One of Newmark Knight Frank’s top retail brokers, Amira Yunis, has left the brokerage to join CBRE, CBRE announced today. Yunis will join the company’s Midtown Manhattan office as an executive vice president in retail services, effective next Monday.

Yunis, who has been with Newmark since 2000, served most recently as executive vice president and principal of the company, where she brokered several high-profile deals such as a Trader Joe’s lease at Union Square (the retailer’s first lease in the city) and an 8,500-square-foot space at the Fred French Building at 551 Fifth Avenue to the clothing retailer Tommy Bahama.

“Amira has steadily and intelligently built a notable retail real estate business in New York, including prime international and national brands,” said Matt Van Buren, president of the New York tri-state region at CBRE. -- Katherine Clarke [more]

Newmark’s Amira Yunis and 551 Fifth AvenueSeattle-based Tommy Bahama, an 89-store island-themed purveyor of lifestyle goods is coming to Fifth Avenue and 45th Street. The chain recently signed a 12-year, 8,500-square-foot lease for retail space, formerly occupied by New York Look, in the art deco Fred F. French Building at 551 Fifth Avenue, the Wall Street Journal reported. Broker Amira Yunis of Newmark Knight Frank arranged the deal. “It enables them to be on Fifth Avenue in a high-traffic area but pay a third to a fourth of the rent,” of stores to the north, Yunis said of Tommy’s deal. [more]

Facebook has swapped its old office at 551 Fifth Avenue between 45th and 46th streets for a new 11,119-square-foot office space just a few blocks away, at 340 Madison Avenue between 43rd and 44th streets. A Facebook representative said that they moved for purely practical reasons. “As we expanded our team in New York, we simply outgrew our old space,” Meredith Chin, a Facebook spokesperson, said. Daniel Katcher of Newmark Knight Frank, who represented sublandlord Sunguard, described the space as “a nice mix between corporate, tech and loft offices” that will primarily house Facebook’s sales team. Broadway Partners purchased the 340 Madison Avenue building in 2006 for $550 million.