Gregg Lorberbaum, Samantha Fishbone and 440 Ninth Avenue

Residential property manager Century Management Services has inked a deal for 11,373 square feet at 440 Ninth Avenue at West 35th Street, the New York Observer reported. The lease is for part of the 412,000-square-foot building’s 15th floor, where asking rents tick in at $45 per square foot. [more]

From left: Travis Wilson and 151 West 26th Street (credit: PropertyShark)

Clothing designer Ralph Rucci is tripling its office, manufacturing and showroom space and leaving its Soho location behind for a full-floor loft in Chelsea. [more]

The Center Building

Madison Marquette is tapping Newmark Grubb Knight Frank to market the Center Building in Long Island City, the New York Observer reported.Marquette purchased the 500,000-square-foot building for $84.5 million late last year, according to city records. The former assembling plant for Ford Model T’s, located at 33-00 Northern Boulevard, hit the market after an extensive renovation by Brooklyn-based Hampshire Properties…. [more]

Breakdown of where Grubb & Ellis executives have landed

A state bankruptcy judge approved Grubb & Ellis’ liquidation plan on Wednesday, almost a year after the struggling commercial firm was acquired by BGC Partners, Law360 reported.

As a result of a series of operating losses and negative earnings Grubb & Ellis filed for bankruptcy in February 2012, and sold most of its assets to BGC in April of the same year for north of $50 million. Frank Oswald of Togut Segal & Segal LLP, an attorney for Grubb & Ellis, told the court that following the approval of the sale to BGC, “the committee and this debtor worked hand-in-hand” for the remainder of the bankruptcy process.  [more]

Robert Sammons

The head of research for the Tri-State area at Cassidy Turley is moving to Newmark Grubb Knight Frank to head the larger Midtown-based firm’s local research division. Robert Sammons, a well-known analyst popular with the local real estate press, is leaving the mid-size commercial brokerage after more than 12 years on the job, several sources familiar with the move, said. His new title at NGKF, where he will start in several weeks, was not immediately known. Sammons, who has a regular column with the Commercial Observer, worked for three years in the mid-1990s for Cushman & Wakefield…. [more]

From left: Corey Borg, an associate director at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank and 225 Broadway

New York City-based style and fashion blog Refinery29 inked a deal for two floors of office space a block from City Hall. The move will more than quadruple the amount of space it currently occupies in Midtown South.

The seven-year-old women’s style website — which provides fashion and trend content related to New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C. and London – signed the 10-year lease for 30,550 square feet taking the entire 22nd and 23rd floors of 225 Broadway. The 516,800-square-foot office tower is at the corner of Barclay Street and the asking rent for the space was $38 per square foot, CoStar Group information shows. [more]

From left: Jason Pruger, executive managing director at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, and Barry Gosin, CEO of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (credit: Adam Pincus)

Brokers and landlords crowded the walkways today at the annual International Conference of Shopping Centers New York National Conference & Deal Making show, held at the Hilton New York and Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, in Midtown (see photos after the jump).

The two-day event started today and runs through Tuesday. One insider at the show, Patrick Smith, executive vice president at SRS Real Estate Partners and a program planning committee co-chairman, estimated there were about 7,000 people attending the conference. Last year, the show attracted an estimated 6,600 people, and in 2010, about 6,100, a conference spokesperson said at the time…. [more]

Martha Stewart

Updated at 10 a.m., Nov. 21: Nearly 35,000 square feet of space currently occupied by the troubled media company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has hit the sublet market, industry sources said.

The hefty chunk of space at Chelsea’s Starrett-Lehigh building appeared on the real estate information site CoStar on Friday, and sources confirmed to The Real Deal today that it belongs to Martha Stewart Living. The publishing arm of homemaking guru Martha Stewart’s empire has more than 200,000 square feet at the RXR Realty-owned building at 601 West 26th Street, according to CoStar. [more]

Howard Lutnick

BGC Partners plans to roll out its real estate derivative platform next year with the backing of three large banks, the firm’s CEO Howard Lutnick said at a real estate panel this morning in Midtown.

BGC owns the Midtown-based real estate brokerage Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, and Lutnick first suggested in 2011 that the company would offer a hedge against office leases in the form of a derivative.

Real estate derivates provide tenants or landlords a type of insurance against rising or falling rents, but have proven difficult to implement. Many real estate brokers are skeptical about the idea, but other industry insiders believe it will eventually take hold. [more]

BGC CEO Howard Lutnick

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank raked in $141.1 million in revenue during the third quarter. The third quarter earnings mark a slight decrease from the $144.1 million posted during the second quarter, according to a report in Crain’s. The results come from a tally recorded by its parent company BGC Partners. Newmark’s earnings raised BGC’s income during a time at which BGC’s income from other financial services had fallen.

BGC’s revenues were $107 million in October – a decline from $112 million in October of 2011. But including real estate revenues, the numbers during the third quarter ticked in at $440 million, up from roughly $380 million year-over-year. [more]