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Katie Couric and a rendering of her apartment at 151 East 78th Street | credit: katiecouric.com

From Luxury Listings NYC: News anchor Katie Couric and her husband John Molner have picked up quite a pad for themselves on the Upper East Side. The couple paid $12.17 million for an apartment at 151 East 78th Street, according to city records, which is a good deal over the asking price of $11.95 million. 6 sqft first spotted the sale. Cathy Taub and Alexa Lambert of Stribling had the listing. [more]

Source: Katie Couric buys M Upper East Side Condo

During his 2016 state of the state address, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his “Built To Lead” program, a formidable set of plans which include a $100 billion renovation of the state’s infrastructure. While there’s certainly doubt as to whether or not Cuomo can pull this off, one thing’s for sure: if he does, he could leave a legacy as significant as J.D. Rockefeller or Robert Moses.

Watch the video above for more information on some of the biggest projects that Cuomo has in the pipeline.

For more videos, visit The Real Deal’s YouTube page.

Source: Here’s a closer look at Cuomo’s bold 0B infrastructure plan

Continue reading Scorecard: More office towers rising in Manhattan than anytime since 1980s

Michael C. Hall bought an apartment at 160 West 12th Street | credit: Showtime.

From Luxury Listings NYC: Actor Michael C. Hall, of “Dexter” and “Six Feet Under” fame, has bought himself an apartment at the Greenwich Lane for $4.3 million, according to city records. The Corcoran Group had the listing. [more]

Source: Michael C. Hall buys Greenwich Lane pad for M

Gary Barnett (credit: Adam Pincus)

In today’s global economy, uncertainty in New York City can ripple all the way over to Tel Aviv. Gary Barnett has found this out firsthand — with Israeli press reports noting the Extell Development head ventured to Israel to reassure investors over rising yields on his company’s publicly traded bonds on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Barnett met with Israeli institutional investors last week, according to Israeli business daily Calcalist, to “restore calm” after yields on two series of bonds issued by Extell in the past two years hit “alarming” rates over 8 percent – nearly twice the coupon rate they were issued at.

Of particular worry to Israeli investors is the widely reported slowdown in the high-end luxury condominium market in New York City, which represents a significant portion of Extell’s business. Calcalist, a Hebrew-language business publication based in Tel Aviv, reported that these investors were particularly concerned about the fate of Barnett’s latest luxury project, the Central Park Tower at 217 West 57th Street. The tower has 182 units and a projected total sellout of $4 billion for the residential portion, according to filings with the New York Attorney General. Extell, however, recently withdrew those filings.

In an interview with Calcalist, Barnett dispelled the notion that the luxury residential market in New York is risky, describing the current slowdown in sales as “temporary” and saying he has “no doubt” about his company’s ability to make a profit on its condo developments.

The Extell chief added that he went to Israel because his relationship with investors there is “very important to me.” Extell raised more than $400 million through its two separate bond issuances on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange — a fundraising vehicle that has become increasingly popular with New York real estate firms in recent years.

“I definitely see this relationship [with the Israeli market] as long-term and it was important for me to meet with investors and review activities with them,” Barnett told Calcalist, adding that while he has no plans to issue further debt in Israel “at the moment,” the company likely will do so in the future. [Calcalist] – Rey Mashayekhi

Source: Gary Barnett visited Israel to assuage bond investor fears: report

From left: 50 United Nations Plaza, One Riverside Park and StreetEasy’s Alan Lightfeldt

Luxury units at some of Manhattan’s most ambitious new developments are being rented out en masse, often by out-of-town investors.

About 37 percent of the 1,522 sponsor units sold in Manhattan last year were later put up for rent, according to an analysis by StreetEasy, Bloomberg reported.

At Zeckendorf Development’s 50 United Nations Plaza, 44 percent of the 39 units sold last year were later rented, one of the higher rates in the city. Extell Development saw about 41 percent of the 161 units sold at One Riverside Park in 2015 later placed on the rental market.

“Luxury sales activity in Manhattan has brought more luxury rentals,” Jonathan Miller, head of appraiser Miller Samuel, told Bloomberg. “It’s the hidden supply entering the market.”

Many of the buyers renting their units are investors from outside of New York, seeking to earn back some of the high purchase cost, Miller told Bloomberg.

The units in question are often large, full-floor apartments, a type of residence that, traditionally, was not commonly found on the rental market, Douglas Elliman’s Yuval Greenblatt told Bloomberg.

“You will start to see more units priced at $50-, 75-, 100,000 a month,” he told the news service. “It’s unprecedented in the sense that the price points will be at extremely high levels.”

The increase in rental supply at the top end – both from condos and from new multifamily buildings – should on the whole exert downward pressure on rents, StreetEasy data scientist Alan Lightfeldt told Bloomberg.

“The rental market at the luxury end is seeing the same kind of trend that the sales market is seeing: a big amount of supply and perhaps some weakening demand,” Lightfeldt told the service. “Accordingly, prices are beginning to fall.” [Bloomberg] – Ariel Stulberg

Source: 37% of Manhattan new development condos sold in 2015 were later listed for rent: StreetEasy

An Ann Taylor ad and a rendering of 447 Fulton Street in Brooklyn

Ann Taylor sewed up a lease on Brooklyn’s pricy Fulton Street Mall, where the women’s clothier plans to open a factory store.

The retailer signed a lease for just shy of 5,900 square feet at United American Land’s 447 Fulton Street on the corner of Jay Street, where the asking rent was $375 per square foot.

Ann Taylor, named after one of the company’s best-selling dresses, plans to open an outlet-style store at the location.

“The fact that Ann Taylor chose this prime location as its first Factory concept store further validates the shopping power of Fulton Street as Brooklyn ‘s premier shopping destination,” said United American’s Albert Laboz, who is also chairman of the Fulton Mall BID.

Michael Friedman of Inline Realty represented both sides in the deal.

The women’s clothing chain already has a factory store in Queens, but Laboz said that was converted from a traditional mainline store, and if the factory concept proves successful the retailer will launch further locations.

The company, which was recently acquired by Lane Bryant owner Ascena Retail Group for $2.1 billion, gave up its “Gold Coast” Madison Avenue location in 2014. It joins a growing list of retailers targeting the lower-priced segment of the retail market with outlet locations that include department-store brands such as Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s.

Ann Taylor is also the latest national retailer to plant its flag on Downtown Brooklyn’s premier shopping strip, which has been undergoing a makeover in recent years.

The Fulton Street Mall, stretching eight blocks from Adams Street to Flatbush Avenue, commands the second-highest asking rents in Brooklyn, behind only Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg.

Asking rents on Fulton average between $250 and $350 per square foot, according to CPEX Real Estate’s recent retail report for the borough.

Big-name brands like Forever 21 and Nordstrom Rack are replacing local shops, and projects like Tishman Speyer’s redevelopment of the Macy’s on Fulton Street and the mixed-use City Point project promise to further the area’s change.

Source: Ann Taylor to dress up Fulton Street corner in Brooklyn

From left: 112 East 103rd Street, 411 East 118th Street and 291 Pleasant Avenue in East Harlem (inset: Stephen Siegel and Shimon Shkury)

Fairstead Capital and Irving Langer’s Galil Management are shopping a once-distressed 47-building East Harlem multifamily portfolio, The Real Deal has learned.

The 1,181-unit package is best known as the “Dawnay Day portfolio,” named after the now-defunct British investment firm that owned the buildings for two years until it fell into foreclosure in 2009.

Sources familiar with the portfolio told TRD it is expected to sell for close to $400 million, or approximately $350,000 per unit. If it were to sell at that price, the package would be the priciest New York City multifamily deal of the year so far.

Ariel Property Advisors’ Shimon Shkury and Victor Sozio, who declined to comment, are marketing the package, sources said. The total square footage of the portfolio was not immediately clear.

The addresses include 112-116 East 103^rd Street, 233 East 111^th Street, 1567 Lexington Avenue, 291 Pleasant Avenue, 411 East 118^th Street, property records show.

In 2007, U.K.-based Dawnay Day made a splash in the U.S. when it bought the properties for $225 million from Harlem landlord Steven Kessner, who had been buying each of them up since the 1980s. At the time of the sale, the properties had almost 2,500 violations, the New York Times reported in 2009. (The current number of remaining violations is unknown.)

Dawnay Day sought to hike rents after tenants in the rent-stabilized units – which comprise the majority of the portfolio — had been displaced. Then, as the housing market crashed, the lender moved to foreclose on the buildings in 2009.

Galil and Fairstead – then known as E&M Associates and SG2 Properties, respectively – teamed up to pull the properties out of foreclosure for an undisclosed price, sources said. Fairstead declined to comment, while Galil could not be reached.

Fairstead, which is a restructuring of a partnership between SG2 Properties and a family office, has been particularly active with multifamily acquisitions of late. The investment firm — led by CBRE brokers Stephen Siegel and Andrew Goldberg and partners Jeff Goldberg and Will Blodgett — bought the Caiola portfolio for $690 million in September and entered contract last month to buy Savoy Park complex in Harlem for north of $300 million.

The building’s two owners previously partnered on another large portfolio. In 2010, E&M bought a stake in 3,600 Bronx apartments owned by SG2. Together, over the next five years, they sold it to several investors in separate transactions for a combined $340 million.

Source: Fairstead, Galil look to sell 47-building East Harlem portfolio

230 Park Avenue South (Credit: Costar Group) and Casper CEO Philip Krim

Casper can now rest easy.

