CBRE NY Region Chairman Robert Alexander (top left), 1411 Broadway and Cushman & Wakefield Vice Chairman Tara StacomQuidsi, the parent company of e-commerce giants Diapers.com and Soap.com that was purchased by Amazon last year, backed out of an all-but-signed lease at Blackstone Group’s 1411 Broadway. According to the New York Post, the firm was expected to sign for 75,000 square feet on the 32nd, 34th and 35th floors of the building at West 40th Street in Midtown, in a lease brokered by a Cushman & Wakefield team led by Tara Stacom.

But Cushman’s loss, will be CB Richard Ellis’ gain. A team of CBRE brokers including Bernie Weitzman, Rob Stillman, Robert Alexander and Zach Freeman was chosen to replace Cushman and market the remaining space a few months ago. [more]

From the September issue:The Manhattan office leasing market tightened last month even as the unpredictable stock market and stalled national economy unsettled landlords and tenants alike.
Landlords, who have seen their leverage strengthen over the past year, lost a bit of confidence because of the new round of economic turmoil, some Manhattan brokers said.
“The market was rising rather quickly, particularly in the better product and the better locations, [but] I think tenants’ expectations [now] are that the deals should be improved and they should be more aggressive,” David Hollander, a senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis, said.
But that doesn’t mean that most tenants are chomping at the bit to get deals done. Some are becoming more cautious, which is further unsettling landlords. “It is a question of confidence,” George Keller, a senior director at Cushman & Wakefield, said. “Everyone is saying, ‘Let’s sit tight for a while,’” he said. With the recent layoffs at financial firms, he expects more sublease space to be put on the market in the coming months. Meanwhile, unlike the last few months, there were no blockbuster leasing deals in August. [more]

From left: Cushman & Wakefield President and CEO Glenn Rufrano, Vice Chairmen John Cefaly and Tara Stacom, Worldwide Plaza and a rendering of One World Trade Center

[Updated at 11:20 a.m. with comment from Cushman & Wakefield President and CEO Glenn Rufrano] Midtown-based global commercial services firm Cushman & Wakefield lost $22.4
million in the first six months of 2011 even as revenues rose sharply compared to the same period last year, the brokerage firm’s parent
company, Italy-based Exor, reported on its website today.

The loss is in contrast with the firm’s two main global competitors, the world’s
largest commercial firm CB Richard Ellis, and another large player, Jones Lang
LaSalle, which each posted profits over the same time period.

Cushman lost $22.4 million through June, compared with a loss of $22.8 million
in the same six-month period in 2010, the company said, using generally
accepted accounting standards for the United States. [more]

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From the August issue: After a slow July, in which it brokered just 70,162 square feet of office space, Cushman & Wakefield returned to the top of office tenant representation by square footage leased in July. Much of Cushman’s more than 1.2-million square feet leased came from Nomura’s 900,000-square-foot lease in Worldwide Plaza, which closed in June, and Morgan Stanley’s 200,000-square-foot lease at One Pierrepont Plaza in Brooklyn. Rounding out the top three office tenant representatives in the city from mid-June to mid-July were Studley and CB Richard Ellis. Click here to see the complete Deal Sheet summary. Comments

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CB Richard Ellis offices in Florida and Connecticut arranged the $20 million acquisition of an apartment community located in Stamford, Conn., called bvld. The 94-unit property at 1201 Washington Blvd. was financed by People’s United Bank for the Wolff Company, an Arizona-based firm. “The loft-style design and dramatic size of the units provide the resident with a true condo feel,” said Charles Foschini, vice chairman at CBRE. The property, which was built in 2011, includes an espresso bar and a 4,000-square-foot terrace. Foschini is based in Miami at CBRE’s Debt & Equity Finance and Institutional Group. – Alexander Britell [more]

Jamestown founder Christoph Kahl and the Chelsea Market

[Updated Aug. 16 at 10.30 p.m.] Having closed on its acquisition of the remaining stakes in the Chelsea Market building at 75 Ninth Avenue, Georgia-based real estate firm Jamestown Properties now owns the entire property, valued at $795 million, according to public records filed with the city today.
Jamestown, an investor in the property since 2003, recently bought out Angelo Gordon & Co., Belvedere Capital Real Estate Partners and Chelsea Market developer Irwin Cohen (note: see correction appended) for $225 million and aims to add a 300,000-square-foot tower to the building, to be used either for additional office space and a hotel.
The 1.183 million-square-foot building takes up the entire block between 15th and 16 streets and Ninth and 10th avenues and is 99 percent leased, to tenants like the Food Network, NY1, Time Warner, EMI and Google, as well as the retail and food court on the first floor. [more]

From top left: CBRE’s Susan Kurland, Gregory Tannor and Sloane Rhulen; right: Rendering of 201 East 57th Street

More than a year-and-a-half after razing the 136-year-old building that stood at 201 East 57th Street, developer Marx Realty & Improvement said it will finally break ground on a four-story glass replacement tomorrow. Marx held off construction on the new 30,814-square-foot structure on the corner of Third Avenue until it landed a ground-floor tenant, according to previous reports.

