary Barnett’s big hitter tenants.

Either Aliko Dangote (#76 on this year’s list of the World’s Billionaires), Africa’s cement king, or Mike Adenuga (#248), the “reclusive” head of Conoil Producing, an oil company, will soon be rubbing elbows with the rest of the world’s billionaires inside Barnett’s luxury tower at 157 West 57th Street. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 9/19/12 11:56am

Billionaires And Their Toys

One57's target buyer

Billionaires Belly up for Barnett’s Bold Building, One57

Extell Development’s Gary Barnett and One57, his gleaming 1,005-foot tower, have become a magnet for billionaires.

Of the nine full-floor spreads that have sold at the West 57th Street luxury tower, all have been purchased by billionaires of various international backgrounds, The New York Times reports.

The 0.00001 percenters who will soon be taking up residence at Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 9/13/12 4:43pm

Sales Beat

Gale_International

Gale International to Buy Flatiron Development Site from Extell Development

Developer Gale International has agreed to buy a Flatiron District development site that is currently owned by Gary Barnett’s Extell Development Co. 

The site, located on 19-25 W. 20th Street, is a 9,200 square foot vacant lot that sits next to a parking garage. The asking price was reportedly $300 a buildable foot. If it closes the deal, Gale International will be able to add three stories on top of the parking lot, which is leased out by Icon Parking. 

The deal was first reported by Crain’s New York. 

The site “is under contract, and we are expecting a closing in a couple of months,” said Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal, which was marketing the property and was involved in the sale.  Read More

By Carl Gaines 9/05/12 10:34am

Mortgage Observer

Steve Kenny.

Bank of America: Off to the Races

Training for a marathon while working a full-time job would be a challenge for anyone. But working up to that 26.2-mile mark while simultaneously doing your part to contribute to a nation-wide book of transactions that over the last 18 to 20 months included the origination of more than $20 billion in commercial real estate loans might pose its own set of challenges.

Steve Kenny, Bank of America’s commercial real estate banking executive for New York and New Jersey, is doing just that, though. And when he takes to the starting line for the ING New York City Marathon November 4 to set out on a course that will take him through all the five boroughs, the challenges he’ll face will in many ways be business as usual. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 7/24/12 11:13am

Lease Beat

sam ash

Sam Ash to Relocate to West 34th Street

Music store Sam Ash, a longtime mainstay on West 48th Street, is set to consolidate its flagship Manhattan stores into a new retail space at 333 W. 34th Street, it was announced this morning.

The music store will take a nearly 30,000 square foot space at the SL Green-owned building, as wasJeffrey Roseman and Gregg Gropper of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented SL Green in the lease deal.  Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 7/12/12 3:49pm

Market Reports

The International Gem Tower (photo courtesy of Extell Development)

NYC Construction Sluggish, Long-Term Outlook Looks Stronger

Manhattan should expect to see 2.1 million square feet in new office space under construction in 2012 with the arrival of 6 new buildings slated this year, the New York Building Congress announced Wednesday.

The 2012 numbers are a slight bump up from 2011, when the city added 1.8 million square feet in 7 buildings. But those numbers should dip in 2013, when the NYBC predicts 1.7 million square feet of space to be added to the market. Read More

By Carl Gaines 6/29/12 1:08pm

Nordstrom-a-rama

Derek Trulson

Nordstrom and Extell Development: Patience is a Virtue

It turns out that patience is virtue for both Nordstrom and Extell Development. When the retailer announced Thursday that it would be opening a 285,000-square-foot, 7-story store at 225 West 57th Street some time in 2018, it represented the culmination of ten to 15 years of searching. Meanwhile, developer Gary Barnett had been quietly assembling the parcel where the store will open for almost a decade.

In the end, the deal was pulled off thanks to a team from Jones Lang LaSalle, the firm’s Derek Trulson telling The Commercial Observer that real estate expertise, not retail expertise, paved the way. Read More

By Carl Gaines 6/28/12 2:11pm

retail beat

nordstrom-logo-wallpaper

Details on Nordstrom’s 225 West 57th Street Location

On the heels of The Commercial Observer’s report yesterday about all signs pointing to Nordtrom taking space at Extell Development’s project at 225 West 57th Street, the company said today that it has now finalized those plans. The store is projected to open in 2018 and excavation work could begin by the first quarter of 2013. When it opens, it will be the retailer’s New York flagship, and its first full-line store in the city. Read More