From left: CBRE's Paul Gillen, Darcy Stacom and William Shanahan; Cushman & Wakefield's Tara Stacom and Michael Rotchford; the evening's announcer Woody Heller of Studley; CBRE's Mary Ann Tighe and Gregory Tosko (credit: Marc Becker)

It was indisputably a ladies night at the Real Estate Board of New York’s Most Ingenious Deal of the Year awards held last night at the 101 Club at 101 Park Avenue. Cushman & Wakefield’s Tara Stacom, her sister Darcy Stacom of CBRE Group and Mary Ann Tighe, also of CBRE, all took home top honors for deals completed last year.

It was also the first time two awards had been given for the same deal: The first place Henry Hart Rice Award was presented to Tara  and her Cushman colleague Michael Rotchford for brokering Conde Nast’s $2 billion, one million-square-foot lease at 1 World Trade Center on behalf of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, while Tighe and CBRE colleague Gregory Tosko received the second place Robert T. Lawrence Award for representing the publisher in the same deal, which closed last May. [more]

From left: Tara Stacom, vice chairman at Cushman & Wakefield and One World Trade

Conde Nast will take an additional 133,000 square feet at One World Trade Center, the New York Post reported.

The magazine giant signed for 1.05 million square feet at the tower currently rising in Lower Manhattan last year, in the biggest new lease of the year. Now, the publisher of titles such as Vogue and the New Yorker is expected to soon finalize a deal for floors 42 through 44, according to the Post. [more]

When Larry Silverstein was asked to lend some of his time to be the featured guest at a B’nai B’rith real estate luncheon event held yesterday he was happy to oblige, and even agreed to pay for lunch, he told an audience of about 70 at the event in 7 World Trade Center. The developer said the organization has done extraordinary work in its more than 100 years of existence.

The animated, charasmatic and joyful impressario of Silverstein Properties stood behind a sleekly designed transparent lecturn, near 12-foot windows overlooking the development site, and talked for nearly 40 minutes about what he’s called his most important project –the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site.

He imparted two themes of New York development he’s learned in his 55-year career: Don’t bet against New York — it always comes back and strongly, and, referring to the built-on-spec 7 WTC, if you build it they will come. – Marc Becker
[more]

The economic uncertainty has had a significant impact on tenants’ expectations
in New York, slowing down the leasing market dramatically compared to
the beginning of the year, Michael Colacino, president of New York City-based Studley,
told GlobeStreet.com in an interview. The stock market and the
leasing market have become more interdependent, he explained. Because
corporations are acting more rapidly, anticipating rather than
responding to activity, there is greater and greater volatility.
“Confusion about the overall economy has resulted in a dramatic
slowdown in the activity going on out there,” he said. “If you look at
the statistics — the vacancy data — we had been decreasing the vacant
space almost from the beginning of the year until the middle of the
summer and now it’s essentially flattened out.” [more]

World Trade Center siteFrom the September issue: Construction crews have been working feverishly at the World Trade Center site in anticipation of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks later this month.

But when families and friends of the victims gather there for the commemorative ceremony and the opening of the National September 11 Memorial, they will also see major progress at many of the buildings around them.

Indeed, lately — after years of delays and political infighting — steel has been rising rapidly at the 16-acre site.

Just to the north of the memorial, attendees will see the new $3.2 billion 1 World Trade Center, the most expensive office building ever constructed in the city, built to about the 80th floor. To the east, they will see the construction at three additional tower sites.

While much has been written about the progress at ground zero in a piecemeal fashion, this month, The Real Deal takes a closer at look how all of the pieces fit together — and how the finances pencil out for the developers. [more]

From the September issue: In its eight years of publication, The Real Deal has covered the real estate industry in a city that’s been transformed by a massive building boom, was crippled by the subsequent bust, and is now in the midst of a tentative recovery.
The compendium of stories we’ve written runs the gamut from the record-setting building and apartment purchases during the boom, to the toppling of mega-developers during the bust, to new entrepreneurs trying to get into the real estate game during today’s fragile recovery. This month, for the anniversary of our 100th issue, we bring you some of the most compelling stories we’ve tracked in these pages, many of which have unfolded and evolved over time, much as the magazine itself has. And watch the video below to see The Real Deal Publisher Amir Korangy talk about the special process for creating the unique 100th issue cover.
[more]

Leasing executives from the commercial services firm CB Richard Ellis championed some of the strongest statistical numbers seen in more than a decade for the Downtown district during a media briefing this morning, just weeks after Bank of America announced it would give up nearly 3 million square feet in Lower Manhattan, increasing competition for the area’s landlords. 
The net absorption — which measures the change in the square feet of space occupied during a particular period — for the Downtown market in June was 1.23 million square feet, the statistics show. That’s far ahead of numbers seen, not only in recent months, but in recent years.

“Absorption is positive,” Sheldon Cohen, senior managing director at CBRE, said. “You have to go to 1998 to get absorption at that [monthly] level.” [more]

From left: Mary Ann Tighe, MaryAnne Gilmartin, Pamela Liebman and Dottie Herman

Brokering Conde Nast’s relocation to 1 World Trade Center earned CB Richard Ellis’ Mary Ann Tighe the top spot on this year’s Crain’s list of the 50 most powerful women in New York City. Tighe, who is also the first female to lead the Real Estate Board of New York, came in third on the list last year, but that was before the $2 billion Conde lease, which is widely considered a catalyst for the Financial District’s rebirth. Earlier this month, when Tighe became the first female recipient of the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate’s Urban Leadership Award, James Kuhn, president of Newmark Knight Frank, said the lease “might turn out to be the biggest transformational deal in [his] lifetime.” More powerful New York females after the jump. [more]

For the first time in 41 years, a woman has been the recipient of the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate’s Urban Leadership Award.
Mary Ann Tighe, head of CB Richard Ellis’ New York sales region and chair of the Real Estate Board of New York, was given the award at last night’s dinner at the Waldorf Astoria with around 700 real execs in attendance (see photos above).
Developer Larry Silverstein literally brought Tighe to tears as he talked about her career achievements and her family.

James Kuhn, president of Newmark Knight Frank, said “when they invited Tighe to be this year’s honoree he didn’t know about the transaction that [in his mind] might turn out to be the biggest transformational deal in his lifetime. That of course is the Conde Nast deal down at the World Trade Center.” Tighe represented Conde Nast in the transaction.

Tighe said that her success has been due in part because she has through the years chosen the “right clients, the right deals and the right partners.”
Michael Alfano, executive vice president at New York University, announced that the school would be building a university in Shanghai and be the first outside-degree granting institution in China. – Marc Becker

Stuart ElliottFrom the June issue: It’s that time of year again — time to escape the city and head to the beach. Time to trade your pumps and wingtips for flip-flops and sandals. Time to trade fluorescent office lighting for the sun beating down on your back. Time to reserve lunch tables for lobster roll shacks, get pieces of corn stuck between your teeth, and wash it all down with a beer.
With summer season in the Hamptons kicking into gear, we thought, “What better time to take a look at the biggest firms and priciest deals on the East End?”
Unlike those caught up in the migration from Manhattan, it hasn’t been vacation time for top agents out there on Long Island. In an improving market, they’ve been listing and closing deals with big seven- and eight-figure price tags. [more]