By Billy Gray 3:13pm

Assignments

Renderings of the new Pier 17

RKF Named Exclusive Leasing Agent for 365,000 SF South Street Seaport Retail

The Howard Hughes Corporation named a team from RKF the exclusive leasing agent and consultant on the recently approved South Street Seaport redevelopment.

RKF Chairman and CEO Robert K. Futterman, Executive Vice President Karen Bellantoni and Tess Jacoby will represent Hughes Corp. on this pivotal project, which will bring 365,000 square feet of retail, dining and entertainment space to a Seaport shellacked by Superstorm Sandy last fall. Read More

By Karsten Strauss 1/08 7:00am

4Q12

4Q12 for web

Weathering the Storm: 4th Quarter Leasing Saw Improvements

T

Times of change and uncertainty are always worrisome for investors—fear takes hold, spending is called into question and valuations become unpredictable.

Mix an election season with the impending threat of a potentially devastating fiscal cliff, then throw in a destructive, rogue tropical storm named Sandy, and you’ve created an environment that is not conducive to a stellar business quarter for the commercial market.

However, thanks to tax law-motivated sales and retail—as well as a handful of big end-of-year leasing deals—the fourth quarter ended on a relatively positive note, despite a slowdown in leasing activity. Read More

By Karsten Strauss 12/12/12 8:45am

Bowery is fast becoming a retail hotbed. (image: Peter Guthrie on Flickr)

Retail Run on Bowery

Much has been made of the metamorphosis of the Bowery from one time skid row to trendy runway. Boutique hotels, apartment buildings, the New Museum and residential developments have landed and it seems retail is realizing the street’s potential.

“I really think it’s coming together down there,” said Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of the retail Read More

By Karsten Strauss 12/10/12 2:59pm

ICSC

Adelaide Polsinelli, senior director at Eastern Consolidated

ICSC: Lessons Learned and Shopping Hotspots

The International Council of Shopping Centers’ (ICSC) New York conference is over. Meetings were held, retailers were courted, flirtations between players crackled with possibilities. The Commercial Observer asked three experienced New York brokers what they learned at the conference and where the city’s retail hotspots are. This is what they said…

West Side Story

“With Read More

By Billy Gray 12/05/12 7:00am

ICSC2012

Futterman for web credit Daniel M. WEiss

Retail Redux: Robert K. Futterman on ICSC, Hurricane Sandy and More

In the merely 13 years since its founding, the retail real estate brokerage Robert K. Futterman & Associates has been responsible for $20 billion worth of transactions. The firm’s chairman and chief executive, Robert K. Futterman, has helped tenants and landlords sign the dotted line on $10 billion worth of deals while making his company a presence in New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New Jersey and San Francisco.

Mr. Futterman spoke to The Commercial Observer as he wrapped up prep work for the International Council of Shopping Centers’ chaotic New York conclave, sharing his thoughts on the past year and future of retail real estate, the rebound from Hurricane Sandy and Downtown’s increasingly amorphous boundary. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 5/23/12 11:00am

RECon: Las Vegas

Karen Bellantoni.

With 20 Years of ICSC Conventions Under Her Belt, RKF Veteran Karen Bellantoni Reigns Supreme in Vegas

Robert K. Futterman & Associates executive vice president Karen Bellantoni has attended the International Council of Shopping Centers’ RECon event in Las Vegas at least 20 times in her 25-year career, and she has seen the event blossom into a gigantic gathering of retailers and retail brokers from across the country. Ms. Bellantoni, who has represented Apple and Kiehl’s, spoke to The Commercial Observer about years past. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 12/07/11 2:30pm

Power Broker

Robert Cohen.

Robert Cohen / Robert K. Futterman

As Soho continues its 20-year transformation from bohemian enclave to luxury retail bazaar, brands like Apple and Uniqlo have added to the neighborhood’s near impenetrable aura of luxury and glitz by converting old spaces into fashionable shopping destinations.

But simply boasting a Soho address isn’t always enough for some retailers.To M.A.C. Cosmetics, which operated a storefront on 113 Spring Street for more than 15 years, foot traffic appeared enviously higher throughout the nearby Broadway corridor.

“They were definitely leaving some money on the table by not having all the footfall that Broadway provides,” said Robert Cohen, 39, a Robert K. Futterman & Associates retail broker who represented M.A.C. Cosmetics in its move earlier this year to Broadway. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 12/07/11 1:30pm

ICSC

After Hours: Real Estate Brokers Look For After-After-After ICSC Party

It’s ICSC week in New York City and while many in the retail business consider the event secondary to the larger conference held by the organization in Las Vegas each May, for many Manhattan real estate brokers, the conference is the most important of the year—and not necessarily just because of its jam-packed daytime roster of speakers and seminars.

In establishments from the New York Times’s four-star-rated Del Posto to the Dream Hotel in Lower Manhattan, buttoned-up retail brokers will be wining and dining potential clients during a two-day orgy of after-hour soirees, dinners and suds-soaked meetings, all designed with the deal in mind. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 12/14/09 6:21pm

Shop Pop

The Commercial Observer: Considering the holiday season, is this time of year nerve-wracking for you?
Mr. Futterman: I wouldn’t describe it as nerve-wracking. It’s better than last year at this time, I’ll tell you that much. Last year seemed really dead, really quiet. We just had the [International Council of Shopping Centers] convention in New Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 11/12/09 10:51pm

Trader Joe’s Stakes Claim on Sixth Avenue

Trader Joe’s, oh ye of endless lines, Hawaiian shirts, eerily pleasant staff, and to-die-for chipotle-flavored hummus, finally you’re coming to Sixth Avenue!

The store has signed a lease for the retail space at the handsome Mattel Building at 675 Sixth Avenue, the storefront formerly occupied by Barnes & Noble, according to an industry source. Read More