By Gus Delaporte 5/15 9:00am

Postings

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Real Estate’s Biggest Philanthropists, Annotated

Last week, Stephen Ross, chairman of Related Companies, became the latest signatory of the Giving Pledge. The campaign, an effort to invite the world’s wealthiest individuals to pledge to donate half of their wealth—or more—to philanthropic causes, was started by two of America’s richest men: Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

Mr. Ross, worth $4.4 billion according to Forbes, is perhaps best known in philanthropic circles for his $100 million donation to the business school at the University of Michigan, his alma mater.

The donation, the largest ever to an American business school, resulted in its renaming as the Stephen M. Ross School of Business. Inspired by Mr. Ross’s pledge, The Commercial Observer checked in on the philanthropic efforts of other real estate titans. Read More

By Gus Delaporte 4/26 9:00am

Postings

CO 4-23 Postings Page 22

Changing of the Guard, Real Estate Style

T he turnover of leadership at New York’s venerable real estate organizations has been staggering. Since September, Stephen Ross of Related Companies, Michael Fascitelli of Vornado Realty Trust, Mort Zuckerman of Boston Properties, Larry Silverstein of Silverstein Properties and Bruce Ratner of Forest City Ratner have all announced their resignations from their current roles.

While all will stay involved with their respective companies in one form or another, the changing of the guard in New York real estate has been in full swing.

Below, The Commercial Observer highlights each of these men—and their replacements—along with the one that started the recent trend, Douglas Durst. Read More

By Al Barbarino 4/11 4:23pm

Lease Beat

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SAP Inks 115,000 SF Lease at Hudson Yards

SAP has inked a lease for 115,000 square feet of space at the South Tower of Hudson Yards, the developers of the 15-million-square-foot project on the far west side of Manhattan announced yesterday.

The announcement came along with news that L’Oréal leased 402,000 square feet for their U.S. corporate headquarters at the building, bringing the LEED Gold South Tower to more than 80 percent occupancy. Sources said the deals are for 15 years.

The companies join Coach, which agreed to pay a reported $750 million for its 740,000-square-foot global corporate headquarters in the tower in late 2011, after what Related’s president on the project, Jay Cross, called a three-year negation process.

“We are thrilled that global beauty and software powerhouses L’Oréal and SAP, along with Coach, Inc., will be locating at Hudson Yards,” said Stephen Ross, Related Companies’ Chairman, in a prepared statement.  “With construction already underway, we look forward to continuing to implement our ambitious vision for the defining development of the 21st Century and the new heart of New York.” Read More

By Al Barbarino 4/11 4:09pm

Lease Beat

(Credit: VISUALHOUSE)

L’Oréal USA Inks 402,000 SF Lease at Hudson Yards

L’Oréal USA has inked a 402,000-square-foot of space at the South Tower of Hudson Yards, the developers of the 15-million-square-foot project on the far west side of Manhattan announced yesterday.

Along with that announcement came news that SAP also leased 115,000 square feet on the top four floors of the building, bringing the LEED Gold South Tower to more than 80 percent occupancy.  Sources said the deals are for 15 years.

The companies join Coach, which agreed to pay a reported $750 million for its 740,000-square-foot global corporate headquarters in the tower in late 2011, after what Related’s president on the project, Jay Cross, called a three-year negotiation process.

“The confluence of three significant tenants committing to the building almost simultaneously is a testimonial to the belief in this project and its future,” said CBRE’s Stephen Siegel, who represented L’Oréal with Mike Geoghegan, Bill Hedman and Lauren Crowley Corrinet. Read More

By Al Barbarino 4/02 8:00am

The Sit-Down

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King of the Yard: Related’s Jay Cross on Reimagining the Far West Side

As president of the New York Jets, Jay Cross spent the first half of the 2000s immersed in the plans for the New York Sports and Convention Center on the Far West Side. The plan collapsed and the Jets’ focus shifted to the Meadowlands, but Mr. Cross kept eager watch on the Mass Transit Authority’s bid to find a new developer.

After Stephen Ross purchased the Miami Dolphins in 2008, Mr. Cross found himself fatefully reacquainted with Related’s founder and chairman through an assigned seating arrangement at an NFL owners’ meeting, setting the stage for Mr. Cross’s eventual role as president of Related Hudson Yards.

