By Gus Delaporte 5/17 11:00am

Food & Drink

Four Seasons Grill Room 2

The Four Seasons Restaurant Faces Rent Hike

The Four Seasons Restaurant, home of the “power lunch,” is facing a six-fold rent increase when its current lease expires in 2016, The Huffington Post reported yesterday. The iconic New York eatery, which currently pays $19.74 per square foot, could be looking at rents of $125 per square foot for its 29,476-square-foot space inside the Seagram Building at 375 Park Avenue.

Documents viewed by the Huff Post indicate that as part of the owners’ $782.8 million mortgage deal, financed jointly by Citigroup and Deutsche Bank and being marketed to investors via commercial mortgage backed securities, bankers expect management at the property to begin charging the The Four Seasons market rents, which according to the documents are determined to be $125 per square foot. Read More

By Gus Delaporte 5/14 12:15pm

Lease Beat

757third

Sister Companies Expand at 757 Third Avenue

Sister companies Aerotek and TEKsystems have signed 10-year leases for 13,551 square feet and 15,115 square feet, respectively, at RFR Realty’s 757 Third Avenue, it was announced today. Asking rents at the property range from the low $50s to low $60s per square foot and the total value of the transaction is over $16 million, according to a press release.

“The RFR team always works hard to provide the best services and amenities that attract and retain the best quality tenants,” said Aby Rosen, co-founder and principal at RFR, in a prepared statement. “That’s the secret of our success here and throughout the RFR portfolio.” Read More

By Michael Ewing 4/26 2:00pm

Lease Beat

Courtesy of the Real Deal

Blue Mountain Capital Renews at 280 Park Avenue

Blue Mountain Capital has extended its lease and will expand at 280 Park Avenue.

The firm had previously occupied a 22,250-square-foot office on the fifth floor of the building where it has been located since 2007. It will relocate to the 12th floor of the building where employees will spread out across the entirety of a 49,541-square-foot floor plate. Read More

By Al Barbarino 3/14 10:50am

Sales Beat

images

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 Al Barbarino 2/11 1:39pm

Lease Beat

608 Fifth Avenue

Vornado Scoops Ground Lease at Art Deco Gem Swiss Center

Vornado Realty Trust has reportedly taken control of the ground lease at the landmarked 11-story Swiss Center at 608 Fifth Avenue, where the REIT is marketing 44,440 square feet of retail space across four of its floors.

Vornado took over RFR Realty’s mortgage on the property last March with an $8.5 million payment that RFR owed to another lender and signed the ground lease on the property with the family of the late Sarah Korein, which owns the land under the building, according to the New York Post. Read More

By Al Barbarino 12/07/12 12:53pm

Lease Beat

17 State Street

BATS Global Markets takes 7,234 Square Feet at 17 State Street

BATS Global Markets – a developer and operator of electronic platforms for securities trading in the United States and globally – has signed a 7,234-square-foot office lease at 17 State Street, in the heart of the Financial District, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The space makes up roughly half of the 32nd floor in the 42-story skyscraper, known for its distinct, curved facade, built in 1988 and designed by Emery Roth and Sons.  BATS Global Markets will be relocating from their 14 Wall Street location and will build out two sections of raw space on the floor. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 7/13/12 2:19pm

Lease Beat

Lever House

Third Point Signs Deal At Lever House

Third Point, the multi-billion dollar hedge fund managed by Daniel S. Loeb, is renewing its office and expanding at the high-end Park Avenue office tower Lever House in what would be one of the most expensive leases of the year on a per square foot basis.

The company, according to sources, occupies two floors and is renewing its hold on that space while adding another floor in a roughly 32,000-square-foot deal with rents around a whopping $140 per square foot. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 7/11/12 5:19pm

Sales Beat

90 Fifth Avenue

90 Fifth Avenue In Contract For $115 Million

90 Fifth Avenue is being acquired by the Atlanta based investment group Jamestown for $115 million sources have revealed to The Commercial Observer, a price that equates to a lofty over $800 per square foot.

The deal, if it closes, would finally end a years long effort to sell the 140,000-square-foot property, which is mostly Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 6/19/12 12:35pm

Lease Beat

syms

City National Bank Moving into Former Syms Park Avenue Space

City National Bank is taking the 45,000 square feet of the Park Avenue space that was formerly occupied by Syms Clothing.

The Los Angeles-based bank signed a 15-year lease for a combination of office and retail space at 400 Park Avenue, including a 5,400 square foot retail banking outlet on the corner of 54th and Park, as was first reported by The New York Post. 

