By Al Barbarino 3/15 11:27am

Leasing Assignments

The Center Building

Madison Marquette Picks NGKF to Market Center Building in LIC

Madison Marquette has selected Newmark Grubb Knight Frank to market The Center Building in Long Island City, which city records show the firm and its partners purchased for $84.5 million late last year.

The 500,000-square-foot building at 33-00 Northern Boulevard, a former assembling plant for Ford Model T’s, hit the market last year when Brooklyn-based Hampshire Properties announced that it had concluded its renovation at the property.

At the time, The Real Deal reported that Hampshire had brought the property up to 100 percent occupancy, but that the lease of its anchor tenant, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, would expire in two years.

“There is undeniable value given The Center Building’s location, space and amenities,” said NGKF’s Howard Kesseler, who will represent ownership with Jordan Gosin, in a statement. Read More

By Al Barbarino 2/26 7:45am

Sales Beat

Entryway at 920 Broadway

Massey Knakal Arranges $87.5 M. Sale On Behalf of Yeshiva University

Massey Knakal has sold a portfolio of three office buildings on behalf of Yeshiva University for $87.5 million, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The 16-story, pre-war office building at 920 Broadway – in Midtown South’s Flatiron District – has roughly 110,000 rentable square feet and accounted for $58.5 million of the transaction.  It features 96 feet of footage on Broadway and 74 feet along East 21st Street and the corner building is zoned for office and residential development.

The 12-story block-through office building at 9 East 38th Street in the heart of Midtown has about 94,000 rentable square feet, with 47.5 feet of frontage along East 38th Street and 50 feet of frontage on East 39th Street.  A three story, 25-foot-wide adjunct building provides half of the frontage along 39th Street, with the two buildings netting the remaining $29 million of the transaction. Read More

By Al Barbarino 11/22/12 11:00am

Sales Beat

237-241 East 34th Street

Yeshiva University Lecture Hall Yields $15.5M Despite MTA Caveat

A former Yeshiva University lecture hall at 237-241 East 34th Street in Murray Hill has sold for $15.5 million, city records show.

A caveat in the potential for development at the site didn’t stop a series of potential buyers from lining up for a competitive bid to buy the property, said Massey Knakal’s John Ciraulo, who handled the sale along with Michael Azarian and Kobi Leifer.

Three developers courted the university, but a New York City-based firm with a long track record of building dormitory space ultimately prevailed, with plans to do the same at the Yeshiva site. Read More

By Eliot Brown 7/28/10 3:12am

Sick Transit

The Jay Train: M.T.A. Chief’s Tough Sell

The perennial attempt to hike subway and bus fares is one of the more ritualistic political dances in New York. Any leader of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority who ever tries logic (fares, adjusted for inflation, are virtually the same as in the mid-1990s) is inevitably met with a blast of criticism. Politicians decry the move. Read More

By Emily Geminder 3/08/10 9:39pm

M.T.A. Pulls Out the Stops for New 113K Feet at 333 West 34th

The M.T.A., never known for lightning-speed feats of renovation, recently announced a scaled-back strategy that involves tempering the verb “renovate” with the idea of “station renewal,” a process that may include repairing lights, signs and other individual subway components. Nevertheless, when it comes to office space, the M.T.A.’s new digs at SL Green‘s Read More

By Staff 1/19/10 5:13pm

The West Side Rail Yards—It’s Alive!

The Related Companies, the real estate giant that built the Time Warner Center, is nearing an agreement to  commit to building over the West Side rail yards, an oft-delayed project that could be Manhattan’s single biggest development.

The firm envisions $15 billion of new office, hotel and apartment towers on a 26-acre Read More