Category : Featured

FeaturedResidential

Corcoran’s Rafa Maciejak moves to the beat of his own drum

REW Staff
by REW Staff5200
By Roslyn LoIn garages all over, local bands gather for jam sessions, practicing diligently while dreaming of the day they can hang up their ties and hit the open road in a tour bus. Rafa Maciejak has been there and done that, and has come out of his experiences embracing both the corporate and creative aspects of his life. Currently a residential broker, Maciejak is a former British pop drummer, who has toured the world for years and finally settled in his place of birth, Brooklyn. Maciejak split the past two decades between pursuing musical and real estate ventures. Since 2001, he has risen quickly in the Corcoran Group, and is currently a senior associate broker there.
Deals & DealmakersFeatured

Cushman & Wakefield report shows that office market continues to strengthen

REW Staff
by REW Staff1011
By Daniel GeigerManhattan leasing continued on a solid pace in the first quarter, according to data released this morning by the Cushman & Wakefield, although there were some indications that the activity could be driven by pent-up demand and may taper off. About 7.6 million s/f of space was leased in the first three months of the year, compared to about 7.5 million s/f in the fourth quarter of 2010, the most since the third quarter of 2006.
Deals & DealmakersFeatured

Standard Chartered Bank completes move to Blackstone’s 1095 Sixth Avenue

REW Staff
by REW Staff1313
By Roland LiStandard Chartered Bank has completed the relocation of its Americas headquarters to the Blackstone Group’s 1095 Sixth Avenue. The bank is leasing three floors, totaling 107,000 s/f. A spokeswoman for the bank said the move was driven by a need for more space. Since 2002, its 500 employees had been occupying one floor at 1 Madison Avenue.
Deals & DealmakersEditorial SupplementsFeatured

Job growth a mixed signal for Manhattan office market

REW Staff
by REW Staff1327
By Roland LiLast week, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the country added 216,000 jobs in March, although the national unemployment rate remained relatively unchanged at 8.8% percent. While encouraging, the statistics indicate that a true national recover is still months, if not years away, according to sources, and uncertainty remains in the local office market.
Deals & DealmakersFeatured

Finding a Benchmark in Greenwich Village multifamily

REW Staff
by REW Staff1365
By Roland LiBenchmark Real Estate Group, LLC recently closed on its eighth multifamily property in Greenwich Village and Soho. By the end of the year, the company hopes to add an additional four or five properties. Last November, Benchmark purchased 156 Sullivan Street, a 16,000 s/f building with 22 two-bedroom apartments and three retail stores, for $6 million.
FeaturedResidential

Residential prices drop in first quarter

REW Staff
by REW Staff6355
By Roland LiOverall residential sales prices fell in the first quarter of 2011, according to reports released last week from the major residential brokerages and the listings website StreetEasy, underscoring underlying concerns in the market. According to data from Prudential Douglas Elliman, the Manhattan median sales price was $782,071, down 9.9% from the first quarter of 2010 and down 7.4% from the fourth quarter of 2010. Some of the decline was attributed to the increase of co-op sales, which are, on average, priced lower than condos. Co-op sales increased to 1,430 units, up 28.7% compared to the first quarter of 2010, and accounted for 59.7% of all sales, its highest share in six years, according to Elliman.
Featured

Welcome to the new Real Estate Weekly

REW Staff
by REW Staff902
We are delighted to announce the relaunch of our website, incorporating our original reporting and exclusive multimedia into a clean, user-friendly design. The new site is divided into the same sections as our print edition, which has been published weekly since 1954. You can sign up for our mailing list on the right sidebar, and also follow Real Estate Weekly on Twitter, Facebook and via RSS. We also welcome your photos, editorial submissions for our Opinion section, and especially your feedback.
Deals & DealmakersFeatured

The Hartford takes two floors at 277 Park Avenue

REW Staff
by REW Staff3283
By Daniel GeigerThe Hartford, a Connecticut based insurance company, is leasing about 90,000 s/f at 277 Park Avenue for its Manhattan headquarters. The company, whose current lease for its main Manhattan office at 2 Park Avenue expires in September, had been negotiating to move to 120 Park Avenue earlier this year. The company was unable to complete that deal when Bloomberg LP, the large media and financial data company, leased 400,000 s/f there, absorbing nearly all of 120 Park’s available space.
Deals & DealmakersFeatured

Wells Fargo in talks for 250,000 s/f at 150 East 42nd Street

REW Staff
by REW Staff1384
By Daniel Geiger Wells Fargo is in talks to lease a roughly 250,000 s/f block of space at 150 East 42nd Street in which to relocate and consolidate a number of its offices in Manhattan, according to sources familiar with the bank's real estate search. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, one of the largest banks in the U.S., has been seeking to consolidate several offices in Manhattan. In January, it was close to a deal to take space at 120 Park Avenue, a vacant office tower, but was passed over late in those negotiations when that building’s landlord, Global Holdings, arranged to a deal with the media and financial company Bloomberg LP instead for the bulk of the over-600,000 s/f building’s space.
Deals & DealmakersFeatured

Cushman & Wakefield reports profitable 2010

REW Staff
by REW Staff1425
By Daniel GeigerCushman & Wakefield reported that it had net income of $25.7 million in 2010. The results were a substantial turnaround from 2009, when the real estate services company, which is one of Manhattan’s powerhouse brokerage firms, reported a loss of $127 million. Cushman said that commissions and service fees during the year totaled $1.4 billion. In 2009, those figures amounted to $1.2 billion of income.