By Gus Delaporte 4/12 10:00am

The Plan

CO Page 38 - The Plan

Check Out Former Bear Stearns Space, Converted to Monday Properties Marketing Center at 230 Park Avenue

Built in 1929 by the same architects hired by the Vanderbilt family to construct Grand Central Terminal, 230 Park Avenue has been updated for modern tenancy.

LEED Gold rated and awarded an EPA Energy Star in 2008, the 1.4-million-square-foot property, owned by Monday Properties and Invesco and co-brokered by Jones Lang LaSalle, has been on the forefront of real estate sustainability practices and is the first prewar building in New York to receive those distinctions.

The 71,000-square-foot seventh floor, previously occupied by JPMorgan Chase and its predecessor Bear Stearns, has been redeployed as a marketing center to allow chief executives and other decision-makers the opportunity to see facilities in a predominantly raw space. Jordan Berger of Monday Properties spoke with The Commercial Observer about the space. Read More

By Gus Delaporte 3/28 10:50am

Lease Beat

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Clarion Partners Signs Direct Lease at 230 Park Avenue

Real estate investment management firm Clarion Partners has inked a 10-year lease, beginning in May 2014, for 71,000 square feet at 230 Park Avenue, it was announced yesterday. Asking rent for the space was in the mid-$60s per square foot.

Clarion, a former subsidiary of ING, is a long-term tenant in the building. The firm’s current occupancy agreement is as a subtenant of ING, according to Brian Robin, president and chief operating officer at Monday Properties, the landlord.

The new agreement is a direct lease of the building’s 12th floor. Currently, Clarion occupies the entire 12th floor and part of the 15th floor. Read More

By Al Barbarino 3/14 10:50am

Sales Beat

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RFR Pays $261.5 M. for 350 Madison Avenue

RFR Realty has purchased 350 Madison Avenue for $261.5 million, public records show and sources at the firm confirmed today.

The 25-story, 394,000-square-foot property, between East 44th and East 45 streets, hit the market just over a year ago and is anchored by classic clothing company Paul Stuart.

A source at RFR confirmed the purchase – and an adjacent retail property at 10 East 45th Street –but declined to provide further comment. Read More

By Billy Gray 12/11/12 7:45am

Lease Beat

1440broadwayext-med

Macy’s Expands, Renews For A Total 197,000 Square Feet At 1440 Broadway

Monday Properties announced the 31,700-square-feet expansion of Macy’s, Inc. at 1440 Broadway, the building Monday Properties owns and operates on the southern fringe of Times Square at 40th Street.

It was the storied 150-year old retailer’s third expansion in two years at the 25-floor office building, and gave it full occupancy of the 10th floor, which Advance Magazine Publishers had  subleased to Skadden Arps since 2006. CBRE Vice Chairmen Scott Gottlieb and Michael Laginestra represented the tenant, while Monday Properties Director Jordan Berger represented the owner. Read More

By Carl Gaines 9/11/12 4:16pm

Lease Beat

1430 Broadway.

Colliers International Arranges Two Law Firm Leases

Several law firms are moving offices in leases arranged by Colliers International.

Brandt Steinberg & Lewis will move from 386 Park Avenue South, which William Macklowe agreed to buy this summer for what Crain’s reported was between $110 and $120 million from a Savanna and Monday Properties joint venture. The firm will move to Steinberg & Pokoik Management’s 1430 Broadway. 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 Carl Gaines 7/26/12 7:00am

The Sit-Down

Michelle Walker. (Photo by Shravan Vidyarthi)

Cushman’s Michelle Walker Knows Difference Between Agency and Tenant Reps. But Which Does She Prefer?

