579 Fifth and Edward Goldman

Bank Leumi USA has inked a 20-year lease for more than a third of the space inside the 579 Fifth Avenue, the New York Observer reported. The bank, now in the Graybar Building on Lexington Avenue, will occupy 60,000 square feet of the 150,000-square-foot building; the space is on the second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh floors of the 17-story tower. [more]

From left: Michael Cohen, Andrew Roos and 136 Madison

While Midtown South rents rise despite an increase in available space, as reported earlier today, tenants are looking for space just north of the neighborhood in hopes of finding better value. The latest example is Syracuse University, which recently inked a 20,000-square-foot office lease at 136 Madison Avenue at East 31st Street, Crain’s reported. [more]

400 West 42nd Street

A pair of developers is moving forward with plans to build a 510-room pod-style hotel project in Times Square, filing plans to demolish three low-rise buildings near the corner of West 42nd Street and Ninth Avenue to make way for a 28-story tower. Developers the Friedman Group and Landis Group are partnering to build the 220,000-square-foot project at 400 West 42nd Street on parcels they acquired for about $80 million before the market collapsed, Robert Friedman, a principal with the Friedman Group, told The Real Deal. [more]

Times Square Theatre

The $60 million makeover of the Times Square Theater at 217 West 42nd Street into Broadway 4D, a multi-media musical project, will continue for another 16 months at the least, the New York Post reported. “It’s an adagio tempo, but they are progressing,” Cora Cahan, the president of New 42nd Street, the theater’s landlord, told the Post. [more]

Gary Barnett

While Extell’s One57, located on West 57th Streets between Sixth and Seventh avenues, caters to 1 percent purchasers who can afford, say, a $54 million full-floor unit, the developer will go farther west to develop a 725,000-square-foot rental property — one-fifth of which will be reserved for low-income tenants, the Wall Street Journal reported. Extell has filed plans for a 600-unit property earlier this month to be located at West 41st Street and 10th Avenue. [more]

From left: Eastern Consolidated’s Scott Ellard, Brian Ezratty, Martin Ezratty and 212 East 57th St. (credit: PropertyShark)

Malachite Services, a Long Island-based real estate company, has purchased a 5,315-square-foot retail condominium at 212 East 57th Street for $4.05 million, the New York Observer reported. The space, located between Second and Third avenues in the Plaza District, is now occupied by the furniture gallery ILIAD New York, whose lease expires in 2019. [more]

Manhattan West project rendering

Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended his decision to fast-track rezoning in Midtown East at the groundbreaking ceremony for Brookfield Office Properties’ Manhattan West megaproject yesterday, the New York Observer reported. The mayor dismissed concerns that the rezoning would see a flight of corporate tenants to Midtown East at the expense of the new towers at Manhattan West. [more]

Office buildings along Sixth Avenue in Midtown (credit: Google)

As large office tenants either move or lay off employees, vacancies in the Sixth Avenue submarket could hit 12.5 percent—a 20-year high, Crain’s reported. The vacancy rate currently stands at 10.7 percent. [more]

545 Madison Avenue

Strike Holdings Group, a financial services firm, has both renewed its lease and doubled its footprint at LCOR’s 545 Madison Avenue, the New York Observer reported. The deal is a 10-year lease for 13,754 square feet, divided equally between renewed and new office space. In 2010, Strike inked a deal for the building’s 15th floor and will now expand up to the 16th floor. The Observer noted that this lease brings the 17-story, 142,000-square-foot property to 93 percent occupancy. In addition, leases for over a quarter of the building’s space have been completed in the last four months. [more]

Joe Siit and Fifth Avenue Tower (Building image c/o CityRealty)

Thor Equities won a temporary restraining order against Fifth Avenue Tower. The order, issued late Wednesday, blocks the condominium board at the 33-story apartment building from taking down Thor’s signs from the retail space that it owns at the property. [more]