Adelaide Polsinelli

High-profile, mid-market investment sales broker Adelaide Polsinelli resigned from Marcus & Millichap this past Friday and began working at Eastern Consolidated as a senior director today, Polsinelli told The Real Deal.

Polsinelli, who first started in the building sales business in 1985, is best known in the industry for deals such as Savanna’s $43 million purchase in 2007 of the Children’s Wear Building at 131 West 33rd Street in Midtown and the sale of the Knitting Factory at 74 Leonard Street in Tribeca, in 2008, for $12 million. [more]

From left: Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, Peter Hauspurg, chairman and CEO at Eastern Consolidated, Timour Shafran, managing partner at Citicore, Adelaide Polsinelli, associate vice presidenta at Marcus & Millichap, and Timothy King, principal at CPEX Real Estate

Commercial real estate brokers such as Robert Knakal, Peter Hauspurg and Adelaide Polsinelli, are keeping a watchful eye on the U.S. Supreme Court as it considers whether it will hear a case that could overturn rent regulation in New York City.

So The Real Deal asked commercial brokers what they expected would happen to multi-family properties and their values if the laws were overturned. They were asked under the assumption that there will be no catastrophic eviction of the million rent-regulated apartments, and that the city or state would create some replacement law that would provide housing for needy residents. Compiled by Adam Pincus [more]

From left: David Schechtman, senior director of Eastern Consolidated’s Turnaround and Distressed Group, Christopher Okada, CEO of Okada & Company, and Adelaide Polsinelli, associate vice president of investments at Marcus & Millichap

Midtown West is quickly becoming a hub of commercial activity, brokers say, in anticipation of the Related Companies’ Hudson Yards development and thanks to new zoning regulations. “Eastern Consolidated, and I personally, have done a tremendous amount of work there,” said David Schechtman, senior director of Eastern Consolidated’s Turnaround and Distressed Group. “There’s a renewed interest in the neighborhood. It’s south of the already established Hell’s Kitchen and the gateway to Hudson Yards. There are big old buildings there that are ready to be repositioned — old, raw material that could be reshaped.”

As The Real Deal previously reported, Midtown West office building sales rose by more than 100 percent year-over-year in 2011, to $5.7 billion from $1.8 billion in 2010, according to Eastern Consolidated’s recent MetroGrid Report for Midtown West, released last week, which defines Midtown West as the area that extends from 30th to 59th streets, and Fifth Avenue to the Hudson River.  [more]

From left: Adelaide Polsinelli, associate vice president at Marcus & Millichap; Richard Guarino, managing director at ERG Property Advisors and 150-24 Northern Boulevard in Flushing

A three-story commercial building in a portion of Flushing with a large Korean
immigrant population is scheduled to be sold at a foreclosure auction this month,
and insiders said it could attract bids above $20 million.

The owner of the building at 150-24 Northern Boulevard with 58,269 square feet
of rentable space, Roosevelt Avenue Corp., has a judgment against it for $16.8
million, information from PropertyShark.com shows. The auction is set for Sept.
16.

A previous auction set for May was canceled when the owner filed for
bankruptcy. The bankruptcy was scrapped, and the auction is set to go ahead.
Adelaide Polsinelli, associate vice president at commercial firm Marcus &
Millichap, and Richard Guarino, managing director at ERG Property Advisors, are
co-brokers marketing the property for the auction. – Adam Pincus [more]

From left: Marcus & Millichap’s Adelaide Polsinelli and 100 Orchard Street

A 22-room hotel on the Lower East Side is on the market, the Wall Street Journal reported, but a buyer will have to take an unusual factor into account when he or she makes an offer. The hotel doubles as a historical time capsule.

Randy Settenbrino bought the Blue Moon Hotel at 100 Orchard Street between Delancey and Broome streets for $1.24 million in two separate deals in 1997 and 2000, after spending years selling Italian menswear out of the storefront that now comprises the hotel lobby.