The e-commerce startup that sells what it calls “outrageously comfortable” mattresses to consumers online scored a new office space on Park Avenue South, sources told The Real Deal.

In a five-year deal, Casper is taking just under 32,000 square feet at TF Cornerstone’s 230 Park Avenue South, at East 19th Street. The company is said to be taking the entire 13th floor at the 386,000-square-foot property, as well as the 4,000 square-foot penthouse. It has already started work on its space, sources said.

Casper will pay rents starting in the mid-$70s per square foot for the space, sources said.

The startup, which was founded in 2013 and also has a showroom at 45 Bond Street in Noho, raised $55 million in a Series B round in June 2015. It will join a host of other venture-backed firms that have committed to the Flatiron District, including BuzzFeed at 225 Park Avenue South and Hulu at 79 Fifth Avenue.

Other tenants at 230 Park Avenue South include advertising agency Young & Rubicam. Representatives for Cushman & Wakefield, which handles leasing at the property, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Source: Casper beds down on Park Avenue South

New data shows the number of properties on the city’s 90-day lien sales list is down from last year.

There are 24,200 buildings on the Department of Finance’s 90-day lien sale list, compared with 27,233 properties last year, according to the Center for NYC Neighborhoods.

Brooklyn had the most properties with 6,458, then 4,557 in Queens, 2,528 in the Bronx, 1,285 on Staten Island and 205 in Manhattan, according to the data.

The list includes more than 15,000 co-ops, condos and one-to-four family homes.

The city places liens on properties that have unpaid debts, which can include property taxes and water bills. The Department of Finance sells the liens every year, but beforehand issues the list to give owners the chance to pay off the debt or enroll in a payment plan, Politico reported.

Last year, the city sold 4,228 properties off the list, Politico reported.

For properties with an assessed value of less than $250,000, the city charges nine percent with interest compounded daily when the liens are sold to third parties, Politico reported.

Caroline Nagy, a policy manager at the Center for NYC Neighborhoods, said Southeastern Queens and the North Bronx were the hardest hit areas.

“These are neighborhoods where we’re very concerned about financial destabilization,” Nagy told Politico. “It can be very difficult to recover from financial shocks and setbacks, so the lien sale is another way where homeowners have relatively small amounts of debts turned into larger amounts of debt.” [Politico] — Dusica Sue Malesevic

Source: Number of properties on city’s 90-day lien sales list is falling

Serge Azria (credit: Current/Elliot) and PHW at 60 White Street in Tribeca (credit: Douglas Elliman)

Clothier and entrepreneur Serge Azria just picked up an eco-friendly duplex penthouse at 60 White Street in Tribeca.

The Joie, Equipment and Current/Elliot head is in contract for the 3,100-square-foot, three-bedroom duplex unit at the Sorgente Group’s office-to-condominium conversion, paying $9.4 million, about $3,000 per square foot.

The unit was made from about 80 percent reclaimed materials, the New York Post reported.

Douglas Elliman’s Frances Katzen brokered the deal.

The Tunisian-born Azria also owns a $41 million estate in Malibu.

The Sorgente Group, led by Veronica Mainetti, bought the building along with 62 and 66 White Street for $23 million in 2010. The firm converted the office building into eight loft units. It opened for sales in 2014.

The building’s other penthouse is also in contract, for $9.3 million, according to StreetEasy. [NYP] – Ariel Stulberg

Source: Fashion mogul Serge Azria to buy Tribeca penthouse for .4M

Steven Roth with One and Two Penn Plaza

From the March issue: Penn Plaza takes its moniker, of course, from Pennsylvania Station — the nation’s busiest transit hub. But Vornado Realty Trust, the mega-REIT that owns some 8 million square feet of office space in the area, has another name for it: the Big Kahuna.

With hot office markets like Hudson Yards (rising to the west), Chelsea (moving north) and Midtown South (coming in from the east), the Penn Plaza area is the company’s top priority. [more]

Source: Here’s how Vornado plans to dominate Penn Plaza

The apartment at the Silk Building (Credit: Corcoran Group) (inset: Richard Gere) (Credit: Neil Grabowsky/Montclair Film Festival via Wikipedia)

The ol’ “Razzle Dazzle” finally worked — Richard Gere’s former apartment in Noho’s Silk Building is rented after eight months. It was asking $20,000.

The five-bedroom, three-bathroom is 3,570-square-foot and spans half a city block. The corner loft unit at 14 East 4th Street features the original oak wood floors and over 10-foot beamed ceilings, according to the listing.

The pad at the 56-unit, 12-story condominium building, which is known for attracting celebrities like Britney Spears, was newly renovated, the New York Post reported.

It includes a chef’s kitchen that boasts Calcutta Gold Marble countertops and SubZero appliances, and the condo has an ample amount of storage space, according to StreetEasy.

The Corcoran Group’s Paul Gavriani had the listing.

Gere’s Sag Harbor home has been on the market several times since 2013. It was last listed for $47.5 million last summer. [NYP] — Dusica Sue Malesevic

Source: Richard Gere’s former Silk Building pad finally rented

From left: Bob Faith, 160 West 24th Street and a rendering of 247 North 7th Street

Greystar just picked up two major loan to finance its recent spree of buys.

The company borrowed $184 million in total, from Capital One and New York Community Bank, the New York Observer reported.

NY Community Bank’s five-year, $115 million loan will finance Greystar’s purchase of the 18-story rental complex at 160 West 24th Street, called the Chelsea, along with the adjacent 167 West 23rd Street, a three-story retail building. Greystar paid $211.3 million to Chicago-based LaSalle Investment Management for the two earlier this month.

Abe Hirsch and Zev Karpel of Meridian Capital Group represented Greystar in the transaction.

The Charleston, S.C.-based developer also took a five-year, $69 million loan from Capital One to finance its purchase of two rental buildings in Williamsburg, 247 North 7th Street and 248 North 8th Street, which it bought from Adam America Real Estate for $125 million, also in March.

Greystar sold a 10,399-unit multifamily portfolio in December to the Blackstone Group for $2 billion. [NYO] – Ariel Stulberg

Source: Greystar takes 4M in financing for Chelsea, Brooklyn buys

From left: 639, 590 and 530 Fifth Avenue in Midtown and Joe Sitt

Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities is looking to sell a handful of office and retail properties on Fifth Avenue.

The developer is marketing 693 and 590 Fifth Avenue, along with the retail portion of 530 Fifth Avenue, which it owns in a join venture with Scott Rechler’s RXR Realty and General Growth Properties, a mall-focused real estate investment trust.

Thor could make as much as $600 million for the two properties it solely owns, Bloomberg reported, citing sources with knowledge of the company’s plans.

Sitt’s firm bought the 101,000-square-foot 693 Fifth Avenue, home to a Valentino location, in 2010, for $142 million. It picked up the 82,000-square-foot 590 Fifth Avenue, which houses the NBA store, for $90 million in 2007.

Thor and its partners bought the 500,000-square-foot office and retail tower at 530 Fifth Avenue for $595 million in 2014. Only the building’s 100,000-square-foot retail portion is currently on offer.

The sales come amid murmurs of a slowdown in the commercial real estate market. The Blackstone Group’s Jonathan Gray said last week that returns on investment in the sector were falling, hit by international volatility and tighter lending. [Bloomberg] – Ariel Stulberg

Source: Thor Equities marketing three Midtown properties

Clockwise: The Triborough Bridge, rendering of the New NY Bridge, U.N. Headquarters and rendering of Penn Station (inset: Robert Moses and Andrew Cuomo hybrid) (credit: Steve Krupinski)

A year into his second term, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is a man with a limited legacy. Well before fiascoes like the Moreland Commission, there were triumphs: He signed same-sex marriage into law just months after taking office, and in 2013, inked what he calls the “toughest” gun control law in the country.

But when it comes to being a gubernatorial icon, nothing says “remember me” like giant infrastructure projects. On their paths to the White House, Franklin Roosevelt and Nelson Rockefeller constantly touted their records of public works that transformed New York. Cuomo, who likely shares their presidential ambitions, has some catching up to do.

Which is perhaps why, in the days leading up to his sixth State of the State address, the governor evoked the names of Rockefeller and Robert Moses. The parallels were in reference to his Build to Lead program, a proposed $100 billion investment in the state’s infrastructure that includes overhauls of LaGuardia Airport, Penn Station and the Jacob K. Javits Center.

“It is a development initiative that would make Gov. Rockefeller jealous,” Cuomo said of the program.

These are not exactly modest comparisons. Rockefeller created the predecessor to the Empire State Development Corporation, and Moses, though controversial, is a colossus of urban infrastructure. But they make clear that Cuomo is willing to bet that big development projects will serve as his springboard to higher office. If they are actually completed, that is.

Rendering of the Jacob Javits Center

“These [developments] would be the most visible and the most tangible memorials to his term in office,” said David Birdsell, dean of the Baruch College of Public Affairs. “But the projects need to be received well. Clearly, you don’t want to become the rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike.”

The ‘get shit done’ guv
In his 2011 inaugural address, Cuomo laid out the parameters of his office.

“A governor’s inherent power is limited. A governor’s potential power is limitless,” he said. “The potential power of the governor is to mobilize the people of the State of New York. And that is the real power.”

The highlight of his tenure, so far, is the New NY Bridge, a $4 billion replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge. His administration said that after “more than a decade of discussion and delay,” Cuomo swooped into office and “pushed the project forward from dysfunction to construction in less than one year.” The eight-lane bridge is slated for completion in 2018 and, in many ways, is a case study for Cuomo’s governing style.

