By Gus Delaporte 10:45am

Lease Beat

757 Third Avenue

Epiq Bankruptcy Leads Trio of New Leases at 757 Third Avenue

Epiq Bankruptcy Solutions, a case management and consulting firm specializing in Chapter 11 cases, has signed a 28,036-square-foot lease on the third and seventh floors of 757 Third Avenue, the largest of three recently announced leases at the RFR Realty property. Asking rents in the building range from the low $50s to low $60s per square foot.

Additionally, real estate developer Omni Development and Astoria Federal Savings and Loan Association have signed lease for 5,700 square feet and 5,284 square feet, respectively.

“The RFR team works tirelessly to provide an unsurpassed office environment for our tenants – from the upscale building amenities and thoughtfully crafted interiors to the assiduous attention to architectural detail,” said Aby Rosen, co-Founder and principal of RFR, in a statement. “The recent leases at 757 Third Avenue are further testament to the quality of our portfolio and attention to tenant services.” Read More

By Billy Gray 5/21 9:00am

ICSC 2013

1CO2400A0521

Minute By Minute: The First Day and a Half at the International Council of Shopping Centers RECon Expo

On Sunday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber made the fans squeal and the paparazzi snap. But just off the strip, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the real action got underway with the start of RECon. Below, The Commercial Observer’s
reconnaissance work at The Global Real Estate Convention, where 35,000 registered attendees are helping to shape the future of retail real estate. Read More

By Billy Gray 3:05pm

Lease Beat

345 Adams Street

345 Adams Street 100 Percent Occupied After Orange Leaf’s Cool 1,000-Square-Foot Deal

Orange Leaf signed a long-term, 1,000-square-foot lease at 345 Adams Street, giving the Downtown Brooklyn retail condo 100 percent occupancy.

Ariel Schuster and Brian Segall of RKF represented the landlord, Muss Development LLC. Henry Goldfarb, Stanley Lindenfeld and Adam Frisch of Lee & Associates represented the tenant.

This will be Orange Leaf’s first Brooklyn location. The fro-yo chain has six stores throughout Manhattan and Staten Island. The retailer will count other fast food outlets including Panera Bread and Potbelly as neighbors. The Texas barbecue joint Hill Country, which originated in Murray Hill, announced an 11,000-square-foot lease at 345 Adams earlier this month. Read More

By Michael Ewing 3/15 1:00pm

Lease Beat

Courtesy of Waiterpay

TGI Friday’s Relocates in Times Square

TGI Friday’s will be relocating its Times Square restaurant.

The popular chain restaurant will be moving to a 10,872-square-foot space at 147-149 West 46th Street from its current outpost less than a block away on the corner of Broadway and 46th Street, officials said.

“Their previous location at 1552 Broadway was sold and they were Read More

By Al Barbarino 12/20/12 7:30am

Year in Real Estate

New York City Exteriors And Landmarks

In 2012, Hospitals Expand Real Estate Footprints, from Brooklyn to Harlem

The city’s aging population, a drive for state-of-the-art facilities and strong hiring across the health care industry prompted unprecedented growth in leasing activity in the health care sector across the five boroughs in 2012.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Mt. Sinai, Montefiore Hospital and Inventa Health were among the dozens of hospitals and medical companies to announce bold new initiatives to expand their footprints in the city in 2012, and those developments are only a sign of what’s to come, brokers and analysts predict. Read More

By Michael Ewing 11/05/12 5:00pm

Lease Beat

Courtesy of Emporis

D. Brock Stays at 12 East 44th Street

D. Brock Inc. has renewed their lease in Midtown.

The company will continue to occupy the entire sixth floor that spans 2,500 square feet at 12 East 44th Street between Fifth and Madison avenues.

“Tenants that want rent under $50 per square foot and like exposed ceilings” are attracted to the building, said Mitchell Kunikoff, Read More

By Michael Ewing 11/05/12 1:00pm

Lease Beat

590-fifth

Shah Diamond Inks Deal at Fifth Avenue Gem

Shah Diamonds has inked a deal for an office at 590 Fifth Avenue.

