By Al Barbarino 4/23 8:00am

Lease Beat

650 Fifth Avenue

Metropolitan Real Estate Relocating to 650 Fifth Avenue

International investment advisory firm Metropolitan Real Estate is moving its New York headquarters from 135 East 57th Street to 650 Fifth Avenue, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The firm signed an 11-year lease for 11,289 square feet, taking the entire 29th floor of the 36-story, 382,500-square-foot office building located in the Plaza District on 52nd Street, on the northern edge of Rockefeller Center. 

“We are excited to add Metropolitan Real Estate to the growing list of excellent tenants at 650 Fifth Avenue,” said Dr. Houshang Ahmadi, president of the not-for-profit Alavi Foundation, the majority owner and managing partner of 650 Fifth Avenue Company. Read More

By Al Barbarino 4/03 7:45am

Lease Beat

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Schnipper’s Signs Lease at 570 Lexington

Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen has signed a lease to occupy 3,021 square feet of ground level retail and storage space at 570 Lexington Avenue, The Feil Organization announced today, confirming previous published reports that the fast-casual restaurant was eyeing the space.

Known for its burgers, fries, shakes and other old-fashioned American-style offerings, the restaurant will open in the fourth quarter of 2013, joining upscale restaurant Mr. K’s at the property.

“We wanted a tenant that would be an amenity for the building and the area,” said Brian Feil, VP of Leasing at the firm, in a statement.  “There are not a lot of fast-casual restaurants in the area and Schnipper’s will be perfectly situated to serve this prestigious Lexington Avenue corporate corridor.” Read More

By Billy Gray 4/01 7:00am

Tonight Moves

Jimmy_Fallon_By_Steve_Garfield

Once Johnny Carson’s Punchline, Seventh Floor 30 Rock Commissary to Be Home for Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show

The drama engulfing NBC’s morning programming is, for the moment, drowning out the beleaguered network’s late night personnel shift. But The Tonight Show’s move back to New York could set up where 30 Rockefeller Center employees ate lunch.

Sources within NBC’s 30 Rock headquarters tell The Commercial Observer that when Jimmy Fallon replaces Jay Leno as Tonight Show host—and returns the gabfest to Midtown after four decades in Burbank, California—the program will film in a studio constructed on the seventh floor, where an NBC commissary once made famous as a routine punchline for Johnny Carson was located until a few month ago. Read More

By Al Barbarino 3/26 7:30am

Sales Beat

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Comcast Seals its $1.3 B. Piece of 30 Rock

Comcast has closed on its $1.3 billion purchase of 1.3 million square feet of office and studio space at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, city records confirm.

The transaction was part of the media and communications giant’s $16.7 billion purchase of a 49 percent stake in NBCUniversal from General Electric, announced last month.

The location, the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center, is host to the property’s annual Christmas tree lighting and inspiration for the title of NBC’s television series “30 Rock.” Read More

By Al Barbarino 3/01 3:06pm

Lease Beat

650-fifth

Real Estate Firm TGM Associates Renews at 650 Fifth Avenue

TGM Associates, a New York-based investment advisory firm focused on multifamily properties, has renewed its 11,280 square-foot lease at 650 Fifth Avenue, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The firm takes the entire 28th floor of the 36-story, 382,500-square-foot office building located in the Plaza District on 52nd Street, on the northern edge of Rockefeller Center.

“The fact that an entity immersed in the real estate industry has continued its commitment in this building speaks volumes about the ownership and the manner in which business is conducted at 650 Fifth Avenue,” said CBRE’s Paul Haskin, who represented the landlord, 650 Fifth Avenue Company, with Robert Stillman and Zachary Freeman.  CBRE is the exclusive office leasing agent and property manager at the building. 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 1/16 10:00am

Lease Beat

650 Fifth Avenue

Korea-Based Hana Bank Renews 7,318 SF at 650 Fifth Avenue

Korea-based financial institution Hana Bank has signed a 10-year, 7,318 square-foot office lease renewal on the 15th floor at 650 Fifth Avenue, where ownership plans to reap the rewards of an ongoing capital improvement project.

The 36-story, 382,500 square-foot office building located in the Plaza District on 52nd Street, on the northern edge of Rockefeller Center, recently underwent an $11 million lobby renovation, completed in July.