“This is a governor who says he wants to get stuff done. His shtick is ‘I get shit done,’” said Philip Plotch, an urban planner who served as the director of the World Trade Center redevelopment and special projects for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

Cuomo’s approach to the project did indeed have echoes of Moses, according to Plotch, but perhaps not for the reasons the governor would have hoped: He was able to get the project off the ground, Plotch said, by eliminating previously-included mass transit components, scaling back the project and minimizing public participation. Speed trumped all else. The governor, Plotch said, was more interested in “public relations” than “public input,” and made major project decisions behind closed doors. Representatives for the governor contested this, pointing to roughly 600 community meetings held on the project. Plotch said that public meetings held during Cuomo’s administration were held to sell the plan rather than solicit input.

He also noted that Cuomo secured a $1.5 billion Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) federal loan for the project, allowing him to have the glory of bridge-building while leaving the headache of repayment to his successor.

Tappan Zee Bridge

“So you get to go to the ribbon-cutting, you can name the bridge after your dad if you want, and you don’t have to pay back the loan for five years,” Plotch said.

Still, some applaud Cuomo’s approach. Ken Patton, a former dean at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate and former administrator at the New York Economic Development Corporation, said continuing to ignore the bridge’s sorry state would have been “shortsighted and morally bankrupt.”

“I think where there’s a will there’s a way, and I think if he needs to bend the rules or double down, he does,” Patton added.

In 2014, Cuomo took heat for trying to use $511 million from a revolving Environmental Protection Agency fund for the bridge project. The agency eventually agreed to contribute just $1.3 million. As of right now, bridge costs, thanks in part to a proposed $1.1 billion bond from the state Thruway Authority, are covered through the remainder of 2016 and possibly through the first quarter of 2017, according to administration officials. Martin Robins, the founder of the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center and one of the creators of NJ Transit, said that though funding questions remain, Cuomo has secured “sound” low-interest public financing and got agencies to work together when his predecessors could not.

“Some people think it was brilliant and some people think it was reckless,” Robins said of Cuomo’s approach. “He broke an intergovernmental knot that had developed, it was a Gordian knot between the Metro-North, DOT and Thruway Authority.’’

Like the New NY Bridge, many of the projects Cuomo is focusing on have been several decades in the making and have failed to launch for myriad reasons. Efforts to red­esign Penn Station began in the 1990s but were stalled by faulty design specifications. Laments over LaGuardia Airport’s logistical shortcomings fell on deaf ears. And, for several years, many called for an expansion of the Javits Center but Cuomo, in 2012, suggested a plan to tear it down and build a new one — a plan that eventually fell through.

Rendering of LaGuardia Airport

But in the past year, Cuomo has restarted the redevelopment of Penn Station, unveiled a $4 billion redesign for LaGuardia and proposed a 1.2 million-square-foot expansion to the Javits Center, expected to cost $1 billion. These projects may not have gotten their start with Cuomo, but in one way or another, he has taken them over. Critics say he is simply parlaying his white-knight role in these long-stalled developments into a presidential run. But admirers point to sheer force of position: As governor, Cuomo has the necessary agency to prioritize these projects, and to cajole or bully the involved parties to get them done.

“It’s the old ‘If you don’t have governor power, things don’t happen,’” said Richard Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress. “What Gov. Cuomo has realized is that he’s the only person in the state of New York that can make some of these things happen.”

Tunnel vision

In the late 1990s, the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Moynihan proposed converting the James A. Farley Post Office into a train hall for Amtrak. In 2005, Related Cos. and Vornado Realty Trust won an RFP to develop the Moynihan Station project. Since then, the project has seen four different designs, one of which included moving Madison Square Garden into the post office. Sources who have followed the project’s history closely told The Real Deal that previous administrations let the project languish even as the developers invested millions. This lack of government interest caused MSG to pull out and instead renew at its current location, these sources said. What followed was years of an unsuccessful search for a new tenant for the post office. Then the market collapsed.

“I think the project came pretty close in 2007 and 2008 when it was Vornado and Related creating a plan for both sides of Eighth Avenue,” said Juliette Michaelson, executive vice president of the Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit urban planning think-tank whose board includes executives from both developers. “That was such a massive project. It was tens of billions of dollars and millions of square feet, and it collapsed.”

In January, Cuomo booted Related and Vornado off the project by issuing a joint request for proposals (RFP) for the $3 billion redevelopment of both Penn Station and the Farley Building, dubbed the Empire State Complex. The separation may be temporary: Related has indicated that it plans to pursue a bid for this iteration. Though Vornado has remained quiet about its future role, the company has worked hard to amass a huge stake in the area in the form of 8 million square feet of office space.

The new RFP includes five possible design options for the redevelopment of Penn Station, one of which includes removing MSG’s Paramount Theater to create an entrance at Eighth Avenue. Representatives for MSG declined to discuss the history of the project but said that they “fully support the governor’s plan.”

According to representatives with the Empire State Development Corporation, one of the lead agencies on the project, past efforts to expand Penn Station were hamstrung by the projects being approached in isolation, rather than as one interconnected complex. Cuomo is also trying to implement a different delivery system to speed up the project. In his 2016 budget proposal, he suggested allowing ESD to use design-build, a method where the landlord signs a single contract with a team that handles both design and construction. Only five state agencies currently have the authority to use the method, which is often touted as a time and money saver. Design-build was used for the new Tappan Zee Bridge and by some estimates has shaved 18 months off the construction time and roughly 15 percent off the cost.

Michael Evans, president of the ESD subsidiary Moynihan Station Development Corporation, and Joseph Chan, executive vice president of real estate development at ESD, credited the governor’s focus on getting buy-in from Amtrak and other entities.

“As staff we can toil away at any project,” Chan said, “but when the principal gets involved and says this is important, it delivers a level of hope to the stakeholders that this is going to get done.” Representatives for Vornado and Related declined to comment.

Executives at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, an architecture firm which has been involved with the Moynihan Station project since the 1990s but officially came on board in 2010, said it had limited access to the post office until 2007, when the state acquired the building.

Rendering of the Farley Building redevelopment

“This [version of the project] is realizable. The other one wasn’t funded, it didn’t have the political traction to move forward,” said Roger Duffy, design partner at SOM. “Lots of people are focused on the symbology of things, and I think that misses the entire primary point of a transportation facility. This is certainly beautiful and appropriate in terms of history and scale, but it also works. People need to understand how much better this is than the current condition.”

The plan has its share of detractors, however. David Gunn, who was president of Amtrak from 2002 to 2005, wasn’t initially aware of the governor’s plans to reboot the project when reached by phone. But he reiterated his previous criticism of the redevelopment, saying that moving Amtrak’s train hall across Eighth Avenue would burden passengers with a longer commute. (Gunn said that most passengers arrive by subway; ESD officials contend that most come by cab). Commuters aren’t interested in shopping at a retail mall in Moynihan, Gunn said — they just want to get from A to B as quickly as possible.

“It is not an improvement for the passenger,” he said. “It’s an improvement for the real estate developers and the politicians. Cuomo probably doesn’t have a clue, or he doesn’t care.” Cuomo has certainly been accused of being buddy-buddy with developers before, and his strong financial ties to the real estate industry — developers and brokers were among the top contributors to his reelection campaign — ensure it’s a topic that often comes up.

Ultimately, better design or not, a $3 billion question remains: The governor hasn’t detailed how these projects will be financed. Richard Ravitch, who served as lieutenant governor under Gov. David Paterson and earlier chaired both the New York State Urban Development Corporation and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said that these infrastructure projects aren’t really priorities until there is a clear source of funding.

“These projects are all commendable,” Ravitch said. “I think the question that the political system hasn’t answered is ‘how the hell are we going to pay for it?’ I think until we get an answer to this question, all these projects are purely aspirational.”

Cuomo’s camp maintains the governor has laid out clear funding plans for these projects. For Empire Station Complex, Cuomo said the developers will invest $1 billion, while federal and state government agencies will foot $325 million. The rest will be paid for by yet-undetermined private investment in exchange for future revenue from retail and commercial rents at the complex.

Bill Mulrow, Cuomo’s top aide and a former senior executive at the Blackstone Group, said these projects would shape the state’s legacy, rather than just Cuomo’s. The governor isn’t in the business of proposing projects that won’t get done, he added, citing the example of the New NY Bridge.

“He’s focused on it, and we already demonstrated that we’re getting results with a project that had languished for decades,” Mulrow said. “This isn’t just ‘throw something against the wall and see what sticks.’ These are all projects that are going to get done.”

Higher ground
Some believe Cuomo’s ambitious development agenda is a ticket out of Albany. If a Democrat takes the White House in 2017, Cuomo will either run for re-election after his second term ends in 2018 or find another job and wait for his shot at the presidency, said Gerald Benjamin, an expert on city and state government at SUNY New Paltz. If a Republican wins, Cuomo may make a play for the office sooner. For now, he is systematically rolling out ambitious projects, taking financial risks and figuring out what it will take to get them done on the fly, Benjamin said. To fail to complete these projects would be somewhat damning for Cuomo, he said, but not necessarily a calamity.

“He’s trying to fill out his resume,” said Robert Shapiro, president of City Center Real Estate and an expert on air rights and assemblage. “If you got the proposal out there, you can say, ‘this is what I’m trying to do for the city and the state.’”

