International beauty and fragrance giant Coty has leased an additional 101,736 square feet at the Empire State Building in order to consolidate its American headquarters, Tony Malkin, president of Malkin Holdings, owner and asset manager of the property, announced today.

The company, which represents brands such as Calvin Klein, Karl Lagerfeld and Kenneth Cole, currently occupies 86,000 square feet on the entire 14th floor of the iconic property, and most of the 15th floor. It will expand to also occupy the entire 16th and 17th floors in April 2012, when it relocates from its other spaces at One and Two Park Avenue, between 32nd and 33rd streets.

The asking rent was $49 per square foot, landlord W & H Properties told The Real Deal. TRD [more]

The Times Square subway station is one project involved in the fraud for which Schiavone Construction is paying a $20 million settlement.

Schiavone Construction Company, a firm that has been involved in some of New York’s largest infrastructure projects, agreed to pay $20 million for crimes it committed while performing $691 million in public contracts, according to the New York Times. Schiavone, a Secaucus, N.J.-based company, signed a nonprosecution agreement and consented to the payment to avoid criminal charges, after admitting yesterday to defrauding government programs by committing wire fraud and evading requirements to hire a certain percentage of minority- or women-owned subcontractors. [more]

The Brooklyn Bridge is about to undergo a $500 million renovation project, including a massive lead paint removal, according to the Broadsheet Daily. The effort, which is being funded in part by stimulus money through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is set to take about four years. Contractor Skanska is slated to lead the project, which will begin around late May or early June. Overnight traffic on the bridge may be affected the most, according to a representative from the Department of Transportation, who said officials expect about 82 percent of the traffic to be diverted to the Manhattan Bridge.

Larry Silverstein, CEO of Silverstein Properties, and Mitchell Steir, CEO of Studley

Real estate development group Silverstein Properties and commercial real estate services firm Studley ranked 22nd and 26th on a list of the top 40 best companies to work for in New York City. The second annual list, compiled by Crain’s, also included Rand Engineering & Architecture and Skanska, which took the number 8 and number 36 spots, respectively. Environmental design consultant and building engineer Atelier Ten nabbed the top spot. The rankings were determined through a statistical review of employee survey responses and company benefits. Even so, three-quarters of the businesses that made the list either laid off employees or froze salaries within the past year, Crain’s reported.

In hindsight, an early nickname for the Empire State Building seems more like an omen. The building earned the moniker “Empty State Building” in the 1930s, when the city’s real estate market crashed after a boom decade. Built in 1931, it was one of several newer buildings that contributed to the city’s 92 percent increase in inventory during the Great Depression. Though the market cycled through ups and downs after that, the “empty” epithet has continued to haunt the Empire State Building. Even amid the boom, in 2006, the landmarked building’s vacancy rate reportedly stood at 18 percent. Today, the building, at 350 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street, has a vacancy rate of 22 percent, according to Fred Posniak, senior vice president at W & H Properties, the building’s manager. About 45 percent of the current vacancy is intentional, with space
being held off the market for renovation, Posniak said. That translates
to about 270,000 or 280,000 of the building’s 600,000 vacant square
feet. The rest of the vacant space, about 320,000 square feet, is on
the market. More

[more]

To make the Empire State Building more attractive to potential tenants,
the building’s owners decided to go green, spending $120 million on
environmental improvements. The renovation of the building is expected
to take 18 months, and includes retrofitting all 6,500 windows, adding
insulation to radiators and upgrading the building’s lighting, cold
water and ventilation systems. The owners expect an annual energy
savings of $4.4 million, which would pay off the new technologies in
three years. The building’s renovations have already attracted
construction firm Skanska as a tenant. The building’s management helped
the firm install bike racks and other energy saving details at its
offices. [more]