High prices paid by real estate investment trusts for U.S. hotels may be beginning to outpace gains in room rates and stays, according to Bloomberg News. Average prices paid for lodging properties rocketed to $185,000 per room in the first quarter of 2011, having previously peaked at $153,000 in 2006, before plunging 37 percent only two years ago.

While occupancy rates are rising (up to 63 percent in the first quarter from 60 percent a year earlier), the gains aren’t happening quickly enough to keep up with inflated prices being paid for some full-service properties, said Rick Kleeman, managing partner at Wheelock Street Capital, a Connecticut-based REIT. [more]

From left: Misha Haghani, Perry Finkelman and a rendering of 271-275 Sea Breeze Avenue

Over a six-day period next month, Paramount Realty USA will host an auction of $50
million worth of New York commercial real estate.
Misha Haghani, a principal at Paramount, which was hired by the various owners
of the six properties to hold the auction, said it’s the largest group of New York City
commercial properties to be auctioned in at least 10 years.
The properties include stalled condominiums in Crown Heights, Coney Island-
Brighton Beach and East Harlem, and mixed-use developments in Sheepshead Bay,
East Harlem, and Roslyn Heights, LI.
Headlining the auction is 271-275 Sea Breeze Avenue, near the border of Brighton
Beach and Coney Island, where American Development Group had planned to erect
a 151,000-square-foot, 22-story luxury condominium. [more]

Paramount’s Paolo Zampolli (l) and Paul Massey of Massey Knakal

The Italian-born founder of model agency ID Model Management and a regular in the
Post’s Page Six column, Paolo Zampolli, filed suit in New York State
Supreme Court today claiming he was cheated out of more than $200,000
in commissions after he introduced a buyer for the property at 31 Bond
Street in Noho and was not listed as a broker on the sale. Zampolli, a licensed salesperson with Paramount Realty Group of
America, claims in the suit that he was the procuring broker that
brought his client, an Italian named Cristina Calori, to buy the
property at 31 Bond. The seller, a Japanese corporation called Heian
Bunka Center, which owns the six-story mixed-use building, was
represented by Massey Knakal Realty Services. Calori ended up going into contract on the property, with an asking
price of $8.5 million, but not listing Zampolli as the broker. The sale
is expected to close soon, the suit says. Zampolli, through Paramount, is suing Calori; her company Monster Real
Estate; Massy Knakal; and the Japanese firm Heian Bunka Center for a
total of $212,500, which represents half of a 5 percent commission, on
allegations including breach of contract and interfering with
contracts. Zampolli rejected the assessment by several brokers that he needed a
written contract with Calori — which he did not have — to prevail. “That is nonsense. [Brokers holding such a view] are amateurs. We will
have a judge rule on the legality of this case. That is why we went to
Supreme Court,” he said. [more]

Hachette Filipacchi, the publisher that recently lost out to beauty giant Avon in talks to take over several open floors at the William Kaufman Organization’s 777 Third Avenue, is reportedly closing in on a deal at the 48-story Time-Life Building at 1271 Avenue of the Americas in Rockefeller Center. The contract would be for 132,000 square feet of space previously occupied by Lehman Brothers, which had subleased the three floors from Time Inc. Hachette would be downsizing significantly from its current 263,010 square feet at 1633 Broadway, which is owned by Paramount. Deloitte is also expected to vacate 1633 Broadway soon, in a move that could leave the door open for television network A&E. Currently located at 235 East 45th Street, A&E is in the market for 350,000 square feet of space and is rumored to have looked at the Empire State Building and Worldwide Plaza in addition to Paramount’s building. [Post]