From left: Midtown Manhattan and Mary Ann Tighe, CEO of tri-state region for CBRE

Manhattan office leasing finished 2011 with gradual but steady improvement in asking rents, according to data released today by CBRE.

The exception is Midtown South, where the “glow of Google,” as Mary Ann Tighe, CEO of the tri-state region for CBRE, called it, pushed 2011 absorption to 2.19 million square feet — the highest for that market since 1997. In Midtown South, the overall availability rate fell to 8.8 percent in December, down slightly from November, the largest monthly drop since 2005, according to the figures presented by CBRE at its fourth-quarter media breakfast this morning.  [more]

From left: The UGL, CPEX and Cassidy Turley parties

The city’s commercial firms generally went with scaled-down holiday parties as the industry licked it wounds in 2011 after making it through a difficult year.

Many commercial firms opted for low-key themes either by spending fewer dollars or going for a less formal environment, for example at least two opted for bowling, and CBRE Group headed to the circus. [more]

REBNY head Stephen Spinola

From the December issue: The more than 12,000 members of the Real Estate Board of New York will soon be reaching for their checkbooks to send their annual dues to the influential trade group. And there’s no doubt many will be engaging in a yearly cost-benefit analysis of the nonprofit’s value.

Members pay more than $6 million per year in dues — which are supposed to be in on Jan. 1 — and the group takes in several million more through its annual gala and other income that make up its approximately $9 million annual budget.

The 115-year-old organization is the undisputed top real estate organization in the city, and presents a powerful and unified public front. But there are rumblings of discontent, partly because it operates with a lopsided distribution of power. For example, building owners and residential firms are contributing roughly the same amount of money to the organization, but owners outnumber residential brokers on the board 10 to 1. 

[more]

Retail conglomerate Limited Brands has inked a deal for almost 100,000 square feet of office space at 1740 Broadway, at 56th Street, the New York Observer reported.

The company, which owns retailers such as Victoria’s Secret and Bath and Body Works, has signed for floors 14 through 17 in a 10-year lease, engineered to coincide with the expiration of their other space in the Vornado-owned building, where they currently lease approximately another 400,000 square feet.

Sources told the Observer that the rent was in the $60s per square foot. [more]

From left: Mary Ann Tighe of CBRE, Jimmy Kuhn of Newmark and 3 Columbus CircleAdvertising behemoth the Young & Rubicam Group will move into 340,000 square feet at SL Green’s 3 Columbus Circle, in a commercial condominium purchase and lease, the New York Times reported. The move marks the last major advertising agency to defect from Madison Avenue, the street that is synonymous with the industry as a whole.

Young & Rubicam took a condo interest in 214,372 square feet on floors three through eight, and signed a 20-year lease for 124,760 square feet on floors 9, 10, 18 and 19 at the 26-story tower. Three Columbus Circle, also known as 1775 Broadway, occupies the entire block between Eighth Avenue and Broadway at 59th Street. The deal includes naming rights for the building.
[more]

From left: Former CBRE Group broker Jon Zuckerman, now an executive managing director at Newmark Knight Frank, CBRE brokers Mary Ann Tighe and Stephen Siegel, former CBRE tri-state President Mitchell Rudin, current president of U.S. operations for Brookfield Properties, and
Keith Caggiano, vice president at CBRE

The word on the street has always been that it’s a dog-eat-dog world in the city’s largest commercial brokerage firms, but brokers rarely reveal how the cutthroat maneuvering plays out.

But now, in a bombshell lawsuit filed this month, former CBRE Group broker Jon Zuckerman provides an inside account claiming he was forced to resign and give up his lucrative MetLife account while CBRE allegedly sought to consolidate control over his clients.

The suit only names the commercial property firm CBRE (under the name CB Richard Ellis Real Estate Services) and Zuckerman’s former partner, broker Keith Caggiano, and does not name MetLife or other CBRE executives. [more]

News Corp. has signed a 15-year lease for the former Charles Schwab space in the southern plaza of the media company’s Rockefeller Center headquarters at 1211 Sixth Avenue, the New York Post reported, beating out Emirates Airlines, which had also been interested in the property. The company will likely build a 9,000-square-foot studio in the space, the Post said, though its exact plans were not immediately clear.

Beacon Capital, the building’s owner, had reportedly been marketing the space through Cushman & Wakefield for $525 to $625 per square foot, or $4 million a year.

Gene Spiegelman, David Tricarico and Mitch Arkin of Cushman & Wakefield represented Beacon in the deal, while News Corp. was represented by Mary Ann Tighe, Ken Rapp and Tim Dempsey of CBRE. [more]

From left: JLL New York President Peter Riguardi, 330 Madison Avenue, CBRE New York CEO Mary Ann Tighe and 200 Park Avenue

Commercial brokerages CBRE and Jones Lang LaSalle are best known for finding office space for businesses in need, but each firm is quietly moving into new spaces of its own.

The Wall Street Journal reported that after inking deals in 2010, CBRE recently moved into new offices in the Met Life Building at 200 Park Avenue and JLL will soon take up space at 330 Madison Avenue.

JLL pays about $60 for each of its 82,000 square feet, and spent $20.5 million renovating the space. [more]

Related Companies CEO Stephen Ross and President Jeff Blau were on hand at the official announcement that Coach would occupy about 600,000 square feet at the first building the developer plans to construct in its Hudson Yards project on the West Side. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, as well as executives from bag maker Coach, were present at the event at 30th Street and 11th Avenue this morning. CBRE brokers Mary Ann Tighe and Greg Tosko, represented Coach in the transaction. – Adam Pincus [more]

From left: SL Green CEO Marc Holliday, 280 Park Avenue (building photo source: PropertyShark), and Vornado Chairman Steven Roth

Vornado Realty Trust and SL Green Realty are planning a $60 million to $100 million transformation of the office towers at 280 Park Avenue that the partnership acquired for almost $500 million in April, according to the New York Post.

The group has commissioned architects KPF to oversee facade modifications to the structure, comprised of a 31-story tower and a 48-story tower that are connected by a 17-story middle building near 49th Street, and a complete renovation of the tower’s base and plaza and lobby. [more]