From the January issue: Even in a year marked by continued economic malaise, buyers, sellers, landlords, lenders, builders, investors and even tourists broke records in New York in 2011. Several developers last year made headway on towers that, when built, are set to surpass the highest points in the current skyline. The most notable, of course, is One World Trade Center, which will be New York’s tallest building when it reaches its full height of 1,776 feet. After the jump, see a list of the all-time highs — and lows — reached in the last year. [more]

From left: The  exterior of the new Uniqlo store at 666 Fifth Avenue on opening night (credit Freshness Mag) and the interior 

Where Brooks Brothers once stood you now have Uniqlo, the ultra-hyped Japanese clothiers whose advertisements in recent weeks have achieved an almost unparalleled degree of saturated ubiquity on billboards, buses and in subway cars throughout the five boroughs. All of those ads announce the opening of their new flagship (and their third New York City store) at 666 Fifth Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd streets. That store, which opened a few weeks ago, stands in clamorous discordance next door to the recently opened Hollister flagship, whose darksome façade is enlivened with shallow pools of water and live video feed of the California surf.

Architecturally, the most remarkable thing about Uniqlo’s façade is the fact that the company was allowed to peel off some of the building’s signature embossed aluminum panels at the third story and in the process diminish somewhat the overall effect of the building, which was completed in 1957 to designs by the firm of Carson & Lundin. [more]

From the November issue: Three autumns ago, the collapse of Lehman Brothers knocked the wind out of New York’s real estate industry. Home sales flattened. Prices plunged. And, as layoffs mounted, office buildings emptied out. While there have been some spurts of activity, the industry has not gotten back to the highs of the boom. In fact, as the unemployment rate still hovers at an uncomfortably high level, and Wall Street (a once-reliable real estate engine) reports losses, it seems that a complete recovery might be years away.

All the same, there are signs of comebacks — whether they are from developers who once defaulted on mega-loans and seemed like pariahs, or stock prices that have bounced back from the doldrums at some public real estate companies. There are also geographic stretches of the city that had been pocked with empty retail spaces and empty condo buildings, but are now filling up with stores and residents. There are even some bankers who had been caught up in the subprime mess who are now back on the lending scene in a big way. [more]

Even though concerns about a double-dip recession are still great, large retail companies continue to pay top prices for premier locations, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Recent examples include clothing company Uniqlo’s $300 million lease on Fifth Avenue, similar to the price Dolce & Gabbana paid to lease space nearby.

“The rent we pay is quite a large amount,” said Shin Odake, COO of Uniqlo USA, of the store opening between 52nd and 53rd streets on Fifth Avenue in two weeks. “But given that we think we have the best location on Fifth Avenue, and many people walking by will be from across the United States and other countries, we think the rent is actually quite reasonable.” [more]

From left: Thor Equities CEO Joseph Sitt, 590 Fifth Avenue and former NBA store site at 666 Fifth Avenue

The National Basketball Association has signed a temporary retail lease at Thor Equities‘ 590 Fifth Avenue, between 47th and 48th streets, Thor announced today. The NBA will occupy two levels totaling more than 6,000 square feet with 20 feet of direct frontage on Fifth Avenue. The league will continue to search for a permanent location in Manhattan.

A spokesperson for Thor was not immediately available to comment on the terms of the lease.
For 12 years, the NBA store occupied a 35,000-square-foot lease at 666 Fifth Avenue, but chose not to renew its lease last year after Cushman & Wakefield increased the asking rent by 500 percent, CBS reported at the time. The store closed in February. The increase was reportedly instigated after Japanese retailer Uniqlo snagged 89,000 square feet at the former Brooks Brothers space for a record $300 million over 15 years. – Katherine Clarke [more]

Source: Eastern Consolidated

Historically low cap rates have finally drawn Manhattan commercial property sellers to the table and ignited the previously anemic market, Eastern Consolidated President Daun Paris said with today’s release of the company’s second-quarter property sales report.

As a similar report by Massey Knakal Realty Services indicated last week, the dollar volume of property sales in the second quarter of 2011 surged, largely on the backs of $100-million-plus transactions. The Eastern Consolidated report shows sales doubled to $9.4 billion compared to the previous quarter. There were 25 such sales in the second quarter as opposed to the 11 recorded in the first quarter, according to the report. However, overall sales activity remained stagnant, as 187 transactions closed in each quarter. – Adam Fusfeld [more]

Jared Kushner

For Jared Kushner, the 30-year-old owner of the New York Observer and 666 Fifth Avenue, 2011 will be a defining year, according to the New York Times. Personally, Kushner’s wife, Ivanka Trump, is pregnant and poised to give birth to his first son. Professionally, Kushner is working to modify the loans on the $1.8 billion purchase of 666 Fifth Avenue he and his company, Kushner Companies, made at the height of the bubble, and to ensure that the Observer remains relevant through its third editor-in-chief in two years. Kushner, the story notes, was born into real estate through his father Charles. He began making deals of his own as an undergraduate at Harvard University buying apartment buildings throughout Boston. [more]

Charles Kushner of Kushner Companies, Vornado’s Steven Roth and 666 Fifth Avenue

The large office and retail landlord Vornado Realty Trust is negotiating with Kushner Companies to buy a stake in 666 Fifth Avenue’s equity and is talking with representatives of the building’s lenders to cut its debt, several industry sources said.

The real estate investment trust Vornado would pay an undefined “nine-figure” sum (meaning something between $100 million and $999 million), according to a source, for a piece of the building.

Sources gave conflicting accounts of how far along any deal was. Several said no deal was finalized, and one said Kushner was talking with multiple potential partners such as funds. But it was clear that Kushner was actively pursuing investors in the building.

In the spring of 2010, Kushner asked that the $1.2 billion in securitized loans on the 1.5 million-square-foot building located between 52nd and 53rd streets, be put into special servicing with LNR Partners, so that the debt could be restructured. [more]

Source: Eastern Consolidated

Despite strong employment growth and stabilizing Manhattan office rents, Manhattan commercial property sales took a big hit in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the last three months of 2010, according to a report released today by Eastern Consolidated. Sales totaled $3.9 billion on 184 transactions in the first quarter, compared to $6.6 billion in sales in fourth-quarter 2010, but those numbers far surpassed first-quarter totals in 2010 (see the chart above). The report attributed the decline to investors rushing to close deals before the capital gains tax expired, unaware that the bill would ultimately be renewed. One area of commercial property sales that increased sharply in the first quarter was Manhattan retail property sales. TRD [more]

A new tenant for the high-profile Takashimaya building at 693 Fifth Avenue will likely pay a ground-floor rent higher than the $2,000 per square foot that Swatch recently signed for in a space nearby, property owner Joseph Sitt, chairman and CEO of Thor Equities, said in an interview with Insights from The Real Deal (see video above).

Swiss-based Swatch inked a 15-year deal that starts at about $2,000 per square foot in the retail condo at 666 Fifth Avenue owned by Carlyle Group, Kushner Companies and Crown Acquisitions.

Sitt said there was “no question” he would get rents in the range of $2,500 per square foot. He added there were six tenants looking seriously at the space in the 20-story building.

In addition, Robert Knakal, chairman of commercial brokerage Massey Knakal Realty Services, told Insights that the first quarter sales for retail property in Manhattan nearly reached the $586 million figure for all of 2010. [more]