By Billy Gray 4/17 1:37pm

Lease Beat

Looking_Up_at_Empire_State_Building

LinkedIn Leases 31,196 Square Feet at Empire State Building

LinkedIn inked a full-floor deal for 31,196 square feet at the Empire State Building, bringing its total footprint there to 109,719 square feet.

Sacha Zarba led a team from CBRE representing the tenant. William Cohen and Ryan Kass of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented the landlord, Malkin Properties. The social networking site became a direct tenant in the Midtown landmark in 2011, with 31,742 square feet on the 25th floor. It has since expanded to the 23rd, 24th and 39th floors. Read More

By Alessia Pirolo 11/02/12 4:16pm

Lease Beat

Empire State Building.

LinkedIn Expands its Office at Empire State Building

LinkedIn, the social network for work professionals that boasts more than 187 million members across 200 countries, is expanding its New York office space in the iconic Empire State Building. The company has inked a 10-years lease for 40,781 square feet of space on the 23rd floor of the building, where it is reaching a total occupancy of 72,523 square feet. The asking rent for the new space was $51 per square foot. Read More

By Michael Ewing 9/09/12 7:20am

Lease Beat

Empire State Building Welcomes Safe Banking Systems

Safe Banking Systems has inked a deal at the Empire State Building to open their first New York office.

Headquartered in Mineola, New York, The anti-money laundering and compliance solutions specialist firm will close their office in Maplewood, New Jersey in favor of opening a 5,384 square foot office in the city.

“[SBS] was mostly Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 9/04/12 12:01pm

Lease Beat

Empire State Building (photo courtesy of CoStar)

Kaltex North America Grows in Empire State Building

Kaltex North America will be expanding inside the Empire State Building, taking 5,946 square feet to grow its total footprint to 41,879 square feet. 

The company, which is an affiliate of Mexican textile company Grupo Kaltex, will now have the entire 70th floor and a portion of the 71st floor in the iconic building, as was first reported by The New York Post.

Chip Conklin, Michael Goldman and Dan Posy, all of Studley, represented Kaltex North America in the deal. William Cohen, Ryan Kass, and Shanae Ursini of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented Malkin Properties, the landlords of The Empire State Building (350 Fifth Avenue).  Read More

By Michael Ewing 7/16/12 7:30am

Lease Beat

Courtesy of Wikipedia

LinkedIn Grabs 10K In Empire State Building

LinkedIn is set to expand 10,400 square feet on the 24th floor in the Empire State Building.

“Their sales force is expanding in New York City and they are out of space on their main floor,” Sacha Zarba, a senior vice president ofCBRE explained.

LinkedIn initially moved into the building in 2010 and has maintained Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 6/05/12 8:30am

Lease Beat

292 Madison Avenue (photo courtesy of CoStar)

QlikTech Grabs Pre-built Space at 292 Madison Avenue

QlikTech, a maker of business intelligence software, will be taking an entire pre-built office space on the 18th floor of 292 Madison Avenue, The Commercial Observer has learned.

QlikTech beat out a hedge fund for the pre-built space, which is sized at 6,035 square feet and priced at an asking price of $55-a-square-foot, said those close to the deal. The lease is for seven years.

William Cohen of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented Marciano Investment Group, the owners of 292 Madison Avenue. A brokerage team from Jones Lang LaSalle represented QlikTech in the deal. Herald Square Properties manages the building on behalf of ownership.

QlikTech becomes the second notable tech company to move into the newly refurbished 292 Madison Avenue, which has been actively pursuing technology firms since the Marciano Investment Group bought into the building’s ground fee and mortgage in 2011.

FiftyOne ECommerce took the 17th-floor pre-built space, also sized at 6,035 square feet, in March. FiftyOne ECommerce also has a fifth-floor space in the building, with a total footprint at 17,148 square feet.

QlikTech is replacing a law firm that moved out of the 18th-floor space after its lease expired. Read More

By Michael Ewing 5/28/12 8:30am

Lease Beat

1040 Sixth Avenue (Courtesy of NYREJ)

Dorma Group Opens Sixth Avenue Showroom

Dorma Group North America will be opening its first New York showroom at 1040 Sixth Avenue.

The firm will be taking a 8,400 square foot unit on the 22nd floor of the 24-story, 300,000 square foot historic Art Deco building. The asking rent was $52 per square foot and the lease was set for ten Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 5/23/12 11:35am

Lease Beat

500 Fifth Avenue (photo courtesy of CoStar)

Lankler Siffert & Wohl Takes 10 Years, 27,872 sq. ft at 500 Fifth Avenue

Lankler Siffert & Wohl, a law firm that specializes in civil litigation and white-collar criminal cases, has agreed to renew and expand its lease at 500 Fifth Avenue, growing to a total of 27,872 square feet, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The firm, which has been in the Bryant Park office building for 25 years, renewed its lease for 22,753 square feet on the 33rd and 34th floors of the building while tacking on an additional 5,119 square feet on the 35th floor.

Harry Blair and Sean Kearns, two Cushman & Wakefield brokers who act as the exclusive leasing agents in the building, represented the owner, 500 Fifth Ave. Inc.

Ryan Kass and William Cohen of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented Lankler Siffert & Wohl LLP. Messrs. Kass and Cohen were not immediately available for comment. A partner at Lankler Siffert & Wohl did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new lease is for 10 years. Average asking rents for the three floors was $69-a-square-foot.

In a statement, Mr. Blair said that Lankler Siffert & Wohl wanted to remain in 500 Fifth Avenue. Read More

By Janon Fisher 4/17/12 8:00am

Marketwatch

Midtown Manhattan

The Heart of Manhattan: Why Midtown is Starting to Make Sense, Again

Midtown is starting to matter again.

At least that’s the view to take from commercial real estate deals like Japanese financial firm Nomura Holding’s $60-per-square-foot, 20-year lease for a plush 47-story headquarters at 825 Eighth Avenue.

The arrival of a Japanese multinational at the Worldwide Plaza property embodies the roller-coaster ride of the Midtown office market over the past five years. It was bought by Harry Macklowe for $1.7 billion in 2007, only to be sold at a 60 percent discount two years later in a fire sale that saw George Comfort & Sons snatch it up for $600 million in 2009 when the building was half vacant. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 2/14/12 12:30pm

Lease of the Week

Something's a-brewing at 622 Broadway.

Take-Two Interactive Throws Another Coin in the Slot at 622 Broadway

When Take-Two Interactive, the video game giants behind such popular and violently lurid titles as Grand Theft Auto and  Max Payne, had a few years remaining on its lease at 622 Broadway, the landlord, Yuco Management, found itself in a curious position.

Should Yuco Management aggressively market the 69,000 square feet of space Take-Two had called its own since 2002, thereby losing its anchor tenant? Or should it do anything it could to keep Take-Two, which had in some ways branded 622 Broadway as a distinctly hip and colorful office building, especially with its endless parade of behooded video game designers and executives?

“It’s the unique building where people don’t wear suits and ties and ride bicycles to work with their dogs,” said William Cohen, an executive vice president and principal at Newmark Knight Frank, who was hired alongside colleague Mark Weiss by Yuco Management to help decide the next best move. “I’m not kidding,” Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 1/19/12 9:00am

Recognition

Lance Korman.

Korman, Kass, Honored at NKF Awards

In a scene reminiscent of the Oscars, Newmark Knight Frank’s Executive Managing Director Lance Korman learned he had won the national brokerage firm’s “Top Producing Broker of the Year” accolade on the very night of the awards ceremony. Read More