From left: 327 Court Street and Eric Altschul of CPEX

Prudential Douglas Elliman has inked a lease for a new space down the street from it’s current space in the Cobble Hill area of Brooklyn, Crain’s reported.

The brokerage will move a half dozen blocks down the street to a 1,500-square-foot building that is currently a Chinese restaurant at 327 Court Street, at the corner of Sackett Street. The new office will be large enough to accomodate 50 brokers, Camille Logan, executive vice president and director of sales at Elliman, told Crain’s. Elliman will be in the space by April, Crain’s said. They will close the current office at 189 Court Street. [more]

From left: Geoffrey Bailey, director of TerraCRG, Triangle Sports, Timothy King, managing director of CPEX, and a rendering of the Barclays Center

National retailers and restaurateurs have been scrupulously scouting for real estate locations near and along Flatbush and Atlantic avenues in advance of the Barclays Center opening this year.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the most recent victim of the growing trend is Triangle Sports, the 96-year-old retailer at the intersection of Flatbush and Fifth avenues. With the weak economy and increased pressure from the national retailers and upscale boutiques that have descended upon the area, Triangle Sports owners felt it would be best to sell their property. [more]

From left: Ryan Condren and Eric Altschul of CPEX, and 525 Atlantic Avenue

Parisian hotelier and restaurateur Cyril Aouizerate plans to open a restaurant, Maimonide of Brooklyn (or M.O.B.), in a 1,900-square-foot space he just leased in Downtown Brooklyn, according to CPEX, which represented Aouizerate in the transaction. Aouizerate, who founded France’s Mama Shelter hotel chain, signed on for 10 years at 525 Atlantic Avenue, with a starting rent of $50 per square foot, in a deal brokered by CPEX’s Ryan Condren and Eric Altschul. The property was sold, as recently as June 2 according to public records, to New Atlantic Gardens for $10 million. G.F.I. retail represented the owner in the Maimonide of Brooklyn transaction. “Eric and Ryan spent a great deal of time bringing all the parties together and they demonstrated great tenacity during the many months of negotiation.” said Timothy King, Managing Partner of CPEX Real Estate. TRD

Commercial sales and leasing firm CPEX has named Greg Roberts to the role of COO, where he’ll be overseeing systems, accounting, human resources, public relations and business development, the company announced today. Roberts, who worked on the planning teams for the Ritz Carlton Battery Park Hotel, the St. Regis Los Angeles Hotel, the Cipriani Toy Building and the Rubin Museum of Art, had been managing director prior to his promotion. He will be working directly with CPEX managing partners Brian Leary and Timothy King in his new position. TRD

Ryan Condren and Zazza Residential

Zipcar has signed a lease to take 2,000 square feet of space in the 50-space parking garage attached to the Zazza Residential condo-turned-rental building in Williamsburg. CPEX Real Estate Service, acting on behalf of the Zazza Group that developed the building, reached out to Zipcar to lease the space. The firm would not disclose the terms of the deal, and wasn’t certain how many cars Zipcar could, or would, keep in the garage. Ryan Condren, the managing director who brokered the lease, said Zipcar was interested in the space at 424 Bedford Avenue because it is an ideal location for their business. “It’s central to Williamsburg’s densest residential areas and is easily accessible from the train,” he said. TRD Comments

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Joseph Cayre and 242 Bedford Avenue

Discount clothing department store Marshalls and drugstore CVS are interested in leasing space in a troubled development site in Williamsburg, once the stalled construction project is completed, several brokers said. The national chain retailers are looking at a lower-level space at 242 Bedford Avenue, just south of North 4th Street, the brokers, who asked to remain anonymous, said. The half-built site is owned by Yehuda Backer’s Williamsburg-based Backer Group, which halted construction several years ago. Instead, the parcel has only steel shells with no current construction evident.
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From left: Timothy King of CPEX and maps showing the retail corridors covered by the CPEX report

A new report on New York City’s traditionally tight-lipped retail leasing market lifts the curtain on pricing in more than 193 shopping districts in the five boroughs (see the full report after the jump). The survey, the first undertaken by the two-year-old Brooklyn sales and leasing firm CPEX Real Estate, gives ranges for rents based on a review of more than 1,200 leases as well as interviews with owners, appraisers and other industry sources, company principal Timothy King said. The overview is a rare glimpse into the retail leasing industry that remains far more secretive than residential and office leasing, brokers said. While brokerage firms release retail reports, for example commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis released a sophisticated fourth-quarter retail analysis of 10 shopping districts in Manhattan south of 86th Street this week, they do not cover all five boroughs. King said there were few surprises in the CPEX data. He said its value was as a tool for clients looking for a broad view of the market. “If a retailer comes from out of town, this is a road map to give you a logical starting point,” King said. [more]

Jason Pennington of Ripco Real Estate

From the February issue: Mayor Bloomberg may have declared war on high-calorie, sodium-filled diets, but New York City’s landlords seem to think fast-food joints are good for their health — their fiscal health, that is. Fast-food restaurants are under construction all over the city, gearing up to serve greasy burgers, fried chicken and burritos, as well as accompanying sugary sodas, which the Bloomberg administration portrayed as globs of fat in a glass in a recent public awareness campaign. In this tough retail climate, food and beverage leases in the city are rising faster than any other category. While they generally make up the largest portion of leases on The Real Deal‘s monthly Deal Sheet, last month the category saw 19 deals for over 70,000 square feet of retail space. That’s more than double the second most active category: fashion. And the greasy diet that landlords have signed up for is, in many cases, long-term, with 10- and 15-year leases.  [more]