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.
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From left: Joseph Moinian, 1450 Broadway and Edward J. Minskoff

A partnership of the Chetrit Group, Joseph Moinian‘s the Moinian Group and Edward J. Minskoff Equities has sold the 42-story office tower at 1450 Broadway to the Zar Group for $204 million, according to Crain’s, and the building may go residential under its new ownership. The 400,200-square-foot building, on the corner of 41st Street, was purchased for $121 million by Chetrit, Moinian and Minskoff in 2004. It now has a 14 percent vacancy rate, with tenants including BCBG and Iconix Brand Group. This is the first New York City office acquisition for the Manhattan-based firm formerly known as Zar City Properties. [more]

The Moinian Group has been ordered to pay up $3 million, after losing a lawsuit brought forward by affordable housing developer Atlantic Development Group, according to Crain’s. Atlantic filed the suit in June 2009, claiming that Moinian had failed to pay for the air rights it purchased to build a planned 60-story residential tower at 605 West 42nd Street. According to court documents, Moinian “deposited in escrow $3 million, which was supposed to be replaced in November 2008 by a $20 million letter of credit in favor of Atlantic.” The affordable housing developer sued for the deposit, after the letter never materialized. But while Atlantic may have won this legal round, more troubles may lie ahead. Atlantic is currently under investigation for reasons that were not immediately clear after its office was raided in April. [Crain's]

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Jacqueline Finkelstein-Bayer and a rendering of the W New York Downtown

Roughly 70 percent of buyers thus far at the new W New York Downtown Hotel & Residences are international, the Moinian Group’s Jacqueline Finkelstein-Bayer told Dr. Lori Sokol yesterday during her morning radio show on AM1490. Finkelstein-Bayer, the senior managing director at the development company and the woman charged with overseeing the new 58-story property, said foreign buyers in particular are treating the condos as a “significant investment opportunity,” given the billion of dollars being poured into the redevelopment of Ground Zero over the next decade. The long-delayed W, which will have 223 private residences and 217 hotel rooms, will finally open June 28, though the BLT Bar & Grill downstairs may be opening one week earlier, Finkelstein-Bayer said. [WGCH]

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Jacqueline Finkelstein-Bayer and a rendering of the W New York Downtown

Roughly 70 percent of buyers thus far at the new W New York Downtown Hotel & Residences are international, the Moinian Group’s Jacqueline Finkelstein-Bayer told Dr. Lori Sokol yesterday during her morning radio show on AM1490. Finkelstein-Bayer, the senior managing director at the development company and the woman charged with overseeing the new 58-story property, said foreign buyers in particular are treating the condos as a “significant investment opportunity,” given the billion of dollars being poured into the redevelopment of Ground Zero over the next decade. The long-delayed W, which will have 223 private residences and 217 hotel rooms, will finally open June 28, though the BLT Bar & Grill downstairs may be opening one week earlier, Finkelstein-Bayer said. [WGCH]

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Jeff Winick

From the May issue: Drugstore chain Duane Reade had a problem: A competitor was sniffing around a large space across the street from one of its best Midtown locations on Sixth Avenue near West 57th Street. Officials at the store enlisted its broker, Winick Realty Group, to take care of the situation.

Several months later, not only had the competitor disappeared, but Duane Reade had taken that site at 100 West 57th Street for itself.

That’s partly thanks to Winick Realty’s founder and CEO, Jeff Winick, who used back channels to help secure the site for the drugstore. Winick’s aggressive, take-no-prisoners style seems to win him accolades from clients but has created fierce enmity among his competition.

That style has been on full display for the last few weeks in a federal courtroom in Lower Manhattan, where two former Duane Reade executives are on trial for fraudulently pumping up earnings reports, partly through allegedly bogus real estate transactions involving Winick. [more]

Joseph Moinian’s 1775 Broadway (building photo source: PropertyShark)

Granted that, as architecture goes, the former General Motors Building, at 1775 Broadway between Broadway and Eighth Avenue and 57th and 58th streets, is no beauty. In fact it is downright ugly — an overbearing and unimaginative study in pre-war red brick with a tasteless splash of mortar at street level. It took two firms to create this thing, with William Welles Bosworth contributing the pale granite base and Shreve & Lamb of Empire State Building fame finishing the brick-clad upper floors.
But whatever one thought of their collaboration, no building deserves the indignity to which this one is now being subjected at the hands of the Moinian Group, which has decided to change the building’s address to 3 Columbus Circle and reclad the building in a cheap-looking layer of bluish, reflecting glass that is acrobatically tactless in this context (not that it looks especially good anywhere else). [more]

The W Hotel

The Moinian Group is negotiating with lenders after defaulting on a collateralized $25 million mezzanine loan last October, backed by the W New York Downtown Hotel & Residences, The Real Deal has learned.

Fitch yesterday downgraded a $942 million collateralized debt obligation issued by Realty Finance, a Rocky Hill, Conn.-based lender. Two of the three largest loans in the pool were backed by the W New York and the Riverton, a 1,230-unit multi-family complex in Harlem.

Moinian, led by developer Joseph Moinian, defaulted on the loan amid budget problems and construction delays, according to Fitch. Fitch said it “modeled a full loss on this highly-leveraged mezzanine loan,” however the ratings agency told The Real Deal that Moinian is currently negotiating with CW Capital Asset Management, the special servicer on the loan.

Moinian confirmed through a spokesperson that he is in talks with CW Capital and said he is continuing to make interest payments.

“No action has been taken against them and they are continuing to work with the special servicer to arrange new terms,” the spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement. [more]

The Moinian Group has topped off the new W New York hotel and residential building, at 123 Washington Street between Carlisle and Albany streets near Ground Zero, according to a press release today. The 58-story, 400,000-square-foot building, designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, will include a 217-room W hotel, 223 condo residences, a restaurant, bar, spa and fitness center. The construction has outpaced several other projects in the neighborhood, including the Freedom Tower one block away, which is currently rising above street level. TRD

From the September issue: The term “vulnerable” is not typically associated with the alpha dogs
of New York City’s high-powered commercial real estate world. But that
is precisely how a number of top commercial firms are feeling these
days, and to compensate, they are taking extra measures to ensure that
landlords can’t stiff them.
An increasing number of brokers are having legal language inserted
into their contracts stating that if their commission is not paid by a
certain date, it will come from the tenant they worked with, instead of
the landlord. The “rent in lieu of commission” clause, as it is
unofficially known, is structured so the payment won’t cost the tenant
a dime; rather, it will simply be deducted from the rent they would
otherwise pay to the landlord. Last month one of the city’s top brokerage firms issued a 10-point
memo to its commission-based employees explaining ways that they can
best protect their spoils. [more]