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By Gus Delaporte 5/15 9:00am

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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 5/09 9:00am

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Riding the Real Estate Investment Trust Roller Coaster

This week, Malkin Holdings cleared a major hurdle in its quest to list its portfolio, which includes the Empire State Building, as a $1 billion real estate investment trust.

Should the Malkins list in the near future, they’ll be doing so as the market approaches the heights of last decade, when share prices for various REITs skyrocketed before a downfall in early 2009, when the market bottomed out. Of the REITs examined by The Commercial Observer, all experienced significant declines between 2008 and 2009, and all but one have failed to regain their former highs.

Below, a selection of some of the country’s largest REITs, including their respective gains, losses and recoveries, as well as their current share prices as of Monday’s close. Read More

By Gus Delaporte 5/02 9:00am

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Power 100 Heat Map

From a Taconic Investment Partners project in Hunts Point to the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, power in New York real estate circles has increasingly expanded from the comfortable confines of Midtown Manhattan to the fringes of all five boroughs. While large developments such as the Related Company’s Hudson Yards often dominate the conversation, Brooklyn, Queens and even the Bronx continue to grow in stature.

Long Island City is fast becoming a focal point for the real estate industry as Rockrose and other residential developers tap into the growing Queens neighborhood. In the Bronx, Taconic Investment Partners, formerly the owners of 111 Eighth Avenue, is in the process of a significant capital improvement plan at the BankNote Building on Lafayette Avenue in Hunt’s Point.

Below, a sampling of where power thrives in New York City in 2013. Read More

By Gus Delaporte 4/29 3:30pm

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Forest City Ratner Continues to Reshuffle, Names Berliner COO

David Berliner has been named chief operating officer of Forest City Ratner Companies, it was announced earlier today. Mr. Berliner had formerly been serving as general counsel for the development company.

“David has long been a valuable member of the executive team with a thorough knowledge of the entire company,” MaryAnne Gilmartin, newly-appointed president and chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement. “As Chief Operating Officer, he will be a key member of my leadership team and a great partner as I take over the day-to-day responsibilities of the company.” Read More

By Gus Delaporte 4/26 9:00am

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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 Billy Gray 4/19 10:00am

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The Commercial Observer Real Estate Quiz

Every so often—like now, the beginning of spring—we at The Commercial Observer strive to unearth long forgotten trivia buried somewhere in the annals of New York City real estate history.

In this week’s issue, we’ve dug up questions spanning technical minutiae, the stomping grounds of a young Martin Scorsese (pictured) and, of course, a little History 101 that should be familiar to real estate professionals young and old. Below, Commercial Observer staff writer Billy Gray provides the questions and answers. Read More

By Gus Delaporte 4/12 9:00am

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Midtown South, Northbound Rents

Midtown South has continued its meteoric rise, overshadowing the traditional office market in Midtown. Demand remains strong in the market, where more than 12 million square feet of space has been leased in the past three years.

As large tech tenants like Google—which subleased 83,000 square feet at Chelsea Market in the last quarter—continue to snap up space, the market only stands to continue its growth.

Jonathan Mazur, director of research at Cushman & Wakefield, spoke with The Commercial Observer last week to shed light on some of the key numbers from the firm’s recent Midtown South office market report for the first quarter of 2013. Read More

By Gus Delaporte 4/05 9:00am

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Midtown Leasing Remains Below 10-Year Average

Lately overshadowed by neighboring Midtown South, the Midtown market is feeling the pressure. Year-to-date leasing remains below the 10-year average, and vacancy rates have been stagnant for the past two years.

Jonathan Mazur, director of research at Cushman & Wakefield, spoke with The Commercial Observer last week to shed light on several of the more significant numbers from the firm’s February Midtown office market report, ahead of the brokerage firm’s release of its quarterly statistics, set for later this week. Read More

By Gus Delaporte 3/28 9:00am

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The Nonprofit Heat Map

Nonprofit and public-sector leasing experienced a large jump in deal size in 2012, according to a recent report authored by Robair Reichenstein, managing director at Cassidy Turley. Though nonprofits closed a similar number of deals in 2012, the total leased space of 4.2 million square feet represented a 64 percent increase.

“Larger, more sophisticated public-sector institutions have leased on average larger spaces,” Mr. Reichenstein told The Commercial Observer last week.

Government agencies and departments were the most active market participants, according to the report. Two of the largest leases were the NYC Law Department’s renewal and expansion of more than 505,000 square feet at 100 Church Street and the city’s Human Resources Administration renewal of a 302,000-square-foot lease at 330 West 34th Street. The two largest leases are indicative of the city’s value areas. “The two places in Manhattan where the best values are are in lower Manhattan and near Penn Station,” Mr. Reichenstein noted.

Nonprofits are also being pushed out of Midtown South as technology and media companies continue their growth in the neighborhood. “What you see is that this year, for the first time, Midtown South is showing a lack of activity,” Mr. Reichenstein added.

