At left: Gaia managing partners Amir Yerushalmi and Danny Friedman and Park River Properties’ Lenny Sporn and Mickey Roth at their new office opening. At right: Lenny Sporn with Rabbi Yishayahu Yosef Pinto at the office.

It’s been less than three months since Prudential Douglas Elliman powerbrokers Mickey Roth and Lenny Sporn departed the firm to start their own venture, but the Roth-Sporn brand appears to be holding strong, even under their new company name, Park River Properties.

The freshly-minted firm, which organizes foreign buyers into purchase groups for bulk deals in new development condominiums in New York City, is planning a slew of international outposts for its forthcoming expansion. In addition to the existing Park River office in Tel Aviv, Israel, a branch is coming to Rome next month, Sporn said. He is hoping to open a total of five new overseas offices over the course of the year, and is eyeing Japan and India for two of them.

Park River, which launched in December as part of one-year-old Gaia Real Estate, a distressed investment firm, also moved into a permanent U.S. headquarters this week with Gaia and Gaia’s latest acquisition, Vision Property Management, at the Carnegie Hall Tower at 152 West 57th Street. Park River currently employs 15 agents in New York and also has plans to open two more Manhattan branches over the next six months. [more]

Buildings where deals have been done for over $100 this year. From left: 9 West 57th Street, 152 West 57th Street and 1095 Avenue of the Americas (Source: PropertyShark)

Although the top taking rent so far this year is an eye-popping $185
per square foot at Sheldon Solow’s 9 West 57th Street, it is just one
of only a handful of leases signed for $100 or more per square foot
this year in a challenging leasing environment, industry experts said. New York City landlords signed just 12 leases with taking rents of over
$100 per square foot through July 31, down from 66 at the same time
last year, figures from commercial services firm Cushman &
Wakefield show, an 80 percent drop. “From 66 to 12 is a significant drop off, considering quite a few of
those were renewals of captive tenants,” and most were not for large
deals, said Jonathan Mazur, assistant director of research services for
Cushman & Wakefield. He would not comment on particular deals. Comments

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