Helen Hwang, an executive vice president at Cushman & Wakefield, Aaron Jungreis, president at Rosewood Realty Group, James Nelson, a partner at Massey Knakal Realty Services, David Schechtman, senior director at Eastern Consolidated

Compiled by Adam Pincus
Brokers broadly expect next year to be an improvement over 2011 in New York City’s investment sales market, although concerns about the global economy and financial services layoffs create uncertainty, and that puts a drag on activity. This year, total investment sales are expected to end up at about $25 billion, far ahead of the $14.5 billion in 2010. The Real Deal talked to a series of brokers about what they expect for the new year. [more]

From left: Marion Jones and David Schechtman of Eastern Consolidated and 701 West 135th Street

A free-standing retail building near Columbia University’s developing Manhattanville campus has hit the market for $11 million, according to Eastern Consolidated, which is the exclusive listing agent for the property.

The 18,200-square-foot, rectangular building at 701 West 135th Street currently yields more than $400,000 in annual income from current leases, according to the listing, with one retail suite still vacant. Alternatively, the two in-place leases each contain terms to provide for vacant delivery by summer 2012.

“It’s an absolutely phenomenal opportunity to reposition a 20,000-square-foot building in a proven retail strip,” said Marion Jones, a director at Eastern, who shares the listing with colleague David Schechtman. – Katherine Clarke [more]

The developer of a high-end, 9-unit building on the Upper West Side has abandoned plans to sell the units individually as condominiums and instead is offering to sell the entire property in one transaction, with an asking price of $22.8 million.

Brooklyn-based Manor Properties Group constructed the new, 10-story building at 208 West 96th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, and was given its certificate of occupancy in April.
But attempts by Halstead Property Development Marketing to sell the units as condominiums with prices according to Streeteasy.com of about $2.3 million each, failed. Then Manor Properties tried renting the apartments, which are all full-floor, three-bedroom units. [more]

From left: Siraj Dadabhoy, principal of Aion, David Schectman, principal at Eastern Consolidated, 57-63 Greene Street and 21-25 Mercer Street

New York real estate investment fund Aion Partners is marketing two Soho retail condominiums in an effort to capitalize on demand for these types of properties in key locations, Crain’s reported.

The company has listed a 13,700-square-foot condo at 57-63 Greene Street and another at 21-25 Mercer Street, the latter which includes a residential condo unit and three stores. Tenants at the first property include Bang & Olufsen, Cyrus Co. and Raul Carrasco and at the second, Nike, Toto and Surface to Air.

“The tenants are paying at least 40 percent below current rents so there is a great opportunity for upside,” said David Schechtman, a principal at Eastern Consolidated, who is handling the sales. “But you also have solid cash flow.” The asking prices for the properties are $19 million and $20 million, respectively. [more]

From left: David Schechtman, senior director of Eastern Consolidated’s Turnaround and Distressed Group, Christopher Okada, CEO of Okada & Company, and Adelaide Polsinelli, associate vice president of investments at Marcus & Millichap

Midtown West is quickly becoming a hub of commercial activity, brokers say, in anticipation of the Related Companies’ Hudson Yards development and thanks to new zoning regulations. “Eastern Consolidated, and I personally, have done a tremendous amount of work there,” said David Schechtman, senior director of Eastern Consolidated’s Turnaround and Distressed Group. “There’s a renewed interest in the neighborhood. It’s south of the already established Hell’s Kitchen and the gateway to Hudson Yards. There are big old buildings there that are ready to be repositioned — old, raw material that could be reshaped.”

As The Real Deal previously reported, Midtown West office building sales rose by more than 100 percent year-over-year in 2011, to $5.7 billion from $1.8 billion in 2010, according to Eastern Consolidated’s recent MetroGrid Report for Midtown West, released last week, which defines Midtown West as the area that extends from 30th to 59th streets, and Fifth Avenue to the Hudson River.  [more]

Massey Knakal brokers from top: John Ciraulo, vice chairman of Massey Knakal; Craig Waggner, director of sales; Jonathan Hageman, sales team manager; and view of 846-850 Sixth Avenue and 1227 Broadway facing eastA 12,260-square-foot lot near Herald Square hit the market with an asking price of $42.75 million, according to Massey Knakal Realty Services, which is exclusively marketing the property.

The triangle-shaped lot, a combination of a four-story commercial building at 1227 Broadway and a parking lot and one-story building at 846-850 Sixth Avenue, comprises the entire nearly 290-foot-long south side of 30th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, along with more than 68 feet of frontage along Sixth Avenue and more than 15 feet of frontage along Broadway.

About 5,060 square feet of the eastern portion of the lot lies in a zoning district that allows for an office, hotel, manufacturing or community facility use with a floor area ratio of 10, according to the listing. Comments

West 37th Street Partners LLC, a joint venture between the Albanese Organization and the Buccini/Polin Group, closed on its purchase of a Midtown parking lot at 312-318 West 37th Street for $20.8 million, according to records filed with the city yesterday. This is Buccini/Polin’s first foray into the New York City real estate market.

The transaction, which closed Aug. 11, is slated to result in the construction of a brand new 300-room Garment District hotel between Eighth and Ninth avenues. Construction could start before the end of the year, sources told the Wall Street Journal recently though neither Albanese nor Buccini/Polin were immediately available for comment. -- Katherine Clarke [more]

Manhattan-based real estate owner Robert Gilardian won a 16-story Upper West Side apartment building tied up in an epic decade-long dispute, with a $20.1 million bid made in a bankruptcy auction in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon.

Gilardian offered the highest price for 114 West 86th Street, beating out three other approved bidders who participated in the live auction in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles, said Lipa Lieberman, a director at Eastern Consolidated, who was present at the sale.

The property sold for a gross rent multiple of about 20, and a price per square foot of about $400, Lieberman said. He said interest had been high since the news broke of the auction on The Real Deal website.
[more]

From left: David Schechtman, Lipa Lieberman, Asher Bernstein and 114 West 86th Street (building photo: PropertyShark)

A 16-story Upper West Side apartment building mired in a dispute between a woman and her aging stepfather that bounced among New York, Florida and California courts, is scheduled to be sold at auction in May, with bids starting at nearly $18 million, federal bankruptcy records show.

The woman, Claudia Raffone, who lives in Beverly Hills, Calif., and the stepfather, Henry Douglas Campbell, of Manhattan, have battled each other since at least 2003 over the 49-unit building at 114 West 86th Street, located between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues.

But on Wednesday, the ownership dispute moved closer to resolution, when a federal bankruptcy judge in California set a May 4 date to sell the property at auction, bankruptcy records show.

The first official bid that sets a lowest price, known as the stalking-horse bid, was entered by Midtown-based Bernstein Real Estate, at $17.95 million, bankruptcy court records show. The sale is being handled by Lipa Lieberman and David Schechtman, brokers with investment sales firm Eastern Consolidated. [more]

Four loans with an unpaid balance totaling $18.75 million are up for grabs at a stalled development site near the United Nations that has the potential to become a new hotel or consulate, according to the Observer (note: clarification made). The loans, which are being marketed by David Schechtman of Eastern Consolidated, are secured by the retail, residential and commercial properties at 844 Second Avenue, 302 East 45th Street, 303 East 44th Street and 304 East 44th Street. Plans for a high-end hotel or consulate there never got off the ground because of the tight construction market, but the current owners did consider moving air rights from the Second Avenue and 45th Street properties to the two on 44th Street to create nearly 75,000 square feet of development rights. [more]