121 East 24th Street

And Partners, a digital design and marketing firm, has jumped ship in favor of a cheaper lease at 121 East 24th Street, Crain’s reported. Previously stationed in pricey Chelsea, where the average asking rent is $61.77 per square foot, And Partners will now occupy a 5,200-square-foot space for $45 per square foot.

“They definitely wanted to stay in the 20s, and this was a really good value,” Adams & Co. broker Jeff Buslick, who represented the tenant in the 10-year deal, told Crain’s. [more]

The Ace Hotel

From the April issue: Across New York City, hotels have been popping up like post-recession beacons of an improving economy. But the area around 29th Street in Manhattan has seen an especially noticeable transformation.

Just a few years ago, the street was mostly limited to retailers selling an inexpensive hodgepodge of goods and discount clothes. Now there are nearly a dozen hotels clustered on and around 29th Street, including the trendy Ace Hotel, which opened in 2009. It was followed in 2011 by a sister property, the NoMad Hotel. On 29th Street and Park Avenue, the 249-room Gansevoort Park Avenue opened in 2010. The Eventi hotel, at the corner of 29th and Sixth Avenue, launched the same year. [more]

Richard Persichetti and Chelsea Market

The Chelsea/Meatpacking area of Midtown South had the lowest availability of office leasing space of any of Manhattan’s 19 submarkets, according to Richard Persichetti, vice president of research at Cassidy Turley. Some 6.9 percent of space was vacant in the first quarter of 2013 — a drop from the nearly 9 percent availability in the previous quarter, Persichetti noted in a New York Observer column. [more]

Richard Persichetti

Class A office space in Manhattan now accounts for 62 percent of the total available supply — a significantly higher percentage than in past recovery cycles, according to Richard Persichetti, Cassidy Turley’s vice president of research, marketing and consulting. Although it’s true there is 101 million square feet less Class B office space than Class A, the smaller volume doesn’t wholly account for the smaller level of supply, Persichetti noted in a New York Observer column.

For example, in 2006, Class B office space accounted for 46 percent of the supply, compared to 32 percent today. [more]

From left: Ken McCarthy and 770 Broadway (credit: PropertyShark)

Though the hip and tech-heavy Midtown South saw a year-over-year increase in availability, neighborhood landlords are still looking to grab higher rents, the New York Observer reported, citing data provided by Cushman & Wakefield. “It’s still a landlord’s market even though that space has come online,” Ken McCarthy, Cushman & Wakefield’s chief economist, told the Observer. “Anyone adding space to the market is asking higher rents.” [more]

From left: Stephen Meringoff, 158 West 27th Street and Leslie Himmel

Two real estate investors who picked up a 116,000-square-foot building at 158 West 27th Street for $25 million in 2010 have more than doubled their money, selling the Midtown South property for $57.5 million, Crain’s reported. Stephen Meringoff and Leslie Himmel sold the building to Emmes Asset Management. Adam Spies and Doug Harmon of Eastdil Secured—the same pair who handled the Chetrit Group’s $1.1 billion purchase of the Sony Tower—brokered the deal. Meringoff and Himmel acquired the building in 2010 by assuming the building’s distressed debt and forcing a takeover…. [more]

From left: Michael Cohen, Robert Freedman and Joseph Harbert

The private equity sector made the greatest moves in 2012’s Manhattan office trading market, while institutional investors had a rather quiet year, said executives at Colliers International during a luncheon held to discuss the firm’s 2013 forecast. Private equity firms—which include foreign investments— made 47 percent of total office purchases, representing an estimated $4.4 billion of the total $9.4 billion Manhattan market, executives said. In comparison, foreign and institutional investors were each responsible for 16 percent of total sales in the year. [more]

Ash Zandieh

Midtown South too expensive? NoMad may be the answer. The cleverly-named area north of Madison Park may become the preferred spot for creative businesses priced out of office space elsewhere in the area, the New York Observer reported. According to Ash Zandieh, director of TechStarter, the creative arm of ABS Partners, NoMad has the cool cultural pull to attract start-up firms without the hefty rents. In addition, the neighborhood provides proximity to others who work in similar start-up fields. [more]

From left: 315 Park Avenue South, Craig Nassi and SL Green’s Marc Holliday

Office landlord SL Green Realty today announced its purchase of the debt on 315 Park Avenue South, Crain’s reported. A source told the publication that SL Green will shell out $218 million for the building’s loan.

As The Real Deal reported this summer, special servicer CW Capital filed a suit to foreclose on the 20-story building. The 320,000-square-foot property is owned by Craig Nassi, who purchased the building for $265 million in 2007 at the height of the market. [more]

From left: IBM CEO Virginia Rometty and 63 Madison Avenue

Computer giant IBM has signed a lease in Midtown South to take space occupied by a textile company owned by investor Carl Icahn. IBM inked a deal for the entire 54,045-square-foot eighth floor at 63 Madison Avenue, a 735,257-square-foot office building owned by George Comfort & Sons and Loeb Partners Realty.

The rent starts at $32 per square foot, sources said. The rate is far below the average price per square foot in Midtown South, which was $48.73 per square foot in October, figures from commercial firm Cassidy Turley show. One insider speculated it might be low because it was a sublease. [more]