Developer Edward Minskoff , president of Edward J. Minskoff Equities, is hoping to begin construction at 51 Astor Place in July, on what would be the city’s first large new speculative office building since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, according to the Wall Street Journal. Minskoff says he will begin construction without any pre-leasing on a Maki and Associates-designed, 430,000-square-foot tower on the site, just outside the East Village, that he acquired in late 2007. Although most of the city’s modern office space is in Midtown and the Financial District, Minskoff predicted that the building would attract high-tech companies, investment banks and advertising firms. [more]

The 44-story office tower at 1166 Sixth Avenue has just seen a staggering 260,000 square feet worth of closed deals, especially given today’s commercial real estate environment. D.E. Shaw, the hedge fund, doubled its current space in the building by subleasing four floors vacated last year by insurance company Marsh & McLennan, which also owns the upper half of the building. Edward Minskoff is the owner of the tower’s lower half, where D.E. Shaw is located, and where the asking rent was reported to be $45 per square foot. Some have since wondered whether D.E. Shaw would soon move the rest of its employees out of the company’s 100,000 feet at nearby 120 West 45th Street into Minskoff’s building. Westwood One Radio Networks also inked a lease for the 10th floor, and hedge fund manager Invesco signed a renewal and expansion on Marsh & McLennan’s floors 25 through 27, where the asking rents were said to be $58 per square foot. [Post, 1st item]

Top row, from left: Ron Pizzuto, Harry Macklowe, Emily Landau and Jerry Speyer; Second row, from left: Beth Rudin DeWoody, Edward Minskoff, Denise and Andrew Saul and Aby Rosen

The influential art magazine ARTnews included several New York City real estate notables such as Aby Rosen and Edward Minskoff
in their 2009 list of top 200 art collectors worldwide published this
month. Rosen, a partner in RFR Holding, which owns renowned buildings
Lever House and Seagram Building, collects modern and contemporary art.
Minskoff, president of acquisition and development firm Edward J.
Minskoff Equities, collects postwar, pop, and contemporary American and
European art. The list included Harry Macklowe and his wife Linda,
collectors of contemporary art; developer Lew Rudin’s daughter Beth
Rudin DeWoody, who collects modern and contemporary art; and Jerry
Speyer and his wife Katherine Farley, who focus on contemporary art.
The list is not ranked, but is ordered alphabetically. Comments

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