From left: Joe Biden and Andrew Cuomo (credit: Governor’s office)

Shapiro isn’t confident the projects will be completed, saying they have an “eternal life.”

Pulling off these “big tough brawny projects” would surely give Cuomo bragging rights for the rest of his political career, Baruch’s Birdsell said. To his credit, Cuomo can also boast reversing a “remarkable scheme of failure” that dates back to his father’s administration: Late state budgets. Under Cuomo, the state has passed a balanced budget by deadline fives times in a row (though, last year’s was technically late by a few hours), which isn’t a small feat, Birdsell said. But when it comes to visible testaments to his mettle as a leader and his ability to cut through bureaucratic morass, these projects would get the most mileage — a fact that some say has shifted his focus.

This change was good news for the beleaguered ARC tunnel, the propsed new rail tunnel under the Hudson River. Following years of silence, Cuomo only recently embraced the project, now known as the Gateway Tunnel. As recently as August, the governor said he wouldn’t pay for it, insisting it wasn’t his state’s responsibility. But in November, the federal government agreed to pay for half of the $14 billion project, with New York and New Jersey splitting the difference.

‘We have been working to break the federal logjam and get the federal funding that this massive undertaking requires,” Cuomo said at the time.

Robins, who worked as project director on the ARC tunnel from 1994 to 1995, noted a “remarkable transformation,” with Cuomo going “from being recalcitrant to becoming a partner to the plan.”

The governor apparently recalibrated his focus on LaGuardia as well. In late 2014, Cuomo and Vice President Joseph Biden announced a contest to redesign the airport. At the time, Joseph Sitt, head of Thor Equities and chair of the Global Gateway Alliance, a group that advocates for a major overhaul of the airport, criticized the governor for using the much-needed improvements as political capital — Cuomo was up for re-election.

The hope now, Sitt said, is that Cuomo views the success of the project as essential to his political future.

“We’ve tried so hard to make this a political issue for him,” Sitt said. “We’re hopeful that we’ve made it important enough in the eyes of the constituents, that yes, it will make a difference to his future and his future in politics. Our role, as we see it, is to hold the governor’s feet to the fire.”

For more than a decade, the alliance pushed for major improvements at the airport but their pleas were ignored, Sitt said. He added that though the governor may be using LaGuardia and other projects to pave his path to the White House, he is also delivering much-needed infrastructure updates to the state.

“I think he’s got higher hopes. He hopes to one day run for president,” he said. “At the same time, I think he sincerely wants to see these things get done.”

Source: Andrew Cuomo really wants to be New York’s next master builder — but can he deliver?

23-85 and 25-27 87th Street in East Elmhurst (credit: Meridian Capital Group)

GTJ REIT, a Long Island-based real estate investment trust, is looking to sell a seven-acre East Elmhurst development site just south of LaGuardia airport, according to marketing materials obtained by The Real Deal.

The site, which offers more than 470,000 buildable square feet, houses two buildings at 23-85 87th Street and 25-27 87th Street.

Sources familiar with the plans said GTJ is expected to sell the site for north of $100 million.

Rental-car giant Avis currently holds a 20-year triple net lease that is set to expire in 2023. Budget Rent a Car, an affiliate of Avis, subleases the properties for office and storage space. The low-rise buildings were renovated in 2004 and span a combined 47,000 square feet. Aside from the buildings, the site serves as one large rental-car parking lot.

Despite Avis’ long-term lease, GTJ hired Meridian Capital Group to market the site as a development opportunity down the road. The ample air rights allow for either a residential use or a commercial use such as manufacturing or community space. In 2013, the City Council approved a 127-block rezoning that seeks to preserve low-rise buildings.

The existing properties have a net operating income of $2.4 million. Average rent at the buildings is $51.63 per square foot.

A Meridian Capital Group investment sales team led by David Schechtman, Lipa Lieberman and Abie Kassin declined to comment.

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey is planning a $4.2 billion overhaul of the nearby airport. Last month, however, the board voted to delay a vote approving a ground lease deal with a group of developers.

GTJ’s real estate dealings are largely concentrated on Long Island, but there are exceptions. In 2014, the public, non-traded REIT bought a 1.9-acre parking lot in Long Island City leased to FedEx.

Source: GTJ looks to sell 7-acre site south of LaGuardia airport

From left: Hudson Yards and 1 Manhattan West (inset: Richard Anderson)

New construction in New York City reached a staggering $40.9 billion in 2015, thanks in part to massive projects such as Hudson Yards, according to a new report by the New York Building Congress.

The value of all projects initiated citywide in 2015 was $40.9 billion, a 53 percent jump from 2014, according to the report. Collectively, these projects will take up 83 million square feet of new and existing floor space in the city, most of which — 58 million square feet — will be residential. Though most of the projects were residential, the top three by value were major office developments in Midtown West: Related Companies’ 30 Hudson Yards and 55 Hudson Yards, as well as Brookfield Property Partners’ 1 Manhattan West. The report included new ground-up construction and renovations to existing buildings.

New York Building Congress President Richard Anderson struck a cautionary note about the building boom, saying that the uncertainty of property tax abatements and the slowdown of the ultra-luxury residential market could stall further growth.

“Perhaps never before in New York City has so much new housing been in the pipeline at one time,” Anderson said in a statement. “The present question is how long we can sustain this sort of pace, especially in the absence of the 421a subsidy program and with increasing reports of a softening market.”

Residential construction starts increased 62 percent from 2014, reaching $19.5 billion, according to the report. Non-residential construction hit $18 billion, a 65 percent year-over-year increase. For the second year in a row, construction starts in the public works sector dropped. Infrastructure projects encompassing bridges, roads and sewer systems hit $3.4 billion in 2015, decreasing from $3.8 billion in 2014, according to the report.

Source: New construction hits eye-popping .9B in 2015

Salesforce’s Marc Benioff (credit: cellanr/Flickr) and 3 Bryant Park in Midtown

San Francisco-based enterprise software firm Salesforce.com will consolidate its New York operations at its new regional headquarters at 3 Bryant Park in Midtown, to be known as the Salesforce Tower New York.

The company’s logo will replace MetLife’s atop the 41-story, 1.2 million-square-foot tower, formerly called 1095 Avenue of the Americas, Bloomberg reported.

The company was seeking to sublease as much as 300,000 square feet at the Ivanhoe Cambridge and Callahan Capital Properties-owned building.

Salesforce currently rents space at 685 Third Avenue in Midtown, 140 East 45th Street in Midtown East, and 155 Sixth Avenue in Hudson Square, but plans to consolidate at its namesake tower.

MetLife is vacating 400,000 square feet there as part of its own consolidation of its office space in the city. The insurer is expanding its presence at 200 Park Avenue – the MetLife Building – to 500,000 square feet.

Ivanhoe Cambridge and Callahan bought the tower from the Blackstone Group for $2.2 billion in early 2015. [Bloomberg] – Ariel Stulberg

Source: 3 Bryant Park is now officially the Salesforce Tower

Amid global market turmoil such as stock market downturns and China’s slowdown, how has Manhattan’s luxury real estate been affected? Prompted by The Real Deal’s cover story for its current issue, CNBC had a segment about a much-discussed topic — whether the market is actually experiencing a slowdown.

Raphael De Niro, founder of the De Niro Team at Douglas Elliman, said the slowdown is more acute in the $10 million plus residential market.

He compared New York City to an “eight-lane superhighway.”

“There’s a lot of traffic coming and going in both directions and occasionally things slow down and there’s some traffic, but demand builds up and always breaks through,” he said.

CNBC’s Robert Frank said there is a “penthouse correction” and 5,000 high-end units will hit the market.

“All those developers chased the very top high-end market because it was so lucrative,” Frank said.

At Extell Development’s One57, De Niro has a $19.9 million, four-bedroom listing on the 47th floor. He said there may be a two to five percent off the ask.

Source: TRD story prompts segment on global market turmoil and NYC’s luxury real estate: VIDEO

Jared Kushner and 2 Rector Street in the Financial District

Jared Kushner’s Kushner Companies and CIM Group will soon part with one of their marquee New York assets.

The partners are in contract to sell the 26-story, 465,000-square-foot office tower at 2 Rector Street for $225 million to Kevin Hoo’s Cove Property Group and Bentall Kennedy, a pension fund, the New York Post reported.

The price comes out to about $480 per square foot.

Eastdil Secured’s Doug Harmon and Adam Spies brokered the deal.

Hoo and Bentall Kennedy plan to market the building to boutique office tenants, apparently setting aside a plan pushed by Kushner last year to convert the property into a 452-unit residential building.

Kushner and CIM bought the Downtown property for $140 million in 2013 from Larry Gluck’s Stellar Management and Savanna, where Hoo was previously an executive. [NYP] – Ariel Stulberg

Source: Kushner, CIM to sell 2 Rector Street for 5M

From left: 99-10 71st Avenue in Forest Hills and 360 Furman Street #1014-1015 in Brooklyn Heights

After nearly a year, Brooklyn’s most expensive single-family home is still sitting on the market.

An 11,000-square-foot penthouse at One Brooklyn Bridge Park hit the market in April 2015 for $32 million. The home’s pricetag isn’t too far behind the priciest residential listing in the borough, which is a $40 million mansion — split up into eight apartments — at 3 Pierrepont Place in Brooklyn Heights. Last month, the most expensive home to hit the market was a condo that’s also in One Brooklyn Bridge Park but in a drastically different price range. The 3,960-square-foot unit is listed for $6.5 million, according to data provided by Point2 Homes. In Queens, the top new listing in February was a Forest Hills home for $3.9 million.

