From left: Sl Green CEO Marc Holliday, Ofer Yardeni, co-founder and managing member of Stonehenge Partners, retail investor Jeff Sutton and 724 Fifth Avenue

SL Green Realty, partnering with Stonehenge Partners and retail investor Jeff Sutton, is expected to close today on eight East Side properties for $416 million, executives at SL Green Realty said today during its fourth-quarter conference call.

The David Frankel Realty portfolio includes high-end retailer Prada’s location at 724 Fifth Avenue, as well as 752 Madison Avenue, 19 East 65th Street, 21 East 65th Street, 762 Madison Avenue, 44 West 55th Street, 400 East 57th Street and 400 East 58th Street. [more]

From top left: Broadway Partners CEO Scott Lawlor, Invesco CEO Martin Flanagan, and 280 Park Avenue

The value of New York City’s 25 largest commercial property sales increased 23 percent in 2011 to $12.27 billion and the median price per square-foot of an office building rose 18 percent to $696, according to Crain’s, but troubling signs lurked behind the impressive outlay.

Many of the largest deals of the year, including the $1.1 billion SL Green Realty and Vornado Realty Trust paid for 99 percent of 280 Park Avenue, were recapitalizations which bailed out troubled landlords. [more]

From left: Mark Weiss, vice chairman of Newmark Knight Frank, 1290 Sixth Avenue and 14 East 103rd Street (credit: PropertyShark)Buoyed by an aging population, new government initiatives and, in some cases, the struggling economy, health care industry real estate activity in the city has doubled over the last year, according to the New York Times.

This year there have been 42 new leases and renewals totaling more than 1.2 million square feet, according to Cushman & Wakefield, compared to 25 transactions and 550,700 square feet in 2010, and 16 deals for 176,311 square feet in 2009.

Many of these deals, including ColumbiaDoctors’ 25-year lease for 120,000 square feet at 1290 Sixth Avenue, with rights of first offer for additional space, were spurred by an expected increase in demand stemming from President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, the Times said. [more]

From left: 3 Columbus Circle, 285 Madison Avenue and Suzanne Hart

Advertising agency Young & Rubicam had announced plans to vacate its 285 Madison Avenue building to move to 3 Columbus Circle before a tragic elevator accident killed one of its executives at the Madison Avenue building last week, the Wall Street Journal reported. The agency was planning to put the building on the market next year, according to a spokesperson for CBRE Group, which has been tapped to market the property.

In the wake of the accident, which killed 41-year-old executive Suzanne Hart, the brokerage may have a harder time selling the property, sources said.

“This will definitely affect the stigma of the building,” says Craig Nassi, founder of BCN Development. [more]

From left: SL Green CEO Marc Holliday, 280 Park Avenue (building photo source: PropertyShark), and Vornado Chairman Steven Roth

Vornado Realty Trust and SL Green Realty each has its own large management team charged with day-to-day operations of its portfolio of assets. But the Wall Street Journal reported that when the two firms teamed to take control of 280 Park Avenue, they made the unusual move of hiring an outside firm, CBRE Group, to manage the Midtown office tower, rather than pick between one of its own divisions.

The move to hire CBRE quelled concerns over how the two huge real estate firms would work together on a single asset. Though the Journal said leases at the building do still take longer to close, and the companies reportedly disagreed over which architect to hire for the $100 million renovation of the building, SL Green executives said the partnership has worked well. [more]

From left: Darcy Stacom, vice chairman of CBRE, and 711 Third AvenueSL Green Realty has pulled 711 Third Avenue from the market three months after tapping Darcy Stacom, vice chairman of CBRE to market the property.

According to Crain’s, the landlord reneged because it did not receive offers in the range of $200 million to $225 million that it had expected for the 580,000-square-foot office tower between 44th and 45th streets. SL Green owns the leasehold and a 50 percent interest in the ground beneath the building. [more]

[Updated at 3:25 p.m. with comment from Tishman Construction] Tishman Construction and SL Green Realty have filed a $2 million lawsuit against United Hispanic Construction Workers, alleging the group has illegally harassed and intimated employees during demonstrations at Tishman’s 100 Park Avenue offices.

According to the suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court Dec. 9, the Bronx-based union has been picketing outside of the building, which is owned by SL Green, since Oct. 1, alleging that Tishman has failed to hire women and minority contractors at various sites around the city.

Tishman and SL Green that vans with up to 25 picketers have illegally parked in front of the offices and picketers have yelled at workers, while storing baseball bats inside the vehicles. [more]

SL Green Realty CEO Marc Holliday was this year’s real estate honoree at National Jewish Health’s 43rd annual New York fundraising event, held Saturday night at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Midtown. The event consistently draws a strong real estate presence, as it was founded by developer Larry Silverstein, and this year proved no exception. Many big names in the industry were among the 1,271 attendees, mostly real estate-related professionals, that helped raise more than $3 million for the newly created Holliday Memorial Fund for Lung Cancer Research at NJH. — Marc Becker [more]

From left: LPC Chairman Robert Tierney and the Brooklyn Municipal building in the Skyscraper Historic DistrictUnder Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Landmarks Preservation Commission Chairman Robert Tierney has anointed more historic districts than any other administration has, but Crain’s noted that his zeal is beginning to meet some resistance.

Tierney has designated 27 such districts in his eight years, with a particular focus on the outer boroughs as previous chairs were accused of focusing too exclusively on Manhattan. But the development community and the property owners in those areas have criticized the LPC because the designations mean more expenses for them. [more]

A group of Israeli investors is set to purchase the 1.5 million-square-foot Long Island City office tower One Court Square from SL Green Realty, sources told Real Estate Weekly. Among the investors is Joel Schreiber, owner of real estate investment firm Waterbridge Capital, and David Werner, a private real estate investor from Brooklyn.

SL Green took control of the property when it acquired the real estate investment trust Reckson in 2006, REW said. Citibank leases the entire 50-story building. The value of the transaction was not immediately clear, though the New York Post, which previously reported that the building was in contract, estimated it would close for slightly less than $500 million.  [more]