From left: Edward Minskoff, founder of Minskoff Equities, Paul Glickman, vice chairman of Jones Lang LaSalle, a rendering of 51 Astor Place and Robert Futterman

Minskoff Equities has tapped commercial real estate brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle to market the office space at 51 Astor Place, the company’s forthcoming 400,000-square-foot property, which is currently under construction near Cooper Union, company founder Edward Minskoff told The Real Deal today. Robert K. Futterman & Associates will be marketing the property’s retail component, he said.

“Jones Lang LaSalle had good market coverage for the tenants out there that we feel strongly about — stronger than other firms,” Minskoff said. “They represent a lot of the tech tenants and financial tenants that we feel are our most promising [prospects.]”

As for Futterman, Minskoff said he had a long and successful relationship with the brokerage, making it the obvious choice for the retail at the East Village building, which is slated to be completed by 2013. [more]

From left: Paul Amrich of CBRE, 510 Madison Avenue and JLL’s Cynthia Wasserberger
A series of leases signed late last year at 510 Madison Avenue, for well over $100 a square foot, signifies a turnaround for the 350,000-square-foot building and may be a sign of recovery for Manhattan’s overall high-end office market, brokers told the New York Times. The office tower at 53rd Street, which was once owned by developer Harry Macklowe, was taken over by Boston Properties in September. “Boston Properties had the vision to buy the building at a time in the market five months ago when even then people were very cautious about $100 rents,” said Paul Amrich, an executive vice president at CB Richard Ellis, which is representing 510 Madison. “But they knew the trophy status of the building and the location of the building would prove that we would get to those rents again.” [more]

From left: Cynthia Wasserberger, 9 West 57th Street and 767 Fifth Avenue (building photo source: PropertyShark)

[Updated 2:30 p.m., Oct. 11, 2010] Asking rents climbed in a selection of Midtown’s top office buildings over the past six months as the leasing market tightened, with some buildings reaching the $200-per-square-foot level, according to a report [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]