By Al Barbarino 2/25 11:01am

Renovation and Repositioning

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Brodsky to Renovate 157 Columbus Avenue Following Disney Departure

The Brodsky Organization is renovating and repositioning 157 Columbus Avenue following the departure of longtime tenant Walt Disney Co., The Commercial Observer has learned.

The renovation is the first at the Upper West Side office building since it was built 30 years ago, in 1983 – the same year Walt Disney signed its lease there.

Ownership hired architecture firm Davis Brody Bond LLP to design the new lobby, elevator cabs, bathrooms, and upgraded building infrastructure, while a team from Cushman & Wakefield will resume its leasing efforts on the roughly 70,000 square feet of available space after the renovations, expected to conclude this summer, are complete. Read More

By Carl Gaines 11:02am

Mortgage Observer

Rick Lyon.

Capital One Grows, Minus Pains

Capital One Bank has grown steadily since it was founded by current chairman, CEO and president Richard Fairbank in 1993. Along the way it grew from a mono-line credit card company funded through the capital markets into a more diversified entity with commercial and consumer banking. It managed to make Visigoths funny and capitalize on Alec Baldwin’s Words With Friends meltdown, while simultaneously deepening its reach into lines of business like commercial real estate.

The bank as a whole had $294.5 billion in loans outstanding and $216.5 billion in deposits as of March 31, 2012, according to its first quarter 2012 results. The commercial and multifamily real estate portion of this increased when comparing year-end results recently as well—rising to $15.4 billion for the period ended Dec. 31, 2011 from $13.4 billion the previous year. Read More

By The Real Estate Desk 8/20/10 5:29pm

Fordham Wins One in Lincoln Center Expansion

A set of persistent neighbors opposed to Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus have failed to block the school from expanding through a court case.

As with most every major controversial development, the opponents of the expansion—chiefly residents of the Alfred, a condo tower that shares a superblock with Fordham’s campus—filed a suit in court to Read More