NYU rendering

In an attempt to assuage community opposition, New York University will be asking the city to designate as parkland the green spaces at the edge of the Washington Square Superblocks, strips along LaGuardia Place and Mercer Street in Greenwich Village, east and west of the Washington Square Village, NYU officials said at a media briefing today. In a statement the school later provided, NYU emphasizes that its revised proposals will allow the university to build almost entirely on its existing footprint in the neighborhood with no up-zoning and no displacement of tenants. The university’s ambitious city-wide expansion plan slated for completion in 2031 has prompted much community opposition particularly in Greenwich Village. [more]

Manhattan-based real estate investment bank the Carlton Group is expanding into Europe in an effort to become a bigger player overseas, according to Crain’s. The expansion has already begun with the firm opening a London office in April. Howard Michaels, chairman and chief executive, says Russia will be next, potentially opening by the end of 2011. Michaels is attempting to cash in on changed attitudes amongst foreign investors. “Everyone always said overseas investors have an increased appetite in Manhattan. Today that has never been more true,” he said. [more]

From the December issue: Five years after starting as a four-person residential rental firm in New York, Platinum Properties has announced its latest expansion: opening offices in Miami and Los Angeles early next year. “We have a lot of our clients [who] own properties in both those locations,” Khashy Eyn, Platinum’s CEO and president, said, adding that Platinum will consider “buy[ing] a firm that’s already started and changing the name.” Platinum has not picked locations for its offices yet, but Eyn said the firm is targeting luxury strongholds in each city. Miami’s South of Fifth neighborhood and locations near Beverly Hills are on his wish list. [more]

Columbia University is set to take its eminent domain case to the New York Court of Appeals today, according to Crain’s, in an effort to secure space for its proposed $6 billion, 17-acre expansion. The appeal comes on the heels of the court’s vehement denial of Columbia’s effort to use eminent domain to seize the land. The Empire State Development Corp has determined that the area where the school wanted to expand was blighted, which would have allowed Columbia to step in and take the land. But a series of legal actions from residents blocked the university from going through with its plan. A decision is expected from the court sometime this summer. [Crain's]

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Columbia University officials say they plan to continue their 17-acre
Manhattanville campus expansion, despite a court defeat last month
which prevented them from controlling 100 percent of the planned area.
However, the school still controls 94 percent of the area and will
continue with the utility, demolition, and construction work that has
been going on for a few months now. A Columbia-owned building at 3229
Broadway at the corner of 129th Street will still be demolished and the
adjacent gas station will become home to the Jerome L. Greene Science
Center. Additionally, construction will commence on the subterranean
“bathtub”, which would connect all the buildings. “Despite the court
case, construction is on schedule on properties controlled by
Columbia,” said Marcelo Velez, head of construction for the
Manhattanville project at Columbia. [Arch Paper]

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Nest Seekers CEO Eddie Shapiro and 415 Madison Avenue (Building photo source: PropertyShark)

Using the downturn as an opportunity for expansion, Nest Seekers International has opened its fourth Manhattan office. The seven-year-old residential brokerage opened a 4,000-square-foot office this week at 415 Madison Avenue between 48th and 49th streets, according to Nest Seekers CEO Eddie Shapiro. The space will hold about 50 agents, some newly hired and some from other offices, he said. The company which focuses on low- to mid-priced sales, founded by Shapiro, also has Manhattan offices at 2190 Broadway between 77th and 78th streets, 20 East 49th Street, 55 Christopher Street in the West Village, as well as space at 47-44 Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City, East Hampton and at 1221 Brickell Avenue in Miami. Shapiro said this is the company’s first foray into Class A office space, but the company got a good deal because of weakness in the commercial real estate market. “The cost of opening that office was probably half of what it would have cost us a year and a half ago or two years ago,” he said. [more]