The CEOs of the major New York REITs- Clockwise from top: Marc Holliday, Michael Fascitelli, Owen Thomas, David Neithercut, Dennis Friedrich, Timothy Naughton

The large New York-focused real estate investment trusts struggled in the first quarter of 2013, unlike their national counterparts, with only SL Green Realty outperforming both the MSCI US REIT Index and the Standard & Poor 500 Stock Index.  [more]

From left: The groundbreaking ceremony and a rendering of the Hudson Yards

The multibillion-dollar Hudson Yards development has been making a major push to woo prospective corporate tenants, the New York Times reported. Hudson Yards — which will span from 30th to 42nd streets, between Eighth Avenue to the Hudson River — is expected to create roughly 25 million square feet of office space, 3,200 hotel rooms and 20,000 residential units, a quarter of which have already begun construction. The project’s major players — including Related Companies, Brookfield Office Properties, Extell Development Company, the Moinian Group and Alloy Development — have started to put money into marketing. … [more]

One Liberty Plaza

Brookfield Office Properties inked a lease for 134,000 square feet of space at One Liberty Plaza to a reinsurance firm, Real Estate Weekly reported.Transatlantic Reinsurance Company will occupy three floors for 15 years at the 2.3-million-square-foot Lower Manhattan tower, Real Estate Weekly said. [more]

World Financial Center In preparation for Brookfield Office Properties’ $250 million renovation of the World Financial Center, Cosi Sandwich Bar and the fashion jeweler Erwin Pearl have closed, according to the development’s website. The World Financial Center, located on the Hudson River waterfront in Lower Manhattan, contains more than eight million square feet of office space. The mammoth renovation effort aims to transform the center’s retail and public space into a shopping and dining destination with a European-style marketplace and waterfront dining…. [more]

From left: Steven Baker, Kenneth Hochhauser, Joshua Siegelman and One New York Plaza

Winick Realty Group has been tapped by Brookfield Office Properties to market exclusively the 40,000-square-foot retail concourse at One New York Plaza, according to a Winick press release. The marketing team comprises Winick President Steven Baker, Kenneth Hochhauser, executive vice president and Joshua Siegelman, associate director.

The space is sub-level and vacant, according to published reports, and the release says the concourse has entryways to Whitehall, Broad and Water streets. It was also damaged during Hurricane Sandy with 23 million gallons of floodwater, necessitating a gut renovation. [more]

From left: Wade McDevitt and the World Financial Center

Brookfield Office Properties is pushing back the opening of its revamped World Financial Center retail space by nearly a year, retail insiders say; the relaunch had been scheduled previously for the fall of 2013.

The reopening date for the vast majority of the 200,000-square-foot, $250 million retail project is now August 2014, sources familiar with Brookfield’s plans, said. Two small portions of the project, the dining terrace and the Pavillion, an underground passageway that connects the PATH train station to the World Financial Center, are still slated to open in 2013. [more]

Warren Buffett

Following statements of confidence in the U.S. housing market, investor Warren Buffett is entering his holding company Berkshire Hathaway into a venture with Toronto-based private equity firm Brookfield Asset Management, Bloomberg News reported. The deal gives Berkshire Hathaway a controlling interest in the Prudential and Real Living brokerages, but the companies plan to launch their own realty brand, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, by next year.

Berkshire Hathaway has been actively acquiring businesses related to the housing market, including a brick manufacturer, the loan portfolio of the bankrupt mortgage lender Residential Capital and real estate brokerages in Oregon and Connecticut. Buffett is counting on low interest rates, inventory and prices to spur a housing rebound, according to Bloomberg. [more]

World Financial Center

Mayor Bloomberg has not minced words when it comes to evacuating residential buildings in the city neighborhoods most vulnerable to flooding. But in addition to the hundreds of thousands of New York residents ordered to leave their homes, tens of millions of square feet of commercial real estate in Manhattan is also within the evacuation zone. And that has some major landlords closing up their buildings.

The largest landlord in Lower Manhattan, Brookfield Office Properties, has sandbagged openings at the World Financial Center and at One New York Plaza. Brookfield also removed outdoor furniture and brought elevator cars to upper levels, a company spokesperson said. [more]

From left: Mitch Rudin of Brookfield and the World Financial Center

Brookfield Financial has a new name in store for the World Financial Center located in Lower Manhattan, the New York Observer reported. The property will bear the name Brookfield Place, according to several unnamed sources, and the Observer said the change appears to be part of an effort to guide the complex’s image away from a place for financial tenants in a time of low leasing demand.

“It’s not going to happen overnight,” one unidentified source told the Observer. “But Brookfield plans to phase in the new name increasingly over time.” [more]

Green Street Advisors' Michael Knott (top), JLL's Peter Riguardi (bottom) and the World Financial Center

While industry insiders don’t expect Brookfield Office Properties to encounter many problems finding retailers for the revamped World Financial Center, the same can’t be said for the complex’s 3 million square feet of vacant office space. Brokers told the New York Times that the soft leasing market, competition from the World Trade Center and the consolidation of the area’s financial firm industry will pose challenges to the landlord no matter how appealing architect Cesar Pelli’s upgrades to the complex prove to be. [more]