Below, a look at nonprofit deals inked in Manhattan in 2012. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 9:00am

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Lower Manhattan, By the Numbers

While the story in Midtown South over the past two years has inarguably been Class B and, to a lesser extent, Class C buildings and their increasing cachet among tech startups, the story in lower Manhattan is still all about Class A properties. With approximately five million square feet of new inventory coming online next year with the completion of 1 World Trade Center, the market will boast some of the most efficient and modern space in all of Manhattan.

More immediately, however, approximately two million square feet of space at the World Financial Center is expected to be made available by next month, thanks to lease rollovers by Nomura and Deloitte, among other major tenants. With such availability of Class A space, no wonder the asset class saw a 30 percent uptick in leasing from last February. Jonathan Mazur, director of research at Cushman & Wakefield, clued The Commercial Observer in on some other big statistical changes in lower Manhattan last week and gave us a sense of what’s to come in 2013. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom and Gus Delaporte 3/14 10:00am

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Had Today’s Occupancy Trends Existed in 1967, Mad Men’s Don Draper Would Have Worked Remotely From Home

The New York commercial real estate market has undergone an impressive recovery since a devastating collapse in 2008. Since 2009, in fact, the city’s office employment numbers are up 9.5 percent and occupancy rates are up 3.3 percent. Meanwhile, overall asking rents are up 20.7 percent from 2010. Occupancy trends are changing from their precrash levels, however.

Read More

By Gus Delaporte 3/11 11:20am

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Owen Thomas to Replace Mort Zuckerman as Boston Properties CEO

Owen Thomas will succeed Mortimer Zuckerman as chief executive of real estate investment trust Boston Properties on April 2, it was announced today. Mr. Thomas will also join the firm’s board of directors, while Mr. Zuckerman will remain in his role as executive chairman.

Mr. Thomas is a 25-year real estate industry veteran and has been serving as chairman  of Lehman Brothers Holdings since March 2012. Mr. Thomas has presided over a number of transactions while with Lehman, including the $15 billion sale of Archstone Enterprise LP to Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities. Prior to Lehman Brothers Holdings, Mr. Thomas served in a number of roles during a 20-year career at Morgan Stanley, including head of real estate and chief executive officer of Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 3/08 9:00am

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Accounting Firms, By the Numbers

As we all know and dread, it’s tax season. Between that and the sustained political brouhaha over tax reform and the series of fiscal cliffhangers in Washington, it’s a wonder any of the accountants The Commercial Observer contacted had time to speak with us for our semiannual accounting issue.

But the experts were happy to chime in about a range of accounting matters currently affecting the real estate industry. It’s also not surprising given, each accounting firm’s workload, that the industry is rapidly expanding in New York.

Last year, Deloitte relocated to a 430,000-square-foot office at 30 Rockefeller Plaza while many of the city’s other top firms grew their employee ranks, possibly signaling future land grabs. Below, a breakdown of firms making the biggest moves. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 9:00am

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The B Team: The Biggest Occupancy Shifts in Class B and Class A Buildings

For the first time in recent history, the availability rate across Manhattan’s stock of Class B buildings is lower than that of their Class A counterparts, suggesting a flight to value, propelled in part by the latest wave of technology startups and media companies looking for affordable space. Indeed, at 10.6 percent, the current availability rate for Class B space is 170 basis points less than the Class A rate of 12.3 percent, according to Richard Persichetti of Cassidy Turley.

With Cassidy Turley’s help, The Commercial Observer decided to put a spotlight on some of the most dramatic occupancy shifts across Manhattan over the last three years. Read More

By Billy Gray 2/14 9:00am

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Academic Expansions: 10 Schools Scheduled to Open Really Soon

Last week, The Speyer Legacy School—a private institution for “intellectually advanced” kindergartners through eighth graders—signed a lease for an 85,000-square-foot campus spanning 400 West 59th Street and 925 Ninth Avenue. That’s a nearly 10-fold increase in size from its current schoolhouse at 15 West 86th Street, Speyer’s home since it was founded four years ago. But Speyer and its young students aren’t the only ones going through dramatic growth spurts. New York City Department of Education spokesperson Marge Feinberg said in an email that since 2002, the D.O.E. has created nearly 600 new schools, including 149 charter schools.

New York’s 1,750 public schools enroll 1.1 million students, and population trends as well as changing migration patterns, which are seeing more young families eschewing the suburbs for the safe, clean city, should swell class rolls. A 2007 Census Bureau American Community Survey found a 4.7 percent increase in New York’s under-5 population, up to 566,628 from 540,878 in 2000. And the birth rate, which fell sharply during the 1990s and basically flatlined through 2005, spiked by 4.5 percent between then and 2008.

“The baby boomers’ kids are having kids now,” said Alex Jinishian, a vice chairman at Colliers International who represented Speyer in the deal. “New Yorkers are interested in education and spending their capital on that. This industry—if you want to call it that—from basically grammar to secondary education to college has become a force in the economy.”

Below, Commercial Observer staff reporter Billy Gray spotlights new schools coming online this year. Read More