In June, CB Richard Ellis, which is the leasing agent for the entire project, inked a deal with TD Bank for 4,069 square feet of ground-floor space putting construction on track. [more]

Commercial property buyers who had shifted their focus from prime coastal city properties such as in New York and San Francisco to secondary markets like Las Vegas, Dallas and Minneapolis, may be rethinking their strategies as a result of recent financial market volatility, Bloomberg News reported.

Investors had been showing interest in secondary markets amid growing confidence in the recovery and soaring prices in prime cities, Bloomberg said, with transactions increasing sixfold in Las Vegas in the first half of 2011 from the same period in 2010, by about 253 percent in Phoenix, 204 percent in Atlanta and 267 percent in Pittsburgh, according to data from Real Capital Analytics.

Concern, however, that the U.S. property market may only experience sluggish growth in the next few years could stymie this trend before it takes off, sources said. [more]

CB Richard Ellis promoted Matt Van Buren to president of the New York Tri-State Region, the firm announced today. Van Buren had served as an executive managing director of the Midtown Manhattan brokerage division since 2009 after joining the firm as a managing director in 2006.

Van Buren is replacing Mitch Rudin, who, as The Real Deal previously reported,  left CBRE in June to serve as the president and CEO of U.S. commercial operations for developer Brookfield Properties. Van Buren will continue to work out of the firm’s New York City headquarters at 200 Park Avenue. – Adam Fusfeld
[more]

From left: Kenneth Krasnow of CB Richard Ellis and Daniel Hagan, Cory Rosenthal, Michael Wlody, Robert Knakal and Paul Massey, all of Massey Knakal

The New York State agency tasked with overseeing real estate licenses, the
Department of State, served commercial real estate firm Massey Knakal Realty
Services this week with a complaint alleging violations including failure to
supervise a former managing director of the Brooklyn office and for failing to
properly license three corporate officers as real estate brokers, according to the
complaint provided by the agency (see complaint below).

The complaint seeks penalties including the revocation or suspension of the
company’s licenses held by Paul Massey, the CEO, and Robert Knakal, the chairman, as well as fines, although
an amount was not stated. Insiders noted that despite the complaint stating a
demand for a revocation or suspension of licenses, the actual penalties often
wind up being far less severe.

Massey Knakal, founded in 1988 by Massey and Knakal, has one of the largest
investment sales forces in the city with 76 brokers, agents and associates and
earlier this year branched into retail leasing and commercial mortgage brokerage, with additional personnel.

The complaint follows an investigation opened after a February 2011
article in The Real Deal reported that Kenneth Krasnow, then the company’s
managing director of the Brooklyn office, did not hold a real estate license in New
York.

The complaint, dated May 9, 2011, but served Aug. 1 alleges that Krasnow was
managing director of the Brooklyn and Queens offices despite not holding a
license between Oct. 6, 2008 and Feb. 14, 2011. An individual who supervises
agents in brokerage matters is required to have a real estate license, according
to the DOS.

In addition, the state’s inquiry discovered that three individuals — Daniel Hagan,
vice president of special assets; Cory Rosenthal, vice president of executive
operations; and Michael Wlody, CFO — held corporate offices at Massey Knakal
with salesperson’s licenses, not brokers’ licenses, as required. Hagan, Rosenthal and Wlody weren’t immediately available for comment.

“By allowing respondent Krasnow to act as a broker in a supervisory role without
being properly licensed, respondent Knakal and respondent Massey have…
demonstrated untrustworthiness and/or incompetency,” the agency complaint
said, following standard language used in such documents.

The next step in the process is a hearing, but a spokesperson for the state did
not immediately know if a date had been set.

Knakal referred questions to Massey, who declined to comment. Krasnow did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.

In June 2010, the DOS fined the Corcoran Group $70,000 for allowing 79 brokers and agents to work despite licensing irregularities. Since
2009, the state has fined firms more than $200,000.

In May, CB Richard Ellis announced that Krasnow was tapped to lead its offices
in Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. CBRE did not immediately
respond to a request for comment.

Massey Knakal DOS complaint [more]