Here’s a full rundown of the priciest single-family homes in Brooklyn and Queens to hit the market in February:

BROOKLYN
1. 360 Furman Street #1014-1015
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Price: $6.5 million
Building: One Brooklyn Bridge Park
Unit type: Condo
Total units: 435
Size: 3,960 square feet
Built: 1928
Agents: Leslie Marshall and James Cornell of the Corcoran Group

171 Water Street in Dumbo

2. 171 Water Street
Neighborhood: Dumbo
Price: $6.4 million
Size: 3,049 square feet
Stories: Four
Built: 2014
Agents: Karen Heyman and Alan Heyman of Sotheby’s International Realty

243 Dean Street in Boerum Hill

3. 243 Dean Street
Neighborhood: Boerum Hill
Price: $5 million
Size: 3,360 square feet
Stories: Five
Built: 1852
Agents: Richard Ziegelasch and Lee Solomon of Brown Harris Stevens

229 Degraw Street in Cobble Hill 

4. 229 Degraw Street
Neighborhood: Cobble Hill
Price: $4.9 million
Size: 4,100 square feet
Stories: Three
Built: Not available
Agents: Suzanne Wolf of Corcoran Group

5. 104 Pierrepont Street Apartment 1
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Price: $4.8 million
Building: Townhouse
Unit type: Co-op
Total units: Four
Size: 3,000 square feet
Built: 1900
Agents: Douglas Bowen, John Gomes and Fredrik Eklund of Douglas Elliman

QUEENS

99-10 71st Avenue in Forest Hills

1.99-10 71st Avenue
Neighborhood: Forest Hills
Price: $3.9 million
Size: Not available
Stories: Two
Built: 1925
Agents: David Torres of Real Home Services and Solutions

251-20 Hand Road in Little Neck

2. 251-20 Hand Road
Neighborhood: Little Neck
Price: $3.4 million
Size: 6,000 square feet
Stories: Two
Built: 2015
Agents: Toula Polios of Toula Polios Realty Group

165 Slocum Crescent in Forest Hills Gardens

3. 165 Slocum Crescent
Neighborhood: Forest Hills Gardens
Price: $2.7 million
Size: 4,722 square feet
Stories: Two
Built: 1910
Agents: Robert Hof of Sotheby’s International

4. 147-23 75th Avenue
Neighborhood: Kew Gardens Hills
Price: $2.4 million
Size: 2,560 square feet
Stories: Two
Built: 2008
Agents: Gloria Dallal of Keller Williams Realty Gold Coast

71-35 Harrow Street
Neighborhood: Forest Hills
Price: $2.4 million
Size: 2,950 square feet
Stories: Two
Built: 1920
Agents: Ghislaine Zakrzewski of Exit Kingdom Realty

184-26 Avon Road
Neighborhood: Jamaica Estates
Price: $2.4 million
Size: 1,444
Stories: Two
Built: 2015
Agents: Steve Pinkhas of Exit Realty First Choice

4815 11th Street in Long Island City 

5. 4815 11th Street #8A
Neighborhood: Long Island City
Price: $2.35 million
Building: Hunters View
Unit Type: Condo
Total units: 72
Size: 2,025 square feet
Built: 2007
Agents: Hanifa Scully of Corcoran Group

Source: Here were February’s priciest new listings in BK, Queens

Pamela Liebman and Kelly Kennedy Mack

The boom in new condominium construction has been kind to marketers.

New development marketing giant Corcoran Sunshine, headed by Kelly Kennedy Mack, inked $5.6 billion in contracts on behalf of its developer clients in 2015, its best year ever and nearly double its 2014 volume, the company announced Friday.

The firm estimates that it represented 54 percent of all new development sales in Manhattan in 2015, with a borough-wide average sales price of $3,027 per square foot, a record average for the company.

By contrast, the firm sold just $3 billion worth of property in 2014, for a blended price per square foot of $2,387.

Corcoran Group President and CEO Pam Liebman, speaking at the firm’s annual award ceremony at Lavo Thursday, said the numbers were evidence of Corcoran Sunshine’s status as the “market leader” in new development.

Corcoran Sunshine’s growth comes in the face of increased competition from rival Douglas Elliman, which has been beefing up its new development division in recent years under the leadership of Susan De França. Elliman declined to break down its new development numbers for 2015 but reported $22 billion in total sales company wide, up from $18 billion last year.

The Corcoran Sunshine sales team of the year award for 2015 went to the group behind Vornado Realty Trust’s 220 Central Park South, which comprises Kristin Black, Norma-Jean Callahan, Isabelle Hull-Fossas, and Deborah Kern. 220 Central Park South has a projected sellout of $3.1 billion.

The deal of the year award went to the sales team at Manhattan House for the sale of the building’s two penthouses, which were on the market for $11.3 million and $12.5 million, respectively. That team is made up of Chris Manfredonia, Tim Rizzo, Katie Sachsenmaier, and Blake Weissberg.

Source: Corcoran Sunshine doubles volume, inks .6B in 2015 contracts

Elk Mountain Lodge sits on 83 acres

From Luxury Listings NYC: Your dream of owning a giant estate in Aspen just became a little more achievable. Oil billionaire Bill Koch (yes, one of those Kochs), has put a major discount on his Aspen estate, lowering the price from $100 million to $80 million. What a bargain! [more]

Source: Discount alert: Bill Koch has lowered the price of his Aspen estate to M

34th Street between 6th and 7th avenues saw the most burglaries in 2015

You might want to skip a block of Frederick Douglass Boulevard between 155th Street and Harlem River Drive in Washington Heights — 18 robberies occurred there in 2015. But it isn’t the worst block in the city.

The 2015 NYPD crime data was analyzed and mapped for the New York Post by Onboard Informatics, a Manhattan firm that crunches data for real estate companies. It found that for home burglaries, West 34th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues led the city in both burglaries (44) and grand larcenies (244) in 2015.

Lexington Avenue between East 123rd and East 124th streets, in East Harlem, saw 19 assaults committed. And the homicide capitals of the city were in or around three city housing projects — the Ingersoll Houses in Fort Greene; the Langston Hughes Houses in Brownsville; and the Rochdale Village Houses in Queens. Each of those public housing developments had three murders in 2015. [NYP] –Christopher Cameron[NYP] –Christopher Cameron

Source: These are NYC’s most dangerous blocks

A seceret passage

Steve Humble dreamed of filling his giant house with secret passageways, but when he looked for a company to build them, he couldn’t find one. So he started a company himself. Now, Creative Home Engineering installs hidden doors, secret rooms, and trapdoors in homes.

Story by Jacob Shamsian and editing by Stephen Parkhurst

Source: This company will build a secret passageway in your house

A medieval castle near Siena that comes with a vineyard

From Luxury Listings NYC: Italy has some of the world’s best food, the best landscapes,  and, of course, the best wine. For those lucky enough to afford it, owning a vineyard — especially one these vineyards, which are all on the market right now — is a fantastic way to indulge in unbelievable beauty and amazing wine. And for those who can’t afford it, well, enjoy the photos! [more]

Source: 7 Italian vineyards currently on the market

Mill Road Rhinebeck

From Luxury Listings: Just 100 miles, and a two hour drive from the city is the town of Rhinebeck, NY. In Rhinebeck you’ll find the Landsman Kill River. On that river there is a waterfall with a 60-foot drop, and on that waterfall is… this house. [more]

Source: This M upstate home could be your “Fallingwater”

A tiny piece of the 20 gigapixel image

From the Empire State building, you can see into windows in Lower Manhattan by zooming in on this incredible 20 gigapixel image of Manhattan.

Photographer Jeffrey Martin spent two days on top of the Empire State Building taking the individual images to create this stunning image, according to the Daily Mail. The final image has a resolution of 203,200 x 101,600 — making it the biggest picture of New York ever taken.

“I discovered panoramic photography in the year 2000 after getting my first digital camera (a Canon Digital ELPH), which came with its own primitive panorama stitching software,” Martin told the Daily Mail.

Unfortunately we can’t embed the full image, which is seriously hours of fun, here. But you can check it out here, on 360 Gigapixels. [Daily Mail | 360 Gigapixels] –Christopher Cameron

Source: You’ve never seen NYC like this before

The transit hub was meant to resemble a bird’s wings. (credit: Courtney Verrill)

Nearly 15 years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub is now partially open to the public. It serves as a connection between New Jersey’s Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) trains and New York City’s subways, and is right next to One World Trade Center.

The design for the station was first revealed in 2004. It was projected to take five years and only $2.2 billion to complete, but after 12 years and many complications, $2.2 billion turned into $4 billion, making the Transportation Hub the most expensive train station ever. Though the main part of the station that connects to the PATH trains — known as the Oculus — will now be open, other parts, such as the retail space, are still under construction.

Take a look inside the $4 billion hub:

The transportation hub has connections to 11 New York City subway lines and the underground PATH trains that connect New York and New Jersey.

(credit: Courtney Verrill)

The hub was designed by architect Santiago Calatrava, who has worked on buildings in Spain, Switzerland, and Canada. He is currently designing St. Nicholas Church in Liberty Park, another building that was destroyed during the 9/11 attacks.

(credit: Courtney Verrill)

The Port Authority gave Calatrava the green light to start building the hub in 2005. The exterior is unique, with a wing-like rib structure meant to resemble a bird taking flight. The first pieces of the ribs were installed in 2008, a year before the original projected opening.

