In the wake of the financial crisis that ripped through the country, real estate pros did their best to keep their heads above water in 2009. As 2010 commences, The Real Deal asked a number of New Yorkers hailing from different parts of the real estate industry why they are glad 2009 is over. Click here to see what they said is their top reason. TRD
Manhattan-based real estate service company Colliers ABR will not be part of the new firm created through the combination of its global umbrella partnership Colliers International and Seattle-based FirstService Real Estate Advisors, the parent company of Manhattan-based FirstService Williams.
Colliers ABR has elected to become part of a new real estate corporation based in St. Louis called Cassidy Turley, which was created by some of the largest affiliates of Colliers International and is not part of a new combined global company, a source familiar with the deal told The Real Deal.
FirstService REA and Colliers International announced today they would combine to form one of the world’s largest commercial services firms, behind California-based CB Richard Ellis and Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle. It will be based in Seattle, Wash., the headquarters of FirstService REA, and the merger will be completed by the end of the second quarter, FirstService Real Estate Advisors president and CEO Dylan Taylor told The Real Deal. More
The average asking rent for office space in the northern end of Midtown has dropped significantly to $59.31 per square foot, from
$88.81 per square foot a year ago. “Tenants once priced out of Midtown
now see it as a viable destination. Demand drives deals, and we’re
seeing that play out,” said Mark Jaccom, CEO of Manhattan-based
commercial real estate services firm FirstService Williams. Other
stabilizing factors in Midtown include the amount of available
rentable space. Nearly two-thirds of the available space in Midtown is
at 450 West 33rd Street as well as the Empire State Building.
Additionally, new affordable options in Midtown and other parts of the
city have tenants flocking from downtown, which posted the largest
availability rate increase, to 13 percent up from 11.6 percent last
year, according to FirstService Williams. [more]
From the December issue: Major lease deals signed at the Boston Properties trophy office building at 399 Park Avenue over the past month seemed to indicate the market was getting a boost. But the latest reports from the city’s commercial brokerage firms show continued slippage in Manhattan office leasing, and those mixed signals make it difficult for brokers to agree on what advice to give their clients. Erik Schmall, a senior managing director at commercial firm Studley, said at the start of the crisis, his firm counseled tenants to hold off on making deals. But that stance has softened recently, and the company believes low-priced space can be had at attractive pricing. “Whether we are at the bottom of the market or really close to it, we feel we are close enough where the quality of the deals we can get probably outweigh any possible further benefit,” he said. [more]
From the November issue: The amount of free rent that landlords are offering to entice reluctant tenants to sign contracts has hit record levels in the current downturn, despite the fact that asking rents have started to stabilize in parts of the Manhattan leasing market. In the third quarter, two Midtown leases were signed with 17 and 18 months of free rent — double the average of eight and a half months, figures from the most recent report from commercial services firm CB Richard Ellis showed. Some industry professionals said even longer rent-free periods were being negotiated. “For some landlords it may be advantageous to give more free rent [but] with a higher rent [per square foot],” he said. The free rent was just one element of a soft Manhattan leasing market that saw a 1 percent decline in September asking rents. Those rents fell to $50.78 from $51.28 per square foot the month earlier, the CBRE data shows. Average asking rents are now down 29 percent from the peak of $71.92 per square foot in July 2008.
When Washington issued new rules three weeks ago to facilitate the
modification process for troubled securitized loans, some leaders in
New York’s commercial real estate industry quickly took notice. But anyone hoping to see immediate help for struggling property owners
will be disappointed, experts who track commercial mortgage-backed
securities say. “I think it is premature. [The changes are] really just giving people
the opportunity to enter into negotiations,” said Tom Fink, senior vice
president at Trepp, a firm which tracks commercial mortgage securities.
“Whether it is going to make a difference on any of the loans in New
York City, it is too early to tell.” At a real estate panel last month, Robert Freedman, executive chairman
at commercial firm FirstService Williams, told the audience that the
changes were a positive development. “We will be hearing a lot more about it,” he said. The new rules issued by the Internal Revenue Service Sept. 15 allow the
special servicer to alter loans in CMBS pools under broader
circumstances than before. [more]
From the October issue: Stupid, stupid, stupid cheap.” That’s how low prices have to fall before the commercial real estate market hits bottom, Steven Roth, the chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, predicted earlier this year. In a letter to shareholders in April, the square-jawed mogul confided, “I think we are now at the third and last stupid. Not that he’s buying yet. But in recent months, the 67-year-old real estate titan, along with CEO Michael Fascitelli, the other half of the so-called “Vornado Tornado,” has been building a war chest to go shopping. And when Vornado gets ready to shop, there’s good reason to pay attention.
Manhattan office leasing market indicators were mixed in the third quarter of 2009, showing a continued weakening of asking rents but a flattening of availability rates, according to a report released today by commercial services firm FirstService Williams. (See full report after the jump.) Asking rents in Manhattan fell by 8.5 percent in the third quarter to $53.54 per square foot, from $58.52 per square foot in the prior quarter, the report says. The decline was not as steep as in the second quarter, which saw a drop of 10 percent from the previous quarter. Asking rents fell by 32.6 percent in the third quarter from their peak in the second quarter of 2008, the data shows. more
GDS Publishing, which publishes industrial and business management
journals, has signed a seven-year lease for 20,200 square feet at 40
Wall Street. The asking rent was $38 per square foot, sources told
Crain’s New York Business. The fact that Donald Trump owns 40 Wall
Street was an important factor in GDS Publishing’s decision to move,
said FirstService Williams’ Jared Freede, who represented GDS
Publishing in the transaction. The company plans to move to 40 Wall
Street from 33 Whitehall Street in the fourth quarter of this year. [more]
Manhattan office taking rents have fallen by as much as 40 percent from
the second quarter of 2008 to the same period in 2009, commercial real
estate firm FirstService Williams says in a report issued today. While
the survey showed average asking rents in Manhattan were down 26
percent quarter-over-quarter, to $58.52 per square foot from $79.39 per
square foot, the taking rent fell even more. “Our measures of
taking rents indicate that the average may be down in the range of 35
percent to 40 percent over nearly the same time period,” the report
says. But the survey also says there were signs of improvement. more
[more]