Michelle Walker has stayed busy at Cushman & Wakefield, schooling herself on both landlord and tenant representation. It’s given her unique insight into the Manhattan markets that she covers, where dwindling supply can leave smaller tenants out in the cold and larger tech firms swallowing hard while reimagining their must-have lists. On the tenant side, she’s represented Sugar Publishing in its lease at Monday Properties’ 386 Park Avenue South. In fact, when The Commercial Observer caught up with her last week, she was rushing in from showing Sugar’s available sublease space at the building. Meanwhile, her landlord representation started with Harbor Group International’s 1412 Broadway, an assignment that taught her a lot about how landlords are leveraging their space in Times Square South. Hint: It takes guts. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 7/09/12 1:27pm

Lease Beat

230 Park Avenue (photo courtesy of CoStar)

Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston & Rosen P.C. Re-Ups At 230 Park Avenue

Law firm Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston & Rosen P.C. has re-upped its lease at 230 Park Avenue for an additional 15 years, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The firm, which represents financial institutions in such specialties as financing transactions and acquisitions, will remain on both the 29th and 30th floors for a total of 44,973 square feet at the Grand Central-area office tower owned by Monday Properties.

CBRE’s Lewis Miller, Matthew McBride, Michael Wellen and Russell Kempf represented Otterbourg in the deal. Monday Properties was represented in-house by Jordan Berger.

Asking rent was in the mid $70s-a-square-foot.  Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 4/18/12 9:30am

Lease of the Week

Ahisgett. (Courtesy Flickr)

Putting the ING in Leasing

A gilded landmark once owned by Helmsley-Spear, 230 Park Avenue offers two features prized by New York office tenants and commuters alike: great views and the relative ease of working near Grand Central.

This isn’t to say that all of those who work in finance live in New Canaan or Scarsdale. But 230 Park Avenue, and Midtown in particular, has always been favored by the kind of high-net-worth financial and legal tenants who, besides committing to 10-year offices leases in Manhattan, sign pricy residential mortgages on tree-lined suburban streets across Connecticut and upstate New York. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 2/14/12 2:00pm

Construction Outlook 2012

51 Astor Place.

Construction Financing is Back But, As Developers Are Learning, Equity is Key

Plenty of statistics point to the need for new office construction in Manhattan, and the city’s aging building stock isn’t least among them.

Indeed, no meaningful addition to the city’s roughly 400 million square feet of commercial space has been added to the skyline in two decades, raising questions as to whether it could face a shortage in the coming years, a situation that has pressured rental spikes in the past. For now, however, amid what appears to be at least a hiccup in leasing during the last quarter of 2011 and the opening quarter of this year—not to mention lingering concerns about the health of the economy—only the most intrepid developers have gone into the ground with projects. Read More

By Laura Kusisto 4/18/11 3:56pm

Lease Beat

Top-Tier Safety School Takes 10K-Plus Feet

Spring has sprung and the Helmsley Building has sprouted a creeping Ivy and a couple of new laurels.

Cornell University has taken a 10,550-square-foot chunk of 230 Park Avenue. The Ithaca-based university, which was already subleasing an 8,800-square-foot space in the building, will use its big-city spread to manage its endowment fund. The asking rent Read More

By Laura Kusisto 1/31/11 4:39pm

Lease Beat

Monday Fills Last Full Tower-Floor Space at 230 Park

230 Park Avenue

Perhaps the Empire State Building should take a cue from its smaller, glittering counterpart. After a decade-long push, the Helmsley building has filled its last full tower-floor space.

Pharmaceutical giant Novartis has taken 22,050 square feet, or the entire 21st floor, of the 34-story building for 15 years. The Swiss-based drug Read More

By Laura Kusisto 10/28/10 8:19pm

Lease Beat

Smaller Tenants Snap Up Space in Monday’s 230 Park

230 Park Avenue

It’s a small tenant’s world after all, as even giant 230 Park Avenue is on a roll with diminutive deals.

The country’s largest landlord, Simon Properties, recently inked a 12,000-square-foot lease in the 1.4 million-square-foot Helmsley Building. But Brian Robin, of landlord Monday Properties, told The Commercial Observer at the Read More