From left: Mitch Konsker of Jones Lang LaSalle, Janno Lieber of Silverstein Properties and Yoron Cohen of Jones Lang LaSalle (credit: Marc Becker and Howard Weschler)

Brokers were bullish on the future of commercial leasing in Lower Manhattan, the slowest market in the city, at the 2012 Celebration of New York Real Estate Development at 7 World Trade Center.

Despite the flurry of commercial space coming on market in the next few years, Mitchell Konsker, who was the recipient of angel sponsor Jones Lang LaSalle’s “most innovative deal of the year award” at the same ceremony, said that spillover from the red-hot Midtown South submarket is decreasing downtown vacancy…. [more]

Anthony Malkin and the Empire State building

Li & Fung, a Hong Kong-based trading company, signed a lease yesterday for 490,000 square feet in the Empire State Building, the largest deal of the new year and one which would have also topped last year’s list, the Post reported. The deal comes after months of negotiation between the landlord and tenant. The lease includes several floors in the base of the building, which has asking rents ranging from the mid-$40s a square foot to the high $50s, according to CoStar. Anthony Malkin, president of W&H Properties, which owns the Empire State Building, declined to comment, as did Li & Fung.
… [more]

[Updated 2:55 p.m. with a comment from a Jones Lang LaSalle spokesperson] Despite denials only two days earlier, veteran broker Mitchell Konsker and members of his team are departing Cushman & Wakefield, a spokesperson for the commercial brokerage said in a statement.

Rumors had been swirling for weeks that he and his group would leave, but on Monday, Konsker, a vice chairman, denied them in an interview with The Real Deal, saying it was “a complete fallacy” that he would depart.

He said it was not true, in part, “because I am out there pitching new business.” … [more]