From left: Newmark Knight Frank Chairman Jeffrey Gural and the Meadowlands RacetrackNewmark Knight Frank Chairman Jeffrey Gural has signed a 30-year lease to operate the Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey, according to the Associated Press. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has long sought a private operator for the track, so that taxpayers wouldn’t continue to subsidize what’s become a losing entity. This year, the track is projected to lose $11 million. The deal ensures a full slate of races at the track, beginning Jan. 6. [more]

Jonathan Fanuzzi, who had been a senior managing director at Newmark Knight Frank, has joined Jones Lang LaSalle as executive vice president. He will focus on expanding JLL’s agency leasing practice, which specializes in landlord representation, and will work closely with Vice Chairmans Mitchell Konsker and Paul Glickman, a statement from Jones Lang LaSalle today said.

This follows the departure of Amira Yunis, previously an executive vice president and principal at Newmark, who has brokered several high-profile deals, such as Trader Joe’s Union Square lease. The retail broker left for CBRE last month. – Guelda Voien [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]

Matt Leon, a young upstart at real estate services firm Newmark Knight Frank, is taking over as head of a leasing team that handles the Manhattan office portfolio of TF Cornerstone, the New York Observer reported, including Carnegie Hall Tower, 645 Madison Avenue and 387 Park Avenue South. Leon takes over leasing at the properties from his former mentor Billy Cohen, the Observer said, a top Newmark broker who is stepping down because of growing responsibilities tied to other agency assignments. He handles leasing at Malkin Properties’ assets like the Empire State Building. [NYO] [more]

The five-story development set to rise in East Rutherford, N.J., called American Dream Meadowlands, got one step closer to a racetrack — of sorts — with a new bill proposed in the New Jersey State Legislature, the New York Observer and the Bergen Record reported.

A simulcasting facility could be built at the 3-million-square-foot entertainment space if the bill, brought by New Jersey Assemblyman Ron Dancer, son of horse racer Stanley Dancer, passes.

Newmark Knight Frank broker Chairman Frank Gural would then finally get to lease space in the complex for a “modern off-track betting facility with multiple viewing screens and tellers where patrons can wager bets,” said the Observer. [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.
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An apparel company owned by billionaire Warren Buffett has inked a 50,000-square-foot, 10-year lease for offices at 200 Madison Avenue, the New York Observer reported, relocating from the Empire State Building.

Garan Incorporated will occupy the 575,000-square-foot building’s fourth floor for rents that average around the mid-$40s per square foot. The company previously squeezed into a 40,000-square-foot space at the Empire State Building and was eager to expand to a building that could accommodate all its staff on one floor.

Jim Saunders Noel Flag of Newmark Knight Frank represented Garan in the transaction. [more]

One of Newmark Knight Frank’s top retail brokers, Amira Yunis, has left the brokerage to join CBRE, CBRE announced today. Yunis will join the company’s Midtown Manhattan office as an executive vice president in retail services, effective next Monday.

Yunis, who has been with Newmark since 2000, served most recently as executive vice president and principal of the company, where she brokered several high-profile deals such as a Trader Joe’s lease at Union Square (the retailer’s first lease in the city) and an 8,500-square-foot space at the Fred French Building at 551 Fifth Avenue to the clothing retailer Tommy Bahama.

“Amira has steadily and intelligently built a notable retail real estate business in New York, including prime international and national brands,” said Matt Van Buren, president of the New York tri-state region at CBRE. -- Katherine Clarke [more]

From the November issue: New York is, of course, the shopping (and eating) capital of the country — if not the world. But what do the latest concerns about a double-dip recession mean for the countless stores, restaurants and shops packed into Manhattan?

In this month’s Q & A, The Real Deal talked to Manhattan retail brokers about how the retail market — which tanked in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown — is holding up.

Brokers said they are seeing strong rents and activity in prime areas like Fifth Avenue, Time Square, Soho and the Upper West Side. But, they say, secondary and tertiary submarkets are hurting, with continuing declines in asking rents and increases in vacancy rates. [more]

Newmark Knight Frank brokers are being forced to contribute up to 10 percent of their commissions into stock in BGC Partners, the company that acquired the brokerage for $63 million in October, the New York Observer reported, causing some brokers to take pause. While so far no executives at Newmark have defected to other companies, managers from rival brokerages are watching closely to see what reception the shift will get, the Observer said.

“No broker wants to be told what he has to do with his share of the money,” said one broker, from a rival firm.

The commission-conversion program will make many Newmark brokers BGC equity holders, a structure that some firms have used to team build.
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