(credit: Courtney Verrill)

The original design meant for the wings of the hub to open and close — much like the Milwaukee Art Museum, which Calatrava also built — but troubles with the budget forced the authority to keep the wings from moving.

(credit: Courtney Verrill)

The skylight at the top is retractable.

(credit: Courtney Verrill)

The 330-foot retractable skylight will be open on days accompanied by nice weather, as well as annually on 9/11. One World Trade Center is visible through the skylight.

(credit: Courtney Verrill)

The glass roof is meant to bring in natural light to the expected 100,000 commuters who will travel through it.

(credit: Courtney Verrill)

Although there are no stores in the hub at the moment, there are plans to open up many popular retail spaces in August.

(credit: Courtney Verrill)

It’s projected to have up to 125 tenants, including popular brands like Apple, H&M, Michael Kors, and Victoria’s Secret.

(credit: Courtney Verrill)

Parts of the hub are still under construction and will open in phases.

(credit: Courtney Verrill)

The hub opened to the public on March 3. There was an opening ceremony that attracted TV networks, tourists, and locals.

(credit: Courtney Verrill)

Calatrava was there, too.

(credit: Courtney Verrill)

People swarmed around the world-renowned architect.

(credit: Courtney Verrill)

The World Trade Center Transportation Hub is a monument and remembrance of all those who lost their lives on 9/11.

(credit: Courtney Verrill)

Source: NYC’s B WTC transportation hub is finally open to the public

265 Pleasant Avenue,

From Luxury Listings NYC: Rao’s, the 120-year-old Italian restaurant up in East Harlem just might be the most exclusive spot in the city. And now its emerged that even buying the building can’t guarantee you a table.[more]

Source: Rao’s is so exclusive even the owner of the building can’t get a table

Firms looking to buy property in bustling Brooklyn have been sending letters encouraging owners to sell because of a “declining real estate market.” Not so, says The Real Deal’s Hiten Samtani, who talked to PIX 11 about the state of the Brooklyn real estate market. Samtani pointed out Brooklyn home prices are expected to grow four percent by the end of the year.

“The tactics that you’re referring to are complete sleaze-ball tactics,” said Samtani. “Those aren’t things a typical, reputable brokerage or investment firm would do. Yes, everyone wants deals. Brokers call around all the time. That’s part of the game. But those kind of letters are reserved for a certain set of the market. It’s not standard operating procedure for sure.”

Check out the segment on PIX11.

Source: TRD talks sleazeball tactics and Brooklyn real estate

From left: Janice Li and Peter Victor

Cushman & Wakefield is facing a third gender and age discrimination lawsuit in four years after a former director alleged in a $4 million suit that she was wrongfully terminated and replaced by an inexperienced, under-qualified male.

Hongmei “Janice” Li, who is of Chinese origin, was demoted and then fired from her role as director of Cushman’s Asia Pacific International Desk, or iDesk, in December after more than three years with the brokerage, according to a complaint filed Thursday in New York State Supreme Court.

Noting that Cushman & Wakefield “has become infamous for discriminating in employment against women, older people and minorities,” the 47-year-old Li claims Cushman informed her that she was “too senior” and replaced her with Sam King – “a younger, white, English male employee with less knowledge, tenure and relevant experience.”

It’s at least the third discrimination lawsuit filed against the company since 2013. That year, former COO Suzy Reingold alleged that Cushman passed her over for promotion on the basis of age and gender. Reingold’s suit was eventually “resolved,” she told The Real Deal shortly after her departure from the firm in 2014.

In October of 2015, another executive — Maria Sicola, Cushman’s former head of research for the Americas — filed a $40 million lawsuit alleging she was fired and replaced by a 39-year-old man who lacked any management experience.

Li’s lawsuit alleges her termination was “the culmination of a pattern of discriminatory conduct” by Cushman — with Li “subjected to prejudiced comments and behaviors on the basis of her Chinese national origin, including being made fun of for her accent,” during her time with the company.

Li’s complaint adds that Cushman justified Li’s termination by noting that her position was being “eliminated” due to a “reorganization” in wake of the brokerage’s $2 billion merger with fellow commercial real estate giant DTZ last fall.

The suit disputes that explanation, instead claiming that Li’s departure from the company “was instead the result of blatant discrimination.”

Li’s legal action also names as a defendant Cushman senior managing director and International Desk head Peter Victor. She is seeking back pay, front pay and compensatory and “emotional distress” damages amounting to more than $4 million.

A spokesperson for Cushman said the firm does not comment on pending litigation. Li could not be reached for comment.

Source: Cushman & Wakefield hit with another discrimination lawsuit

From Luxury Listings NYC: Is any home worth $85 million? That’s debatable, but Keith Rubenstein’s townhouse at 8 East 62nd Street, which is listed for that amount, certainly features every lavish detail you can possibly imagine (Hermès leather walls anyone?) – plus a whole lot more. [more]

Source: Take a look inside this UES townhouse asking M: VIDEO

Central Park Tower at 217 West 57th Street in Midtown (inset: Gail Brewer)

Over a dozen storefronts near the foot of Extell Development’s Central Park Tower, formerly known as Nordstrom Tower, have been vacant over two years.

A total of 13 retail properties on Broadway between Central Park and 53rd street are shuttered, with five more storefronts closed nearby. That includes the site of the former Famous Oyster Bar on the corner of 54th Street and 7th Avenue, the former home of Pie Face at 53rd Street and Broadway, along with other closed shops, DNAinfo reported.

Landlords may be waiting out the construction of the planned 88-story 1.2 million-square-foot residential tower at 217 West 57th Street – along with other high-end residential and retail developments in the area – in hopes of earning higher rents and choosing a tenant better suited to the future character of the neighborhood.

The tower – which contain 233 luxury condo units – is scheduled for completion in 2019, and will be home to the city’s first Nordstrom Department store.

Extell assembled the site in 2005. The developer hopes for a sellout of as much as $4.4 billion, according to a regulatory filing. That would be a world record.

“Forfeiting income from commercial real estate in order to hold out is very detrimental to the neighborhood,” Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer told DNAinfo. “It’s a deterrent to pedestrian traffic on that side of the street, and it’s a killer for the businesses that remain there.” [DNAinfo] – Ariel Stulberg

Source: Central Park Tower keeping nearby storefronts vacant: experts

288 Sackett Street in Carroll Gardens

After roughly three months and a slight price cut, a Carroll Gardens townhouse was snapped up last month for $4.2 million.

The five-bedroom home, at 288 Sackett Street, was among the top five most expensive new listings to hit the market in November with a price tag of $4.4 million. The home was the borough’s top sale in February when it was purchased for $4.2 million, according to data provided by PropertyShark. In Queens, the biggest sale last month was a six-bedroom home in Douglaston for $2.6 million.

Here’s the full list of February’s top five single-family home sales in Brooklyn and Queens:

BROOKLYN
1. 288 Sackett Street
Neighborhood: Carroll Gardens
Price: $4.2 million
Size: 4,000 square feet
Stories: Four
Built: 2012
Agents: Leslie Marshall and James Cornell of Corcoran Group

64 Prospect Park West in Park Slope

2. 64 Prospect Park West
Neighborhood: Park Slope
Price: $4 million
Size: 2,412 square feet
Stories: Three
Built: 1901
Agents: Shannon Insana and Katie Feola of Corcoran Group

3. 45 Park Place
Neighborhood: Park Slope
Price: $3.7 million
Size: 3,408 square feet
Stories: Three
Built: 1899
Agents: Lee Solomon of Brown Harris Stevens

163 Sixth Avenue in Park Slope

4. 163 Sixth Avenue
Neighborhood: Park Slope
Price: $3.7 million
Size: 4,352
Stories: Three
Built: 1901
Agents: Jessica Buchman and Tim Rettaliata

5. 35 Pierrepont Street #5A
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Price: $3.2 million
Size: Not available
Stories: One
Built: 1929
Agents: Douglas Elliman

QUEENS

318 Kenmore in Douglaston

1. 318 Kenmore Road
Neighborhood: Douglaston
Price: $2.6 million
Size: 3,492 square feet
Stories: Two
Built: 1920
Agents: Not available

2. 108-19 68th Avenue
Neighborhood: Forest Hills
Price: $2.58 million
Size: 2,756 square feet
Stories: Two
Built: 1935
Agents: Not available

236-28 Grosvenor Street in Douglaston

3. 236-28 Grosvenor Street
Neighborhood: Douglaston
Price: $2.4 million
Size: 3,240 square feet
Stories: Two
Built: 1920
Agents: Not available

252-09 Thornhill Avenue in Little Neck

4. 252-09 Thornhill Avenue
Neighborhood: Little Neck
Price: $2.3 million
Size: 4,195 square feet
Stories: Two
Built: 2005
Agents: Toula Polios Realty Group

46-30 Center Boulevard in Long Island City

5. The View at East Coast at 46-30 Center Boulevard, condo unit #211
Neighborhood: Long Island City
Price: $1.9 million
Size: 1,629 square feet
Built: 2008
Agents: Kimberly Kang and Seong Kang of Kingstone Realty

Source: These were the top home sales in BK, Queens in February

From left: The Sherry-Netherland at 781 Fifth Avenue, River House at 435 East 52nd Street and 898 Park Avenue

From the March issue: When a Chinese buyer scooped up a $70 million co-op at the Sherry-Netherland, the deal was a Herculean effort, and not just because the original asking price was $95 million. The March 2015 transaction marked the first time the co-op board of the iconic building on Fifth Avenue allowed a foreign buyer to join its ranks.

