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From the April issue: In February, Midtown suffered its slowest month of office leasing in nine months, prompting brokers to wonder whether the poor performance was the result of a pause before another rush of leasing, or a harbinger of anemic activity that will remain for months. James Frederick, executive managing director at commercial services firm Cassidy Turley, predicted that activity would pick up in the coming months. “Now, there is a little lull in closings. But there are lots of significant deals in negotiations. Expect this month and next month [to] pick up,” Frederick said. [more]

From the January issue: These days, firms don’t downsize, they “rightsize.” Companies no longer make budget cuts, they “reduce to competitive levels.”
The current downturn has ushered in a new wave of vocabulary for real estate firms that are trying to spin bad news.
Lenders may be asking for 25 percent or more of the purchase price
on a new apartment up front, but rather than referring to it as a down
payment, many have recently started calling it an “investment.”
Meanwhile, that deed in lieu of foreclosure was really just a “loss
mitigation technique.” And no, that wasn’t a price cut. It was a “price
correction.”
As the Web site Cityfile recently observed, restaurants across New
York have been “closing for renovations,” until, after a few weeks or
months, they’re finally ready to reveal what insiders knew all along:
Reopening was never in the plans.

Hachette Filipacchi, the publisher that recently lost out to beauty giant Avon in talks to take over several open floors at the William Kaufman Organization’s 777 Third Avenue, is reportedly closing in on a deal at the 48-story Time-Life Building at 1271 Avenue of the Americas in Rockefeller Center. The contract would be for 132,000 square feet of space previously occupied by Lehman Brothers, which had subleased the three floors from Time Inc. Hachette would be downsizing significantly from its current 263,010 square feet at 1633 Broadway, which is owned by Paramount. Deloitte is also expected to vacate 1633 Broadway soon, in a move that could leave the door open for television network A&E. Currently located at 235 East 45th Street, A&E is in the market for 350,000 square feet of space and is rumored to have looked at the Empire State Building and Worldwide Plaza in addition to Paramount’s building. [Post]

From left: Whitney Wilcox, Isaac Zion, Howard Nottingham, Jay Koster, Steven Koppel, at last night’s REBNY meeting

Lenders mulling which borrowers to chase into foreclosure will be considering not only the viability of the struggling real estate projects but also the relationship with the developers, finance experts said at a panel last night held at the Real Estate Board of New York. While most lenders do not want to take back distressed properties and are content to extend loan terms, in certain situations they will move against the owners. In those cases, aggressive efforts to take back properties will at times be made based on the level of business the borrower has with the lender, said panelist Steven Koppel, partner at law firm Jones Day. “A strong bank may have more of an appetite to force the issue, especially if the borrowing entity is not a client they want in the future or is in an asset class they are not really interested in,” Koppel said. Comments

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