“The Jets always sat beside the Dolphins at these meetings, so I was sitting beside Stephen,” Mr. Cross said. “He asked me how I was getting home. He flew me home and said, ‘You should come and run this project for us.’”

Here’s what Mr. Cross had to say about the 26-acre, 15-million-square-foot mixed-use project that he began orchestrating on Manhattan’s Far West Side in the summer of 2008.  Read More

By Billy Gray 3/27 2:21pm

Tantrums

Christine Quinn

Christine Quinn Decries “Sick, Sexist” Hudson Yards Critic in 2002 Phone Messages

As a page one New York Times story about Christine Quinn‘s short temper made the rounds yesterday, a recording of the mayoral candidate’s feisty voice mails from 2002 was uploaded to YouTube.

Ms. Quinn left the messages for a Hell’s Kitchen resident who opposed area developments including Hudson Yards (now under construction) and the West Side Stadium (long since jettisoned). The recipient spread his criticism to Ms. Quinn, who as district three representative did not personally attend a December 17, 2002 press conference condemning the projects. Read More

By Carl Gaines 2/06 9:36am

Mortgage Observer

Rosemary Vrablic.

Deutsche Bank’s Rosemary Vrablic and Private Banking’s Link to CRE Finance

Got a chunk of change lying around? With a book of business north of $5.5 billion, Rosemary Vrablic, a managing director in the asset and wealth management division at Deutsche Bank, can help.
Private banking is loosely defined as personalized financial services offered by banks to their high-net-worth clients. And the top providers are largely holding steady, according to 2011 year-end results from U.K.-based private wealth management consultancy and research firm Scorpio Partnership. Read More

By Al Barbarino 12/20/12 7:45am

Year in Real Estate

East Coast Begins To Clean Up And Assess Damage From Hurricane Sandy

Above and Beyond Hurricane Sandy

FEMA spokesperson William Rukeyser described the ad-hoc, jumbled feel of the company’s impromptu space in the Forest Hills Tower like a scene from a hard-hit neighborhood, with hanging wires, antennas strapped to the ceiling, Post-It notes and sheets of paper with various instructions scattered about, and impromptu folding tables holding printers and other office equipment. Most seemed at a loss for words when assessing damages.

“It’s—It’s—It’s just a mess,” Durst Organization spokesperson Jordan Barowitz told The Commercial Observer less than a week after the storm hit, struggling to describe the destruction in Lower Manhattan. Read More

By Karsten Strauss 12/04/12 1:14pm

Groundbreaking

A rendering of the Hudson Yards complex towers.

Hudson Yards Breaks Ground for South Tower

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was on hand Tuesday as Related Companies broke ground on the first of what will be a string of buildings in the Hudson Yards development on Manhattan’s midtown west.

Related founder – and Miami Dolphins owner – Stephen Ross, called the project the “most ambitious construction project in the history Read More

By Carl Gaines 9/10/12 2:50pm

The Lobby

Jeff Blau.

Blau in as CEO, as Related Shakes Up Executive Structure

The Related Companies has a newly-structured executive committee, which sees company founder and CEO Stephen Ross move into the role of executive chairman.

Former president Jeff Blau has ascended to the role of CEO at the company. He’s been with Related for 22 years and had served as president since 2000. Meanwhile, Bruce Beal, Jr. will move into the president slot and Kenneth Wong, who rejoined the company in 2008, has been named COO. Mr. Beal, with Related since 1995, was previously executive vice president. Read More

2:09pm

Lease Beat

A rendering of the South Tower

Coach Adding 150,000 SF to Hudson Yards

Coach, the purveyor of luxury leather goods, has agreed to add 150,000 square feet to its already sizable footprint at the South Tower at Hudson Yards, The NY Post reports.

All told, the deal would give Coach 750,000 square feet in the Related Cos. building, making the luxury brand the anchor tenant in the Hudson Yards development. Read More

By Carl Gaines 5/08/12 7:00am

Power 100

Marc Holliday and Andrew Mathias.

The REIT to Beat: SL Green’s Holliday, Mathias, Named Most Powerful

It was April 23, two days before SL Green’s first-quarter 2012 earnings were announced, and chatter was reaching a fever pitch: Would Viacom, which occupies about 1.3 million square feet at SL Green’s 1515 Broadway, choose to renew its lease or opt to follow its Times Square cousin Condé Nast in taking space in Downtown Manhattan? Read More