While New York City’s notoriously exclusive co-ops have been taking steps to increase their marketability for several years now — whether it be by adding gyms or renovating common spaces — in the last six to 12 months, they’ve ramped up their efforts in new ways. [more]

Source: Are the boards of NYC’s top co-ops in panic mode?

A rendering of the Crossings in Jamaica (inset: Andrew Cuomo and Vicki Been)

New York Housing Commissioner Vicki Been blasted a proposal floated in January by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to change the way the state allocates federal tax-exempt bonds for projects in the city.

Been defended the existing system and called the proposal – which would add two new layers to the bond allocation approval process — a “poison pill.”

A spokesperson for Cuomo suggested in response that the state may alter its plan, Politico reported.

Cuomo’s plan would require all projects funded through the bonds – known as “volume cap” or “bond cap” – to be approved by the Public Authorities Control Board, a state body. It would also grant veto power over a large number of projects to the state-controlled Empire State Development Corporation.

The bonds pay for a large chunk of the city’s affordable development. They contributed to about 17,000 of the 40,000 affordable units built by the city over the last two years.

“We could be two years into working through a project,” Been said, “and at the last minute the Public Authorities Control Board, one member, could say, ‘I don’t approve that project.’”

Dani Lever, speaking for Cuomo, held out the possibility of a compromise.

“Talks with the Legislature regarding this proposal are ongoing,” Lever said in a statement, according to Politico. “Everything is still on the table and the state is discussing several options, including certain exemptions or thresholds for size of projects, issuing agencies or specific regions.”

The fight is just part of the larger battle between the de Blasio and Cuomo administrations. Cuomo’s plan, Politico reported, citing sources familiar with administration’s thinking, represents an attempt to punish de Blasio perceived past slights.

Been also said the Cuomo’s office is holding up projects that would create 1,200 new affordable units in the city, including at the Crossings in Jamaica, where the city is building 480 units. [Politico] – Ariel Stulberg

Source: Cuomo’s plan on housing bonds is a “poison pill”: Been

From left: Maria Torres-Springer and Bill de Blasio

The city will dole out $150 million to developers looking to build industrial space, part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s push to bring more manufacturers to New York.

The Economic Development Corporation is set the launch its NYC Industrial Developer Fund, which will use $60 million in taxpayer money and $90 million in private cash to finance the creation or renovation of an expected 400,000 square feet of space.

The De Blasio administration will focus its efforts on nonprofit developers working in the outer boroughs, Politico reported.

The city will announce that it’s seeking bids from developers for the program on Thursday.

The mayor has previously said he hopes to create 20,000 new manufacturing jobs in the city during his administration. This new fund, city officials hope, will account for about 1,200 of those.

City officials also recently allocated $7.2 million for two new tech centers at the new Brooklyn Navy Yard, totaling about 50,000 square feet.

Jamestown Properties and Angelo, Gordon & Co. – the investors behind Industry City in Sunset Park, one of the city’s most ambitious privately-developed industrial complexes – recently increased their loan from the Bank of China and SL Green Realty to $403 million, from $220 million. [Politico] – Ariel Stulberg

Source: EDC to fund 0M in manufacturing development

From left: Joseph Moinian, Joseph Sitt and 245 Fifth Avenue

The Moinian Group and Thor Equities secured a $160 million loan from AIG Global Real Estate for their office building at 245 Fifth Avenue in NoMad.

The developers had a $130 million loan from Deutsche Bank from July 2014, according to city records. The mortgage, which is for seven years, carries a three-year term with interest-only payments, the New York Observer reported. It has a fixed rate of 3.99 percent.

In 2011, Joseph Moinian of the Moinian Group and Joseph Sitt of Thor Equities closed a deal to buy out Goldman Sachs for $162 million for the 24-story, 307,418-square-foot office building at the corner of East 28th Street. Drew Anderman of Meridian Capital Group brokered the deal.

Moinian and Sitt have sought capital for the building before, and in March 2012, a $140 million loan on was transferred into special servicing because of default concerns. [NYO] — Dusica Sue Malesevic 

Source: Moinian, Thor secure 0M loan for 245 Fifth Avenue

From left: Renderings of the Javits Center and Penn Station (inset: Gov. Andrew Cuomo)

A tool that, by some estimations, has dramatically sped up the construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge could give the same boost to the beleaguered Penn Station and Farley Post Office redevelopment, but some question whether the state is ready — or able — to wield it.

In his proposed executive budget, Gov. Andrew Cuomo outlined his interest in allowing the Empire State Development Corporation to use design-build, a project delivery system in which the owner of a project signs one contract with a single party — usually a construction company — that handles both the design and construction of the project. The method is often touted as a money and time saver, since it streamlines the procurement process and limits design conflicts. Critics argue that design-build stifles competition, since only a select few companies are equipped to carry it out.

If permitted, ESD could apply the method to the $1 billion overhaul of the Javits Center and the $3 billion redevelopment of Penn Station and the Farley Post Office, the latter of which has faced delays for myriad reasons since the 1990s.

But in his review of the budget, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli argued that not enough is known about how this method will impact the projects. Greater protections, such as cost-benefit analyses and financing plans, are needed before extending design-build authority to ESD, he said.

While the method “may provide opportunities for budget savings and construction efficiency, greater transparency and accountability should also be required to ensure that the use of these alternative procurement methods is justified,” DiNapoli stated in his report.

The parameters of design-build authority have been on the table for some time. New York is one of five states with the strictest limitations on design-build, allowing its use only at the following agencies: the Department of Transportation, the Department of Environmental Conservation, the state Thruway Authority, the state Bridge Authority and the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

In January 2014, Cuomo recommended that the practice be expanded to other state agencies. In March, lawmakers opted to instead extend the practice through March 2017 — but only for those five agencies. In June, the ESD is expected to release a report on the use of design-build as it currently exists, and DiNapoli said the state should wait to see the results of that report before expanding authority to more agencies.

“While design-build has been used in some instances, it is still the exception not the rule,” Robert Ward, the deputy comptroller, told The Real Deal Tuesday. “Contracting is inherently a complex and costly process. The state wants to make as sure as possible that things are done in a cost-effective manner.”

Representatives with ESD told TRD that the proposed legislation doesn’t require the use of design-build; it merely provides the option should they decide it is the best approach. Since ESD has already hired an architect, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, to design Moynihan Station, developers will have the option to either use SOM’s designs and use design-build for the rest of the Empire Station Complex or use the designs for guidance and complete the whole redevelopment using design-build.

Terrence Oved, a real estate attorney at Oved & Oved, said that proponents of the delivery method would argue that design-build is ideal for Penn Station and Javits. At the same time, the state’s experience with the system is largely limited to bridges and other infrastructure.

“It hasn’t been used so much in New York to create structures,” Oved said. “It’s a very interesting question whether these skills translate.”

Still, the prospect of saving on cost and time is particularly alluring for projects that have remained in limbo for years. The redevelopment of the Farley Post Office and Penn Station has been more than two decades in the making, only recently jump-started by Cuomo with the issuance of an RFP. The Tappan Zee Bridge, whose replacement has been talked about for 30 years, is often held up as a prime example of design-build’s ability to speed up a languishing public project. The project’s schedule, according to a report by the New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation, ended up 18 months shorter and an estimated 15 percent cheaper than it would have been under the design-bid-build model.

Richard Thomas, director of state and local legislative affairs at the Design-Build Institute of America, an advocacy group for the practice, said that design-build typically speeds up projects by 33 percent. It ensures the designer and contractor work closely together and leads to fewer change orders during construction, he said. Unlike in traditional design-bid-build projects — where an owner hires an architect to design the project then finds a contractor to execute it — the design team works together from the start of the project. This relationship, Thomas said, shifts cost overruns to the design-build team, not the owner.

Pat DiFilippo, an executive at Turner Construction Company, which is part of a team bidding on the Penn Station redevelopment and has used design-build on up to 15 percent of its portfolio, said that there is a misconception that the method unilaterally shifts “universal responsibility” to the design team. It’s likely, he said, that both the train station and convention center will end up being design-build projects, as their size and complexity will demand a high level of collaboration. Design-build cuts time and costs and assures a higher quality, as long as the project’s owner is involved in the project upfront, he said.

“Design build doesn’t just climb into a builder’s head and figure out what it wants,” he said. “The communication between an owner and the design build team, is paramount for the success of the project.”

Source: Here’s how Cuomo is trying to hasten Penn Station’s redevelopment

From Left: CoStar CEO Andrew Florance and RealMassive’s Craig Hancock

UPDATED, 9:50 p.m., March 2: Commercial real estate research company CoStar settled its copyright infringement lawsuit against startup RealMassive, less than two years after the publicly-traded company dropped a fight against users of a competitive product, CompStak.

CoStar, which runs an online commercial real estate database and has a market capitalization of $5.82 billion, sued RealMassive in May, claiming the startup used its copyrighted images of properties without permission.

“We are glad to have this lawsuit resolved,”RealMassive’s CEO Craig Hancock said in a statement Wednesday. “CoStar’s claim that we deliberately added its photos to our database was false. Our firm went to great lengths and expense to avoid acquiring CoStar’s images, but apparently a few images slipped through the cracks early on.” Hancock did not specify the terms of the settlement.

Austin-based RealMassive is an online marketplace that allows users to share commercial real estate data. The firm is among a handful of startups challenging CoStar’s dominance in the online commercial real estate data business.