Before gutting the interior, Settenbrino entered the 15 tenement apartments above to find that many of them had been unoccupied and untouched since 1936. [more]

From left: Halstead Property President Diane Ramirez, Eileen Spinola of REBNY and Secretary of State Cesar Perales

The little-known 15-member New York State Board of Real
Estate that helps craft regulations for the industry and hears
public complaints about brokerage licensing has a mandate to
meet at least three times per year yet has not held a meeting in
more than 24 months.

The quasi-governmental body, which includes appointed
members such as Diane Ramirez, president of
Halstead Property, and Eileen Spinola, a senior vice president
for the Real Estate Board of New York, last met in June
2009, before either Ramirez or Spinola began their two-year
terms. Other members include real estate brokers from the
Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and upstate as well as corporate
representatives. The governor, and majority and minority
leaders in the State Senate and Assembly appoint the members.
There are currently two vacant positions. [more]

From left: Faith Hope Consolo, Peter Kozel, Adelaide Polsinelli, Karen Bellantoni, Edward Mermelstein and Robin Abrams

This year was an uneven one for the commercial real estate market in which the volume of sales and leasing improved, but prices remained far below those seen in the boom years. In the sales arena, a number of major properties traded hands at steep discounts, but the overall volume was light. Office leasing activity improved dramatically in 2010 — 50 percent year-over-year in terms of volume — but while prices stabilized, they have not risen much from their low points. The Real Deal spoke to some of New York City’s top real estate pros — from office and retail leasing experts to investment sales specialists to real estate attorneys — to get their views on where the New York City commercial market is headed in 2011. Click here to see what they had to say.
[more]

The number of retail condominiums for sale in the city is on the rise, with the supply already up by 30 percent this year as developers have adjusted to the new economic landscape, brokers told Crain’s. Next year, “there will be more coming through the pipeline once the foreclosures and loans are settled,” said Adelaide Polsinelli, associate vice president at Marcus & Millichap. While an influx of new retail space coming on the market could test the recovery as pent-up demand diminishes, things are, so far, looking good for developers. At the Devonshire House in Greenwich Village, the Brodsky Organization paid $10.35 million to purchase the buiding’s 8,400-square-foot retail condo in July. And Beck Street Capital recently launched a renewed sales effort on six Bleecker Street retail condos that have been languishing on the market since 2008. [Crain's]

[more]

What’s the best way to work with smaller portfolio owners who have
multiple buildings underwater and in trouble?

How do you save the mini-Macklowes?

From the May issue: As New York’s commercial market has worsened over the past 12 months, more brokers and attorneys are devising creative ways to untangle portfolios that are just barely buoyant. Some leviathans of yesteryear, like Harry Macklowe and General Growth Properties, have fallen and gained notoriety for their failures. But those front-page headlines mask a more endemic problem in New York: Distressed assets have seeped their way into the everyday real estate owner’s portfolio, creating “mini-Macklowes” at an alarming rate. Data from Real Capital Analytics shows that Manhattan alone has $14.4 billion in distressed commercial properties of all types — office, retail, industrial, multifamily, hotel and development sites. To put that figure in context, in 2009 the total value of all commercial properties sold was just $8.45 billion.

[more]

What’s the best way to work with smaller portfolio owners who have
multiple buildings underwater and in trouble?

How do you save the mini-Macklowes?

From the May issue: As New York’s commercial market has worsened over the past 12 months, more brokers and attorneys are devising creative ways to untangle portfolios that are just barely buoyant. Some leviathans of yesteryear, like Harry Macklowe and General Growth Properties, have fallen and gained notoriety for their failures. But those front-page headlines mask a more endemic problem in New York: Distressed assets have seeped their way into the everyday real estate owner’s portfolio, creating “mini-Macklowes” at an alarming rate. Data from Real Capital Analytics shows that Manhattan alone has $14.4 billion in distressed commercial properties of all types — office, retail, industrial, multifamily, hotel and development sites. To put that figure in context, in 2009 the total value of all commercial properties sold was just $8.45 billion.

[more]