Although Frank Gehry’s IAC and the Albanese Organization got a head start with their respective projects, IAC and 510 West 22nd Street, in terms of office development next to the High Line, other developers are eyeing the area as a prime spot for office buildings, due to the cachet the elevated park lends, the New York Times reported.

The Albanese Organization is looking for a 75,000-square-foot anchor tenant, with rents around $80 a square foot, for 510 West 22nd Street, which is a $140 million project. The site was previously being developed by the rapper Jay-Z. [more]

The Bronx’s first city-sponsored business incubator opened today in Taconic Investment Partner’s BankNote Building, according to an announcement by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Sunshine Bronx Business Incubator, at 890 Garrison Avenue in Hunts Point, has about 11,000 square feet and 180 workspaces wired with digital and video technology, which it hopes will accommodate as many as 400 entrepreneurs. Fifteen companies were already in place for today’s opening. [more]

From left: Taconic Investment Partners co-CEO Paul Praiser, 837 Washington Street (credit PropertyShark) and a rendering of the forthcoming structure (credit Morris Adjmi Architects)

Taconic Investment Partners and Square Mile Capital Management are set to begin construction at 837 Washington Street in the Meatpacking District, and transform an empty two-story meatpacking structure into a six-story glass building with retail and office space.

The New York Post reported that the Morris Adjmi-designed building, between Little West 12th and West 13th streets, will put four glass- and steel-covered stories atop the existing two levels, making for a 54,000-square-foot building with 27,000 square feet of retail on the first three floors. [more]

From left: Paul Pariser and Charles Bendit, co-CEOs of Taconic
Investment Partners

Taconic Investment Partners co-CEOs Paul Pariser and Charles Bendit expect to purchase five to seven properties that could have a total value of $1.5 billion with the $220 million Taconic New York City Investment Fund it closed last month, which targets undervalued properties in the city. The fund’s investors include Taconic and four other U.S.-based funds, which they declined to identify.

The pair told The Real Deal in a Q & A this week that the Midtown-based firm’s fund could still pay 15 percent to 17 percent returns, despite the property pricing recovery in the city. [more]

Benjamin Lambert (left), founder and
chairman of Eastdil Secured, and company
CEO Roy March in the firm’s
Midtown headquartersFrom the September issue: Google’s record $1.8 billion purchase of 111 Eighth Avenue late last year momentarily put the name Eastdil Secured on the lips of everyone in New York’s real estate industry. But the low-profile real estate investment banking firm, which managed the sale, doesn’t have the street-level cachet that many of its rivals have.

While Manhattan’s building-sales brokers and financiers (those who focus on large institutional deals, often over $100 million) know the firm as a powerhouse, many others in real estate still have no idea who Eastdil is. [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]

Taconic Investment Partners co-CEO Paul Pariser and 111 Eighth Avenue

Taconic Investment Partners, the firm that was part of a group that sold the Chelsea office building 111 Eighth Avenue to Google last December for $1.8 billion, completed raising $220 million for a fund focused on buying New York City properties, the company said in a statement today.

The Chelsea-based firm is targeting “value-add and opportunistic multifamily, office and retail assets in New York City,” the company said, expecting to earn a 15 percent to 17 percent net return on the investments.

“The shifting real estate landscape and capital markets disruption are likely to provide opportunities for significant long-term upside potential,” company co-CEO Paul Pariser, said in the release.

Even as Taconic did well with the Google sale, in other deals it has suffered, for example at 375 Pearl Street. Taconic purchased the tower in 2007 for $173 million and sold it this June for $120 million. – Adam Pincus [more]

MeadowWood at Gateway and Fillmore Real Estate’s Jean-Paul Ho

The MeadowWood at Gateway, a 19-building condominium complex in East New York, announced it now has 581 of its 1,152 units sold or in contract. The complex at 12205 Flatlands Avenue, about a half-mile from the Gateway Shopping Center, was originally constructed in the 1960s, before being converted to condos in 1991. According to Streeteasy.com, Taconic Investment Partners purchased the 983 unsold units in 1998 and has since served as the development’s lead sponsor. Taconic invested more than $40 million in renovating the buildings and the community’s outdoor space. TRD [more]

Seattle-based Sabey Data Center Properties has purchased a controlling interest in the former Verizon Tower at 375 Pearl Street for $120 million, according to Crain’s. The 32-story processing center, widely considered one of the city’s worst eyesores, had once been slated to undergo an office conversion under Taconic Investment Partners, which bought the property from Verizon for $173 million in 2007. Those conversion plans never materialized, as Taconic wound up defaulting on its mortgage payments, and M&T Bank took control of the mostly-empty building last year. Sabey has no intention of reviving the offices idea, instead opting to transform the 29 floors it’s taking over into a data processing center that can handle 40 megawatts of power — enough for 40,000 homes — by 2012. [more]

Marty Markowitz’s summer Coney Island concert series will move to a West 21st Street lot once used by the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus this year after being ousted from its performance space of 20 years. According to the New York Times, the Brooklyn borough president, who had held the free concerts at Asser Levy/Seaside Park since 1991, announced a one-year relocation deal yesterday with site landlord Taconic Investment Partners. The concert series was kicked out of Asser Levy earlier this year, when the city’s corporation counsel ruled in favor of two synagogues across the street from the stage that had sued over noise violations. The synagogues and other locals had also opposed a new $64 million amphitheater being planned at the park because they said it would bring too much traffic to the area. [more]