In its own statement, CoStar dismissed the suggestion that the copyright infringements were isolated incidents. “RealMassive is not an example of innovation. Rather, its service was powered by content that was stolen from those who created it through hard work and investment,” a CoStar spokesperson wrote. “As the case progressed, it became even clearer that RealMassive’s systematic theft of CoStar intellectual property had been conducted on a real massive scale.”

Users of a competing product, crowdsourced leasing database CompStak, were hit by a similar CoStar lawsuit in early 2014. That suit, which alleged copyright infringement by CompStak users, was ultimately withdrawn. CompStak was never named a party in the suit.

Under the terms of CoStar’s settlement with RealMassive, the firms agreed to “work together to avoid future disputes.” According to RealMassive’s statement, CoStar also agreed to mark its copyrighted images and to give RealMassive a written takedown notice before filing any future lawsuits.

CoStar, which is led by Andrew Florance and went public in 1998, has a history of acquiring other real estate information companies. In 2012, it paid $860 million for Loopnet. In 2014, it paid $585 million for Apartments.com, and bought Apartment Finder for $170 million the following year.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly described a previous lawsuit brought by CoStar against CompStak users. CompStak was not named a party in that lawsuit. 

Source: CoStar, RealMassive settle copyright lawsuit

730 Fifth Avenue in Midtown (inset from left: Sandeep Mathrani and Jeff Sutton)

Ermenegildo Zegna plans to open a new flagship store, right on Billionaire’s Row.

The luxury Italian clothier took 9,000 square feet across the lower two floors of the Crown Building at 730 Fifth Avenue, which is owned by Jeff Sutton’s Wharton Properties and Sandeep Mathrani’s General Growth Properties, the New York Post reported.

Sutton negotiated the deal personally with the firm’s CEO, Ermenegildo “Gildo” Zegna himself, grandson of the founder with the same name.

Milan-based Zegna signed a 15-year lease. Asking rent for the space was about $4,000 per square foot.

Late last year, Sutton and Mathrani signed Italian luxury goods retailer Bulgari to a 15-year lease for 6,000 square feet at the space next door, at a rent of about $5,500 per square foot, a city record.

The partners bought the 390,000-square-foot Crown Building last year for $1.8 billion. It was highest price per square foot ever paid for an entire office building world, $4,564 per foot. [NYP] – Ariel Stulberg

Source: Zegna to open flagship store at the Crown Building

From the March issue: Hardly a day has gone by in 2016 without headlines about turmoil in the world’s financial markets and struggling economies. High on the list of concerns: plunging oil prices, erratic stock markets, the slowdown in China, a rising dollar and a possible U.S. recession. Yet these days, it’s not just brokers on Wall Street who have their heads in their hands but also those in the New York City real estate market. [more]

Source: Deep impact: How volatility in China, plumetting oil prices and other global market freakouts will affect NYC real estate

201 East 74th on the Upper East Side, one of the properties for sale

Midtown-based Premier Equities is looking to sell a set of five Upper East Side buildings with substantial residential development rights.

The real estate investment firm is offering four five-story buildings on the corner of East 74th Street and Third Avenue, as well as a four-story property on East 75th Street.

The asking price for the properties isn’t known, but the ultimate level of demand for the package will likely serve as a bellwether for the state of the city’s luxury residential market, which observers have recently predicted is set for a flattening or even a slowdown.

The sites have a combined 115,000 square feet in development rights, according to Meridian Investment Sales, Crain’s reported.

Meridian’s Helen Hwang, Karen Wiedenmann and Brian Szczapa are marketing the site.

The brokers said one possible scenario for the site would be for a buyer to demolish two of the five buildings and build a 95,000-square-foot residential building on the site.

Premier – led by Uzi Ben Abraham and Yaron Jacobi – owns about three dozen properties in the city, with a focus on retail, according to its website. [Crain’s] – Ariel Stulberg

Source: Premier Equities marketing five-building UES portfolio

Danny Fishman and “Nine52” at 416 West 52nd Street in Midtown

Gaia Real Estate launched sales at its 155-unit Hells Kitchen condo conversion of the former St. Vincent’s Midtown Hospital at 417 West 52nd Street.

Prices at the condo, dubbed Nine52, range from $650,000 for a studio to just over $3 million for a duplex penthouse. The vast majority of apartments have one or two bedrooms.

Gaia bought the 160,000-square-foot building from the Chetrit Group in August for $156.5 million. Chetrit had redeveloped the property and initially planned to turn it into rentals.

Danny Fishman, Gaia’s managing partner, said the firm decided to convert the property into condos to tap into what it calls a “very strong market” for Manhattan condos under $3 million. “I think that for the condo product in this price range there is a real shortage in Manhattan,” he said, adding that demand for more expensive apartments is much weaker.

Apartments in the building come with washer dryers, and amenities include a gym, 24-hour concierge service and a children’s room.

According to the condo plan recently approved by the State Attorney General’s office, Nine52 has a projected sellout of $232.4 million.

Source: Gaia launches condo sales at former Midtown Hospital

A rendering of the proposed store in Jamaica (Credit: George Arzt Communications)

Blumenfeld Development Group bowed out of the contract to bring a 160,000-square-foot retail store to Jamaica, Queens — which would have been the neighborhood’s first major department store in decades.

A little less than three years ago, Blumenfeld and the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation announced that they had signed an agreement to turn two parking lots at 168th Street, near 90th Avenue, into a store and a parking garage with 550 spaces.

By late 2014, Blumenfeld said it was looking for an anchor tenant for the $50 million retail complex and was talking to several big retailers like Target and BJ’s Wholesale, DNAinfo reported.

However, the contract between the two was recently terminated, Hope Knight, the president of the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, told DNAinfo.

“There were a number of milestones that had to be met and for various reasons were not able to happen,” she said.

The corporation will issue a new request for proposals this spring.

Blumenfeld spokeswoman Raffaela Petrasek told DNAinfo that Greater Jamaica changed the scope of the project and the developer is “waiting to see what is required in the new RFP.”

Last year, the developer had increased the size of the complex to 265,000 square feet and would also have affordable housing. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration pushed for the inclusion of affordable housing, DNAinfo reported. [DNAinfo] — Dusica Sue Malesevic

Source: Blumenfeld backs out of 160K sf retail store in Jamaica

Rendering of 363-365 Bond Street in Gowanus (inset: David Lichtenstein)

What’s that smell? If you ask Lightstone Group CEO David Lichtenstein, he’ll tell you it isn’t just the canal — it’s money. The developer is finally ready to open the first building at its controversial rental project on the polluted waterway.

The developer’s 12-story, 323,000-square foot building at 365 Bond Street will start taking residents Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Rents start at $2,000 for a studio and touch $3,000 for a one bedroom.

The new building features amenities such as doormen, rooftop sundecks, valet parking, and a full size gym with a picturesque view of the canal.

It’s part of Lightstone’s $350 million, 700-unit residential project in the area, long known more for its pollution than its living spaces.

The second building in that project, at 363 Bond Street, is still a year from completion. Lightstone recently sold off a piece of that project to Atlantic Realty, who paid $75 million. Lightstone bought that parcel for $6.9 million in 2013.

The project has been contentious since the start. Toll Brothers, the site’s former owners, abandoned plans for a similar development at the site after the Gowanus Canal was designated a Superfund site in 2010. Large scale efforts to clean up the area are set to kick off next year.

In 2013, the city approved a spot rezoning of the area to allow for more residential construction at the site. Much of the surrounding area still doesn’t allow for apartments. [WSJ] – Ariel Stulberg

Source: Lightstone’s first Gowanus Canal rental building opens

From left: David Gialanella and Cushman & Wakefield CEO Brett White

David Gialanella, the former head of the New York Tri-State region for commercial brokerage DTZ, has departed Cushman & Wakefield in wake of the company’s mega-merger with DTZ.

Gialanella, who was appointed executive managing director for DTZ’s New York office in 2013, is leaving his position at Cushman & Wakefield with a possible aim toward joining another commercial real estate firm, multiple sources told The Real Deal.

Gialanella declined to comment on the matter, while a Cushman & Wakefield spokesperson did not return requests for comment.

Gialanella’s is one of the higher-profile departures in wake of DTZ’s $2 billion mega-merger with Cushman & Wakefield, which closed last fall. The former CBRE executive is no stranger to Cushman, having spent 20 years at the brokerage earlier in his career and serving on Cushman’s board of directors.

His time at DTZ was marked by several entity-level deals that eventually led to the company becoming part of what is now one of the largest commercial real estate brokerages in the world.

Last January, DTZ completed a merger with commercial real estate services firm Cassidy Turley that saw the two companies’ New York offices combined — with Gialanella ceding his role as head of New York Tri-State operations to Cassidy Turley counterpart Peter Hennessy.

Then came the even bigger merger with Cushman & Wakefield, which saw Cushman Tri-State region president Ron Lo Russo tapped to continue heading the new, combined brokerage giant’s New York office.

The merger, which created a company with 43,000 employees and more than $5.5 billion in annual revenues under the Cushman & Wakefield name, has seen executives leave for rival firms like Colliers International and a round of national layoffs that impacted as many as 250 marketing and research employees.

Late last year, reports claimed Cushman & Wakefield was not keeping pace with competitors JLL and CBRE because of its debt, but could go public in 2016 under CEO Brett White to beef up its assets.

Source: David Gialanella leaving Cushman & Wakefield