Vornado Realty Trust’s One Penn Plaza has some new Bollywood flair. Asia TV USA, the North American arm of the India-based media giant, has inked a deal for 8,841 square feet at the 34th Street, 57-story tower in a move to accommodate future growth and expansion, the company announced yesterday. The move officially took place March 1, with roughly 40 employees. Terms were not disclosed, but Abe Bose of UGL Equis, which represented Asia TV with the firm’s Joel Weinberg, said the television and film production company won a “very favorable, highly competitive rate.” Last year, Vornado was said to have offered 10 months’ free rent to the Dormitory Authority of New York when it renewed its 35,000-square-foot lease at the tower. TRD

Amidst harsh credit requirements and financial uncertainty, some smaller entities are trying to gain market share by offering instant liquidity for perplexed borrowers.

A good technique, according to Mark Bahiri, managing partner at the new Emerald Creek Capital, is to be quick when analyzing and finalizing loan deals. To that end, Bahiri and Mark Penna of asset management firm Neuberger Berman launched a private equity fund “to try and capitalize on the lack of liquidity in the marketplace,” he said. “Banks just stopped lending and we’re seeing a lot of opportunities out there.”

Bahiri, who formerly worked at Madison Realty Capital, opened Emerald Creek Capital last October. The direct bridge lender has nine full time employees, and provides anywhere from $1 million to $20 million in loans with a 10 to 13 percent interest rate. Emerald secures it with a first lien position.

Since its inception, the firm has done three deals — one in Long Island, one outside New Haven and one in Texas, plus a deal in the works in Atlanta, Ga.
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Broadpoint Gleacher Securities Group has signed a 15-year lease on 75,000 square feet at 1290 Avenue of the Americas at 51st Street, owned by Vornado Realty Trust, and is looking to expand beyond that space in the future. The asking rent was between $50 and $60 per square foot. In the new location, the financial services firm will have a trading floor that will be connected to its office functions on the floor below by a central reception area. The group will sublease its current office space at One Penn Plaza at 49th Street and Madison Avenue.

From the October issue: Stupid, stupid, stupid cheap.” That’s how low prices have to fall before the commercial real estate market hits bottom, Steven Roth, the chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, predicted earlier this year. In a letter to shareholders in April, the square-jawed mogul confided, “I think we are now at the third and last stupid. Not that he’s buying yet. But in recent months, the 67-year-old real estate titan, along with CEO Michael Fascitelli, the other half of the so-called “Vornado Tornado,” has been building a war chest to go shopping. And when Vornado gets ready to shop, there’s good reason to pay attention. [more]

From the October issue: Stupid, stupid, stupid cheap.” That’s how low prices have to fall before the commercial real estate market hits bottom, Steven Roth, the chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, predicted earlier this year. In a letter to shareholders in April, the square-jawed mogul confided, “I think we are now at the third and last stupid. Not that he’s buying yet. But in recent months, the 67-year-old real estate titan, along with CEO Michael Fascitelli, the other half of the so-called “Vornado Tornado,” has been building a war chest to go shopping. And when Vornado gets ready to shop, there’s good reason to pay attention.