Cassidy Turley New York has filed suit against developer Dan Shavolian
alleging he failed to pay a $2.3 million commission on a February 2010
lease agreement with the Bowery Residents Committee.

The brokerage, which previously operated under the name Colliers ABR,
alleged in the July 14 suit that Shavolian, working through a firm called 127
West 25th, breached an agreement by failing to pay the commissions at 127
West 25th Street, which were due in several installments starting in October
2010.

The suit is the latest in a long running series of disputes at the building, as
community groups and local politicians have protested and gone to court to
stop BRC from putting a homeless shelter in the building. [more]

Source: Jones Lang LaSalle

The overall office leasing market remained flat in Manhattan last month with Class A properties showing the most improvement and Class B properties continuing to lag, according to a new report covering April from commercial firm Jones Lang LaSalle (click here to see full report).

Asking rents in Class A properties rose in six of eight submarkets in Midtown and Downtown while Class B rates dropped in five of those eight areas, the report shows.

The uptick in asking rents in select submarkets is a sign of market stabilization, company vice president of research James Delmonte said, but not of a sustained period of rent increases. [more]

Cassidy Turley, the new St. Louis-based real estate corporation created by four former Colliers International affiliates, has officially launched its new brand, Web site and a national advertising campaign. Cassidy Turley filed with the Missouri Secretary of State to incorporate in May 2009, and announced its formation in January, after Colliers International announced its merger with FirstService Real Estate Advisors. Meanwhile, Colliers ABR split from the group to join Cassidy Turley. Mark Boisi, Colliers ABR chairman, told The Real Deal at the time that, “while we are the largest component of Colliers USA, we believe we have outgrown it.” TRD

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]

Chart clarification: While CBRE data puts Durst’s portfolio at 7.2 million square feet, a Durst spokesperson later said that figure is actually 9 million.

Asking rents plunged for some of Midtown’s top landlords last year as they competed for the few tenants searching for space in a weak leasing market, but their reductions helped keep their vacancy rates below the market average, experts said. The family-owned Durst Organization dropped its asking rents to $60.82 per square foot in November 2009 from $113.15 per square foot in August 2008, near the pricing peak of the leasing market, according to the most recent data available on Midtown’s top 10 landlords from commercial services firm CB Richard Ellis. The Real Deal compared data from August 2008 to November 2009 for the top 10 landlords in Midtown ranked by square feet owned. The 46 percent decline was the steepest among Midtown’s top 10 landlords, who control 93 million square feet, or about 41 percent of the market. Landlord and tenant leasing broker Cynthia Wasserberger, a managing director at commercial firm Jones Lang LaSalle said the landlords cut prices to attract tenants and keep their buildings filled. “I think all the landlords got aggressive. They were pretty swift in their decision to respond to the market,” Wasserberger said. [more]

From the January issue: Whether encouraged by declining asking rents or spurred by pent-up
demand, brokers said office tenants finished out the extremely
difficult year of 2009 with a flurry of activity.
Yet few believed the market had found a solid footing, as landlords
continued to cut asking rents to compete amid a landscape of high
unemployment and an uncertain recovery.
“The big question that tenants have today is: ‘How bullish do I
feel about the future?’” said tenant broker Harry Krausman, managing
director at Colliers ABR. “If a tenant feels confident that their
business is going to be better five years from now than it is today,
then they are more likely to want to lock into the cheap rates today.” James Delmonte, a vice president and director of research at Jones
Lang LaSalle, said in a report last month that stronger activity in
Midtown did not signal that a recovery was at hand. Comments

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From left: Mark Boisi, Colliers ABR chairman, and Dylan Taylor, Real Estate Adviors president and CEO

Manhattan-based real estate service company Colliers ABR will not be part of the new firm created through the combination of its global umbrella partnership Colliers International and Seattle-based FirstService Real Estate Advisors, the parent company of Manhattan-based FirstService Williams.

Colliers ABR has elected to become part of a new real estate corporation based in St. Louis called Cassidy Turley, which was created by some of the largest affiliates of Colliers International and is not part of a new combined global company, a source familiar with the deal told The Real Deal.

FirstService REA and Colliers International announced today they would combine to form one of the world’s largest commercial services firms, behind California-based CB Richard Ellis and Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle. It will be based in Seattle, Wash., the headquarters of FirstService REA, and the merger will be completed by the end of the second quarter, FirstService Real Estate Advisors president and CEO Dylan Taylor told The Real Deal.  More

[more]

Swiss bank UBS is said to be on the hunt for some 800,000 square feet of New York-area office space, making it the largest tenant in the market, Bloomberg reported. UBS already has roughly 5 million square feet in the tri-state area, including offices at 299 Park Avenue and 1285 Avenue of the Americas, Lincoln Harbor in Weehawken, N.J. and a trading complex in Stamford, Conn. Some of the bank’s existing leases are expiring in 2013, though it is unclear which ones, and as such, the bank is beginning to search for offices in new and existing buildings in Manhattan and its outlying areas, according to Kris Kagel, a UBS spokesperson. Sources said UBS had already requested proposals from landlords, but Kagel said a decision likely wouldn’t come for several months. “It would definitely be a boon to the landlord that lands them,” said Robert Sammons, research director for Colliers ABR. “Manhattan rents are at or near their low point. It remains an ideal market for the tenant.” [Bloomberg]

The vacancy rate for Class A office buildings in Manhattan last month reached its highest level since April 1997, according to a new report from commercial services firm Colliers ABR. The report, the first from one of the major firms to be released this month, showed a continued softness in Manhattan office leasing, but noted improvement in some areas, including a small uptick in asking rents in Midtown South. The data showed that the Manhattan Class A vacancy rate reached 12.2 percent in November, the highest since April 1997 when it hit 12.8 percent. For all classes of buildings in Manhattan, the vacancy rate was 15.5 percent, up .1 points from the month before. At the same time, average asking rents fell $0.28 per square foot to $50.63 per foot. [more]

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Peter Duncan, president of George Comfort, and 119 West 40th Street (building photo source: PropertyShark)

L.H. Charney Associates and George Comfort & Sons have reached an agreement with lenders on a deal that would save their struggling office tower at 119 West 40th Street from going into receivership.

High-level sources familiar with the negotiations say they have reached an agreement to settle a lawsuit by mezzanine lender Wein & Malkin and are finishing up a deal with their senior mortgage lenders.

“It’s done,” Leon Charney, chief executive of L.H. Charney, confirmed to The Real Deal, in a brief telephone interview.

On Oct. 16, W&M, now called Malkin Properties, filed suit against Charney, George Comfort President Peter Duncan and Fortis Property principals Joel and Margaret Kestenbaum alleging they defaulted on a $22.25 million mezzanine loan with the original mezzanine lenders, Wachovia Bank and Greenwich Capital, who issued the loan in April 2007. [more]