The diamond and jewelry store will take 6,185 square feet of the ninth floor of 590 Fifth Avenue. The company has been in business since the 1970s and has expanded to employ more than 700 workers in three manufacturing facilities in the Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 7/17/12 3:20pm

retail beat

247 Bedford Avenue (photo courtesy of CoStar)

J Crew Eying Billyburg Spot at 247 Bedford Avenue

J Crew, the popular purveyors of all things preppy, are reportedly interested in taking a 35,000-square-foot retail space at 247 Bedford Avenue. 

The Bedford Avenue building that is situated between North 3rd and North 4th streets is part of “the Bedford portfolio” that sold for $66 million and is expected to be developed into 55,000 square feet of retail space, according to The Real Deal. 

Lee & Associates NYC are marketing the space and will be up for leasing in the next year. A partnership made up by Red Sky Capital and others bought the “Bedford portfolio” from The Backer Group in April. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 5/21/12 8:15pm

ICSC

lasvegas

The Commercial Observer’s Vegas Vacation

The annual ICSC retail conference has kicked off at the Las Vegas Convention Center, drawing more than 30,000 real estate professionals, including some of the country’s largest retailers, developers and real estate services companies. The event is widely considered the industry’s Super Bowl of networking and dealmaking. Though the conference started officially on Sunday, by Monday morning the convention center’s sprawling floors—which make the Javits Center seem pint-size—comes alive in earnest with crowds of retail professionals. Here are a few observations from the opening hours of the conference. —Daniel Geiger

8:30 – The Commercial Observer steps out into the cab line at The Palms to head to the convention center. In the queue are several other ICSC-goers. A man quickly steps from the pack and offers to split a cab. He’s in his 30s, from New Orleans, and says he runs his own brokerage company. He looks incredibly bleary-eyed and wears dark sunglasses. “I was out till 4 a.m. last night at XS,” he explains, purporting XS (pronounced excess) to be the best club in Vegas. The cab driver chimes in that pool parties have become a popular destination for fun-seekers. “They’re top-tional,” he says. The broker takes note. Where are the best parties? he asks. “The Cosmo,” the cabby replies. He has taken several fares to the conference so far: “It seems like a busy year,” he says. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 4/25/12 1:58pm

Career Moves

Bruce Mosler & Arthur Mirante at last year's Observer Power 100 Awards

Mirante Expected to Buoy Avison Young While Questions Linger for C&W

Arthur Mirante, a former CEO and high-profile broker at Cushman & Wakefield, is leaving the firm to become the tri-state president of Avison Young, the real estate services company announced this morning.

The move gives the firm, which has a sizable presence in Canada but is only a budding brand here, a big name in the Manhattan real estate services industry.

Mr. Mirante was C&W’s longest serving chief executive, guiding the firm from the mid 1980s until 2005 when he ceded the position to Bruce Mosler, who he later partnered with in 2010 to form a top level brokerage team. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 3/30/12 8:00am

The Lobby

John Wheeler, Jones Lang LaSalle.

Eastern Consolidated, Partner Engineering and Science, Lee & Associates and Jones Lang LaSalle

Jones Lang LaSalle has promoted John Wheeler to head the firm’s lower Manhattan office, it was announced this week.

Mr. Wheeler, who boasts nearly 30 years of commercial real estate experience, including the past 16 years with Jones Lang LaSalle, will oversee the lower Manhattan office while continuing to provide brokerage and advisory services to some of the firm’s most significant clients.

“John Wheeler was the natural choice to lead Jones Lang LaSalle’s activities in Downtown New York,” said Peter Riguardi, president of Jones Lang LaSalle’s New York region. “Lower Manhattan is one of the most important and challenging office submarkets in the tristate area, and our commitment to the area has never wavered. John is one of a very few individuals with the skill and expertise to oversee our work downtown, and to continue to expand on our track record of success there.” Read More