Sheldon Solow, owner of 9 West 57th Street, is planning to carve the 30,000-square-foot, 49th floor of the skyscraper into four pre-built office units to lease at pre-recession rents of $200 per square foot, the New York Observer reported.

Solow drew up the plans just before Christmas, according to Scott Panzer, a leasing broker at Jones Lang LaSalle who took over leasing for at the building last year. The units, which will range in size from 5,000 square feet to 12,000 square feet, will appeal to smaller users, Panzer said, such as hedge funds and private equity firms. [more]

From left: Sheldon Solow and 9 West 57th StreetDeveloper Sheldon Solow has obtained a $625 million loan on 9 West 57th Street from Deutsche Bank, which beat out AIG and JPMorgan Chase to provide financing for the trophy property, Bloomberg News reported.

The loan refinances debt set to mature in February that Solow took out at the height of the bubble in 2007. About $55 billion of property loans are set to come due in 2012, and $19 billion of them were originated at the height of the bubble. But most of them will struggle to refinance, Standard & Poor’s predicted, as property values have decreased about 42 percent from the peak.

In this case, several parties competed for Solow’s refinancing because of the location and prestige of the building, exemplifying the demand for prime buildings, Bloomberg said. [more]

From left: 11 Times Square, 9 West 57th Street and 1333 Broadway (building credit: PropertyShark)

While global economic concerns have landlords of vacant U.S. retail spaces scrambling for any tenant, in Manhattan, landlords are patiently awaiting the perfect tenant for their trophy spaces, the Wall Street Journal reported.

For example, it’s not for lack of interest that the 55,000-square-foot retail space in SJP Properties’ 11 Times Square, at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, has sat vacant for two years. Rather the developer wants to land a big-name and raise the profile of the one million-square-foot tower. [more]

1. Natixis Global Associates ready to renew lease at 9 West 57th Street
[NYO]
2. Shopping malls are now a daily destination
[Daily Markets]
3. Senate Housing Committee endorses slate of housing bills
[NYO]
4. Attorney general investigates Donald Trump’s for-profit schools
[NYT]
5. Bed-stuy residents say farewell to their favorite coffee place
[Brownstoner]
6. East Village eateries with no health violations
[EVGrieve]
7. London contemporary art fair comes to New York
[NYT]
8. Flatbush prepares for a makeover
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9. City approves Mars Bar demolition
[EVGrieve]
10. East Harlem has 19 buildings worthy of landmark status
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[more]

From left: Cynthia Wasserberger, 9 West 57th Street and 767 Fifth Avenue (building photo source: PropertyShark)

[Updated 2:30 p.m., Oct. 11, 2010] Asking rents climbed in a selection of Midtown’s top office buildings over the past six months as the leasing market tightened, with some buildings reaching the $200-per-square-foot level, according to a report [more]

If every New York City office building went up for sale right now, which ones would command the best prices? That’s the question the Observer posed to some of New York’s most prominent commercial real estate this week, resulting in a subjective list of the 10 most valuable office buildings in the city. There were few surprises among their picks, which included the Chrysler Building, the General Motors Building, the Empire State Building, the World Financial Center, the Seagram Building, 9 West 57th Street and Bank of America’s brand new headquarters at One Bryant Park. [NYO] 

[more]

Nearly half the Central Park views at storied office tower 9 West 57th Street are going to waste. Approximately 24 of the 50 floors in Sheldon Solow’s prized building — the namesake for shoe retailer and former tenant Nine West — sit vacant, including the top three, sources told the Wall Street Journal, and many say the billionaire developer is to blame. Solow has not reduced rents in the building amid plummeting commercial real estate prices across the city, asking around $200 a foot for the highest floors, while nearby buildings are down 18 percent from a year ago to $79 a foot. Another possible culprit, industry experts say: Solow’s legal tangles. Two years ago, the Wall Street Journal notes that Bank of America, his largest tenant, left its 14 floors at the building for its own new tower after Solow tried and failed to evict the company on the grounds that it was using the space for criminal activity. Solow is reportedly in poor health and has turned his business over to his son, Stefan, and an outside consultant, who hired CB Richard Ellis to handle leasing in the building. [WSJ]

From the March issue: Although they may be just beguiling mirages that will fade upon approach, there are some submarkets where asking rents have jumped in the past months, a trend that runs counter to the dour predictions from Manhattan leasing brokers that taking rents won’t rise for more than a year.

In the Meatpacking District, for example, Charles Blaichman’s CB Developers High Line building that remains under construction at 450 West 14th Street has asking rents above $100 per square foot. The space was added to the availability list in January, driving up average rates in the district, the most recent figures from commercial firm Jones Lang LaSalle show.

And in the Union Square submarket, the average asking rent rose by 14 percent with the addition of space at 300 Park Avenue South, commercial firm CB Richard Ellis’ latest report said.
[more]

The New York Observer looked at how the values of New York City’s 10
priciest office towers have shifted since spring 2007. At that time,
real estate professionals surveyed agreed that the GM Building at 767
Fifth Avenue was worth at least $4 billion. Today, based on its
reported income, the building is worth between $1.9 billion and $2.6
billion. Overall, the value of trophy office buildings, including 9
West 57th Street, Rockefeller Center, 200 Park Avenue and One Bryant
Park, has fallen between 25 and 60 percent. [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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