Greg Taubin, senior managing director at Studley, and the Starrett-Lehigh building

RXR restructured leases for four tenants in a complicated series of maneuvers at its recently acquired Starrett-Lehigh building, GlobeSt.com reported.

The maneuvering was led by music management firm Harry Fox Agency, which terminated its 47,144-square-foot sublease from Tommy Hilfiger USA at Starrett-Lehigh and fled to 36,921 square feet at the Trump Building at 40 Wall Street. Harry Fox was represented by Studley. [more]

From left: Sam Zell of Equity Residential, Bob Toll of Toll Brothers, Will Silverman, Woody Heller, both of Studley, and 400 Park Avenue South

In the most expensive development site deal of the year so far, home builder Toll Brothers and real estate investment trust Equity Residential partnered in reportedly paying $134 million for a large development site at 400 Park Avenue South.

The joint venture plans to build a 40-story condominium and rental apartment tower at the Park Avenue South and 28th Street site, which has 400,000 square feet of development rights, the companies said in a statement.

Sam Zell’s Equity Residential will own and operate the lower 22 floors with 265 rental apartments and retail, while Toll Brothers will build and sell about 100 condo units on the upper floors, the Wall Street Journal reported. [more]

When Studley tapped Patrick Breslin, an executive in Grubb & Ellis’ retail operations, in October, he was charged with leading the company’s first Manhattan retail services division. Just a few months later, Breslin said the firm is in the midst of pitching to tenants locally, regionally and nationally and may be bringing in first-time New York City tenants from Europe, Asia and South America.

“I went to Europe two weeks ago and spent some time with some of our counterparts in Paris and in Italy and managed to meet some of the significant luxury brand people in Europe and some of the middle-of-the-road brands, as well,” Breslin told the New York Observer. “It’s well received. We’re dealing with companies from Asia who are high-end pastry and coffee shops and tea shops.” [more]

Mark Rose, CEO of Avison YoungFrom the November issue: Real estate executives are quietly fuming over what they say are aggressive bonuses that several new and expanding commercial firms are paying to poach brokers.

The past two months have been a particularly active time for brokers shifting alliances, partly because some firms have stumbled in the weak economy and make for soft targets, and partly because brokerages with a national presence are expanding into the New York market, which remains one of the strongest in the nation. In the last few months, the firms Avison Young, Stan Johnson, Lee & Associates and Brookfield Financial have all made plays to open or expand in New York. [more]

Favorable deal terms helped Joseph Cayre land law firm Baker & McKenzie as a new tenant for the building at 452 Fifth Avenue he acquired last year, according to AM Law Daily, even as most law firms this year have chosen to renew rather than relocate.

Studley CEO Mitchell Steir worked as Baker & McKenzie’s broker and said that although the company wasn’t sure it wanted to leave its former office at 1114 Sixth Avenue, it eventually made the move because of the good deal and the opportunity to downsize, which is becoming a trend among law firms. [more]

The 57-year-old privately held commercial advisory firm Studley entered the lucrative Manhattan retail leasing market for the first time, tapping Patrick Breslin, an executive in Grubb & Ellis’ retail operations, to lead the new East Coast division, the company announced this morning.

Michael Colacino, president of Studley, said the firm is adding retail in New York City because it believed it could profit by providing additional services to existing clients that have retail operations as well as earn relatively high commissions paid on retail deals.

This is not the first retail operation for Studley, which has store-leasing agents in Los Angeles, Washington and Chicago, but it is seeking to create a cohesive operation throughout the country. [more]

From left: Equity International Chairman Sam Zell, Toll Brothers Chairman Bob Toll and 400 Park Avenue South

Sam Zell’s Equity Residential and Toll Brothers are closing in on the acquisition of 400 Park Avenue South, according to Crain’s, with plans to build a residential tower with condominium units above rentals.

The site, at 28th Street is currently a 20,000-square-foot parking lot owned by A&R Kalimian Realty. A&R obtained approval for a 40-story, 435-unit rental building, but it put the site on the sales market in May with brokerage Studley. The price Equity Residential and Toll Brothers plan to pay for the site was not revealed, but previous reports said it could draw $400 for each of its 420,000 buildable square feet. [more]

Studley executive managing director Woody Heller and Knickerbocker Village on the Lower East Side

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by independent broker Chaim Katzap against the former owners of Lower East Side housing development Knickerbocker Village, commercial real estate services firm Studley and Studley executive managing director Woody Heller over a commission relating to the 2007 sale of the complex to Apollo Real Estate Advisors. Katzap was seeking $20 million in fines and damages. The litigation, which has been ongoing since 2007, came to a close Sept. 22 when a judge tossed out the suit by Katzap, who had been hired to find a buyer for Knickerbocker Village, which up two whole city blocks and bounded by Catherine Street, Monroe Street, Market Street and Cherry Street, on a non-exclusive basis by Irene Pletka, partial owner of Cherry Green, a holding company that owns all shares of Knickerbocker. The case was dismissed on the basis that Katzap “never introduced Cherry Green to Apollo, the ultimate purchaser,” and had been acting as a “dual agent” for both the seller and Taconic Investment Partners, a bidder for the property, without fully disclosing his relationship with Taconic to Knickerbocker, according to the decision. [more]

From left: Adam Spies, Robert Knakal, Woody Heller, Richard Baxter and Harry Krausman

Sources: CoStar Group, PropertyShark.com and The Real Deal.
Footnotes: Sales data is for Manhattan deals published on the city property record site Acris in September and provided by PropertyShark.com. Brokers and additional information is from CoStar Group and The Real Deal.

The top commercial deal to be recorded in city property records in September
was JPMorgan Chase Asset Management closing on the $719 million acquisition of the 14-story office and commercial building
200 Fifth Avenue, (part of the former International Toy Center buildings),
PropertyShark.com data shows. Eastdil Secured’s Adam Spies and Douglas
Harmon brokered the sale (see chart above). The purchase drove much of the
monthly total transfer value, which was $2.9 billion in commercial deals reported
on the city property record site Acris, an analysis of PropertyShark.com figures
show. [more]

Gregory Kraut, formerly of CB Richard Ellis, and 100 Church Street

Canadian commercial property firm Avison Young continued its American expansion kick with its first hire in Manhattan, tapping a mid-level CB Richard Ellis leasing broker, Gregory Kraut, to start the difficult task of building a New York City office.

Kraut, who had been at CBRE for six years focusing on representing tenants, was most recently a first vice president working closely with David Hollander, a company senior vice president. Thirty-five-year-old Kraut was hired this month and will be a principal at the new firm.

The Real Deal reported in June that Avison Young, a private, independent firm headed by CEO Mark Rose was looking to open an office in Manhattan. Young brokers have been in high demand recently. Last week Eric Anton and Ronald Solarz, both in their 40s, left Eastern Consolidated for real estate investment firm Brookfield Financial, and earlier this month Oklahoma-based net lease brokerage Stan Johnson opened an office in Manhattan with former Massey Knakal agent Jason Maier. [more]