(source: U.S. Federal Election Commission)

In the last three months of 2011, New York City real estate executives gave more than six times as much to Republican political committees as Democratic groups, a review of federal election documents released yesterday shows.

Republican backers, including Vornado Realty Trust’s Steven Roth and Related Companies’ Stephen Ross, donated a total of $280,000 in the fourth quarter of the year to federal campaign committees, while Democrats contributed $43,300. An additional 10 donors gave $36,000 to political groups that back candidates in both parties (see partial list above and full list after the jump). [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]

The president and CEO of CB Richard Ellis’ New York tri-state region, Mitchell Rudin, is taking a high-level job at global developer and landlord Brookfield Office Properties, which owns the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan, according to the two companies.

Brookfield hired Rudin to be president and CEO of U.S. commercial operations, replacing Dennis Friedrich, who was promoted to president and global chief investment officer for Brookfield. Friedrich replaced Brookfield’s CEO Ric Clark as company president, in the changes announced this morning. Clark remains as CEO.

Rudin was president and CEO at CBRE for seven years, and has been with the international brokerage firm for 21 years. He will start in his new position at the end of June.
[more]

Stephen Siegel

With 2.5 million square feet in transactions under his belt, Stephen Siegel was CB Richard Ellis’ top-producing sales professional for 2009, the firm announced today. Siegel’s key transactions last year included a 202,495-square-foot lease at 1633 Broadway, where he represented television network Showtime, a 292,391-square-foot lease at 1230 Avenue of the Americas for publishing giant Simon & Schuster and a 223,424-square-foot deal at 180 Maiden Lane, which he arranged for law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. “In as challenging an environment as has existed in his long career, over the last year, Steve was continually sought out by our firm’s largest clients seeking the benefit of his experience and wisdom,” Mitchell Rudin, president and CEO of CBRE’s New York Tri-State Region, said in a statement. TRD

While several of the city’s top brokers said the leasing market is approaching a floor for the current down cycle, potential office building buyers are preparing for years of further rent declines, real estate experts said at a forum this morning. “This is a unique city. It is at the bottom or close to [it],” Bruce Mosler, president and CEO of Cushman & Wakefield, said of office leasing in Manhattan. He was on a panel organized by business publisher Bisnow at Cooper Union. But just half an hour earlier at the same event, Michael Fascitelli, president and CEO of landlord Vornado Realty Trust, said potential buyers of office buildings were not predicting rents to increase for several years. He said that expected annual rent increases during the boom years, which were as high as 15 percent, are now at zero. And they could remain at zero for years. He added that to buy a building, a purchaser has to forecast a rent increase at some future time. [more]