City National Bank’s lease also includes 15,000 square feet on the second floor that will serve as a “dramatic two-story entrance,” said Phillip (Tod) Waterman III of Waterman Interests, the landlord principal of 400 Park Avenue. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 6/12/12 10:30am

Power Broker

Steven Kamali.

Steven Kamali: Broker to the Chefs

Nightlife and hotel impresario Steven Kamali had barely settled into a booth inside the Soho House last week when he was asked about his involvement with the well-known art gallerist Larry Gagosian’s rumored café at 980 Madison Avenue.

The question drew a nervous laugh from the 31-year-old Roslyn native, who for the past 10 years has left his distinctive mark on both the Manhattan and Hamptons hospitality scene. The question also caused a friend of his who had joined the interview to abruptly leave the booth, perhaps to let Mr. Kamali face the music alone.

“I can tell you we are consulting with the Gagosian Gallery, and we’re helping him curate a restaurant concept for their venue at 980 Madison Avenue,” said Mr. Kamali, in a tone so casual and cool it made us forget the uncomfortable moment minutes earlier. Read More

By Carl Gaines 6/04/12 11:47am

Sales Beat

130 Prince Street.

Invesco Acquires 130 Prince Street Property

130 Prince Street, which Waterman Interests and JP Morgan Asset Management-advised investors bought in 2007 for $112 million, has sold to Invesco Real Estate five years later for $140.5 million.

The 88,000-square-foot building is fully-leased and home to tenants M.A.C. Cosmetics, Lacoste and True Religion Jeans, with M.A.C. as the office space tenant.

Tod Waterman, founder and managing member of Waterman Interests, referenced the return that its investors will receive on 130 Prince Street and the firm’s desire to match the results as it continues “to grow the company in the Manhattan office market.” Read More

By Michael Ewing 4/09/12 9:00am

Lease Beat

275 Madison Avenue (Courtesy of NYC Architecture)

Hudson Ferry Capital Moves to 275 Madison Avenue

Hudson Ferry Capital, a private equity firm, will be moving up the street from 295 Madison Avenue to 275 Madison Avenue.

The old location was an irregularly shaped floor that provided poor lighting and space for some of the personal offices of the partners. Hudson Ferry Capital sought to “upgrade their office environment and occupy Read More

By Daniel Geiger 3/13/12 1:14pm

Sales Beat

520 Fifth

Thor Closes on $130 Million 5th Avenue Buy

Real estate investor Joe Sitt, chief executive of Thor Equities, has closed on the purchase 516, 518 and 520 Fifth Avenue, three office and retail buildings on the corner of 43rd Street, for $130 million from RFR Realty.

Thor Equities went into contract on the buildings in December last year, unveiling plans to demolish them and build a 290,000 square foot glass property in their place that would house 30,000-40,000 square feet of retail on its lower floors and a hotel upstairs. Read More

By Matt Chaban 1/17/12 5:20pm

Building Expectations

6 Photos

757 Third

Aby Rosen's Hidden Jewel

From the moment you walk through the doors of 757 Third Avenue, you know the building is different from the average, anonymous East Side office tower.

One of the lesser works of the monolithic Emery Roth & Sons—they of GM and Look and Pan Am buildings fame—757 Third is the typical wedding-cake office building. A banded obsidian glass curtain wall with those I-beam mullions, it is the sentinel we’ve seen before, cast ever so slightly anew in a thousand business districts the world over. Seagrams lite with a splash of Chase Manhattan.

That is why walking into, or really out of, 757 Third is such a dramatic experience. The 28-story building may have the nicest revolving doors in the entire city. Set into two curving, scythelike glass panels, the building’s egress does not really have an edge, and so when stepping out onto the street through those spinning doors, it is as though the building suddenly disappears. You have left the warm confines of this sleek building and are back on the cold New York City street. You might even stop to gasp at the trick if the door were not coming up behind you, about to deliver a smack in the toosh. Read More

By Janon Fisher 1/17/12 2:00pm

REBNY2012

Gerard Schumm, REBNY Honoree.

Gerard Schumm: George M. Brooker Management Executive Recipient

Real estate was never supposed to be a career for Gerard Schumm.

The executive vice president of RFR Realty always wanted to be a musician, a drummer to be exact. But while going to St. Francis College, he asked his father, who worked in the real estate game, to help him find a day job until the record companies came banging at his door. Read More