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 Stephen Kleege 10/23/12 7:45am

Lower Manhattan

City Hall submarket.

Sale of City Hall Buildings Snagged

A city proposal to sell three lower Manhattan buildings, potentially converting 750,000 square feet of outmoded office space into luxury housing or hotels, has run into objections from community representatives in the City Hall area, who argue that the plan should have included provisions for a school, community center or affordable housing.

The City Council’s subcommittee on planning, dispositions and concessions plans a hearing next week on the disposal of the properties at 22 Reade Street and 49-51 Chambers Street. Disposition of the third building in the package, at 346 Broadway, was approved in 1998. Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the sale in January as part of a drive to make the city more efficient by consolidating its office spaces. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 7/10/12 7:15am

The Sit-Down

Andrew Goldberg.

Andrew Goldberg, Broker Behind Trump Tower’s Gucci Deal, Thinks Retail is Ready to Splurge on the West Side.

Andrew Goldberg is a retail executive at CBRE, where he is one of the firm’s top brokers, representing both landlords and tenants. With Nordstrom’s deal on 57th Street, retail leasing has been the talk of the town. Of course, Mr. Goldberg is no stranger to big-time leasing deals, having brokered Gucci’s 50,000-square-foot flagship at Trump Tower in 2006, one of the most valuable retail deals ever done in Manhattan. Mr. Goldberg spoke with The Commercial Observer recently about last month’s huge Nordstrom deal, the Drake development site, Gucci and Westfield’s plans for the World Trade Center. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 6/19/12 5:08pm

Power 100

Gary Barnett, Among the Most Powerful Men in Real Estate.

The Commercial Observer’s Power 100 Gala, Minute by Minute, Drink for Drink

Can The Commercial Observer party at its own party? You bet! The CO got down at its annual Power 100 celebration, which honors its picks for the top 100 most powerful, influential and successful real estate figures in the city. Held at the Core Club in Midtown on Monday night, the gathering featured a collection of the most distinguished owners, brokers, executives and politicians. After the jump, a minute-by-minute color commentary on the city’s most powerful human beings. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 4/24/12 12:13pm

Lease Beat

Betting On Soho, Newmark Team Picks Up 40 Thompson

A leasing team from Newmark Grubb Knight Frank led by the company’s New York area president David Falk is taking over the agency assignment for 40 Thompson Street.

The building, though a small commercial property by most standards, adds to Mr. Falk’s growing body of work in Soho, an area that many leasing experts expect Read More

By Daniel Geiger 3/13/12 8:00am

Renderings

5 Photos

Conference Room

200 Lafayette Street Slideshow

Kushner Companies unveiled plans this week to turn 200 Lafayette Street into what officials there believe will be one of Midtown South’s most coveted office addresses.

 Mr. Kushner, a principal of the large real estate investment company Kushner Companies (and owner of both The Commercial Observer and The New York Observer), bought the roughly 150,000-square-foot building in partnership with the CIM Group in January for approximately $50 million. Mr. Kushner plans to pump significant capital to restore the over 100-year-old building’s classic aesthetic while refurbishing its space to house modern amenities and infrastructure. After a jump, a tour of the building through renderings obtained exclusively by The Commercial Observer. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 3/01/12 10:04am

Lease Beat

40 Wall Street

PFM Management Inks Deal at 40 Wall

Demand for space at 40 Wall Street continues to grow with news yesterday that the Trump Organization-owned building’s leasing agency signed financial advisory group PFM Management to a ten-year lease on the 49th floor of the office tower.

Public Financial Management, which does business as PFM Asset Management, is taking 9,263 square feet of turnkey space on the entire 49th floor of 40 Wall Street, brokers involved with the transaction exclusively told The Commercial Observer yesterday. Asking rents were in the low $40s. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 2/23/12 9:00am

Lease Beat

Broadway Dance Center.

Dance Center Pirouettes Into New Space

Broadway Dance Center has expanded its lease at 321 West 44th Street to about 30,000 square feet.

The school and studio, which has its entrance on the 230,000 square foot building’s 45th Street side entryway, which goes by the address 322 West 45th Street, offers both classes for beginners and workshops for seasoned dancers alike taught by acclaimed professionals. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 2/22/12 5:30pm

Agency Shifts

Nothing Sacred but the Truth.

Mirante’s Cushman Team Tapped as Leasing Agent at 321 44th Street

Kushner Companies has named a team from the real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield as the new leasing agent for 321 West 44th Street, the asset that houses The New York Observer.

Arthur Mirante, C&W’s former chief executive who is now a top dealmaker at the firm, will lead leasing at the property along with C&W executives Jeff Lichtenberg and Joshua Goldman.

C&W will be replacing a team from Colliers International.

Read More

By Daniel Geiger 1/24/12 11:08am

Postings

1173 REBNY 116th Annual Banquet, 1.19.12

Walking the REBNY Ballroom: Hungry Brokers, Angry Lapidus

Speeches were casually ignored, drinks were spilled and bonds were formed at last Thursday’s 116th annual Real Estate Board of New York Gala, which this year drew an estimated 2,000 brokers, owners, advertising buyers and real estate reporters to the New York Hilton for an evening of conviviality, honorifics and hushed deal making. Among the fray was Commercial Observer staff writer Daniel Geiger, who during the course of the evening saw his stenopad tossed by an irate real estate broker and who unabashedly accosted Studley’s Woody Heller in the hotel’s bathroom, all for the sake of the story. Below, a timeline of gala comings and goings, from the innocuous gossip down to the downright obnoxious.  Read More

By Matt Chaban 11/01/10 9:48pm

Lease Beat

Law Firm Lands 48K-Foot Lease at 666 Fifth Ave

Schiff Hardin traces its roots to Civil War Chicago, but since the 1970s, it has had a growing presence across the country, including its move to New York in 1991. Given its growing prominence, the firm is moving its headquarters to an apropriately handsome location, 666 Fifth Avenue.

The 28-attorney office, part of a 400-person Read More