“The building has always treated them well and we’re fortunate to retain them in the building,” said CBRE’s Paul Haskin, who represented owner 650 Fifth Avenue Company along with Robert Stillman and Zachary Freeman.  “I think they’re excited to stay, particularly given the renovations the owner has completed, as they continue to improve the property.” Read More

By Al Barbarino 1/16 7:00am

REBNY2013

Rob Speyer

IN-SPEYER-ING: Tishman Speyer President Rob Speyer on REBNY

In July, the Real Estate Board of New York announced that Rob Speyer, 43, president and co-CEO of Tishman Speyer, would succeed Mary Ann Tighe to become its youngest chairman ever. Stepping in this month, he is the third successive generation of his family to hold the post—also a first in the organization’s 117-year history. Though he might have a reputation as being media-shy, Mr. Speyer’s success in real estate is no secret—his company has completed $6 billion in new transactions and raised $4.5 billion of new equity since 2010. Mr. Speyer sat down with The Commercial Observer last week for a rare interview to discuss his new appointment, his agenda for REBNY in 2013, following in his father and grandfather’s footsteps, and the best way forward for New York City as global competition ramps up.  

Read More

By Billy Gray 12/05/12 7:15am

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43 Mercer vintage

On 10th Anniversary of First NYC Pop-Up, Retailers Look Back

It was a Los Angeles-based company inspired by Japanese shopping habits that brought pop-up retail to America. During a trip to Tokyo in 1999, Russ Miller witnessed the lengths to which the city’s famously voracious consumers would go to buy rare and limited-edition products.

Mr. Miller brought that mind-set back to L.A. with Vacant, “a retail concept and exhibition store” that would open shops only to close them as soon as they ran out of goods.

Discount retailer Target once again positioned itself as the funky anti-Walmart when it took over a 220-foot-long boat at Chelsea Piers for a two-week stay on the Hudson River that coincided with Black Friday in November of 2002. Vacant arrived in New York in February 2003, working with Dr. Martens on a pop-up space at 43 Mercer Street. Read More

By Michael Ewing 11/07/12 7:30am

Midtown

Rockefeller Center Boundaries.

Leasing Sluggish Along Sixth Avenue in Rockefeller Center Submarket

Built by the Rockefeller family in the 1930s, Rockefeller Center is one of the largest commercial real estate developments to be built in the past century. Initially spanning approximately two dozen buildings, 22 acres and over 8,000,000 square feet, the district has further expanded in recent years to include a few dozen additional buildings along the Sixth Avenue corridor.

“There has also been a significant slowdown of leasing along the Sixth Avenue corridor, particularly Class A leasing, where leasing in the first half of 2012 was about half the long-term average,” said Melissa Bazar, an executive director at Cushman & Wakefield. “Since the Sixth Avenue corridor is dominated by large corporate users and financial firms, we expect leasing to remain sluggish through the balance of 2012, below the long-term average.”

Inventory has increased from 9.3 percent to 10.5 percent this past year, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s third-quarter report. Read More

By Robert Sammons 10/03/12 7:30am

Stat of the Week

Print

Midtown Class A Rent Makes Leap

The Midtown Class A average asking rent, defying a rather weak leasing market, jumped 2.4 percent in the third quarter to close at $76.75 per square foot and is now at its highest since attaining $80.70 per square foot in January 2009.

It has risen in each of the three quarters thus far in 2012 and is up 8.3 percent year-to-date. Furthermore, each of the five Midtown submarkets has seen a rise this year (some quite substantially). Read More

By Laura Kusisto 5/31/11 6:28pm

Lease Beat

Madoff Victims’ Counsel Renews in Rockefeller Center

Baker Hostetler has renewed 120,000 square feet at 45 Rockefeller Plaza.

As The Observer reported in March, the world’s 85th-largest law firm, which represented Bernie Madoff’s victims in their search for lost treasure, was negotiating to lock down a deal back then. The firm initially subleased 100,000 square feet on the ninth, 10th and Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 3/15/11 6:44pm

Lease Beat

Lazard Takes More of 30 Rock

Already among Manhattan’s top tenants, in terms of space, Lazard, the financial advisory and asset management firm, has renewed its lease at Rockefeller Center, taking an additional 60,000 square feet. The 21-year renewal lease with Tishman Speyer for office space at 30 Rockefeller Plaza will bring the firm’s total square footage to a whopping 430,000 Read More

By Laura Kusisto 3/07/11 9:40pm

Prospective Tenants

Madoff Treasure Hunters Scavenging

Tishman Speyer and a major law firm are sharpening their skates for yet another high-stakes renewal duet at Rockefeller Center.

Baker Hostetler, the world’s 85th-largest law firm, which represented Bernie Madoff’s victims in their search for lost treasure, now occupies 100,000 square feet at 45 Rockefeller Plaza. But with its leases expiring Read More