From left: Neil Goldmacher, vice chairman at Newmark Knight Frank and 9 West 57th Street

It’s still in many ways a tenant’s market in Manhattan office leasing, despite sunny numbers for 2011 overall, the New York Times reported.

“The fact is, there are a limited number of tenants who will pay three digits in this economic environment,” said Neil Goldmacher, a vice chairman at Newmark Knight Frank. While certain high-profile leases in 2011 might have made it seem as though office leasing had recovered fully post-Lehman, but numbers are actually nowhere near 2007, the Times said. [more]

From left: Tara Stacom, vice chairman at Cushman & Wakefield and One World Trade

Conde Nast will take an additional 133,000 square feet at One World Trade Center, the New York Post reported.

The magazine giant signed for 1.05 million square feet at the tower currently rising in Lower Manhattan last year, in the biggest new lease of the year. Now, the publisher of titles such as Vogue and the New Yorker is expected to soon finalize a deal for floors 42 through 44, according to the Post. [more]

Manhattan office leasing activity hit its highest level since 2000, with tenants signing new deals for more than 30 million square feet, executives at commercial firm Cushman & Wakefield said this morning at the company’s quarterly media briefing in Midtown.

Only four months ago, as the velocity of office leasing slowed in the third quarter, there were “warning signs,” that the market, while healthy, might weaken, said  Joseph Harbert, COO of Cushman’s New York metro region, during the third-quarter market briefing. But instead, it improved in the fourth quarter. [more]

New York real estate faced a whirlwind year in 2011, and numerous contenders surfaced when The Real Deal sat down to pick our favorite stories of the year.

There was the limping recovery of the residential sales market, coupled with several standout deals and the runaway revival of the rental market. Developers snapped up distressed properties, such as One Madison Park, while other stalled projects like the Azure cond-op tower came back to life. [more]

CBRE NY Region Chairman Robert Alexander (top left), 1411 Broadway and Cushman & Wakefield Vice Chairman Tara StacomQuidsi, the parent company of e-commerce giants Diapers.com and Soap.com that was purchased by Amazon last year, backed out of an all-but-signed lease at Blackstone Group’s 1411 Broadway. According to the New York Post, the firm was expected to sign for 75,000 square feet on the 32nd, 34th and 35th floors of the building at West 40th Street in Midtown, in a lease brokered by a Cushman & Wakefield team led by Tara Stacom.

But Cushman’s loss, will be CB Richard Ellis’ gain. A team of CBRE brokers including Bernie Weitzman, Rob Stillman, Robert Alexander and Zach Freeman was chosen to replace Cushman and market the remaining space a few months ago. [more]

From left: Cushman & Wakefield President and CEO Glenn Rufrano, Vice Chairmen John Cefaly and Tara Stacom, Worldwide Plaza and a rendering of One World Trade Center

[Updated at 11:20 a.m. with comment from Cushman & Wakefield President and CEO Glenn Rufrano] Midtown-based global commercial services firm Cushman & Wakefield lost $22.4
million in the first six months of 2011 even as revenues rose sharply compared to the same period last year, the brokerage firm’s parent
company, Italy-based Exor, reported on its website today.

The loss is in contrast with the firm’s two main global competitors, the world’s
largest commercial firm CB Richard Ellis, and another large player, Jones Lang
LaSalle, which each posted profits over the same time period.

Cushman lost $22.4 million through June, compared with a loss of $22.8 million
in the same six-month period in 2010, the company said, using generally
accepted accounting standards for the United States. [more]

The General Services Administration will likely take much less space at 1 World Trade Center than previously expected, the New York Post reported. While the U.S. agency and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey announced a prospective deal for 600,000 square feet four years ago, back when officials were desperate to kick-start the project, they are now negotiating for less than half that amount, according to information gleaned by Realty Check.

The news of GSA comes shortly after another prospective government lease, for the state Office of General Services, was revealed to be floundering at the site. The combined shrinkage of GSA’s lease along with the withdrawal of OGS will leave the Port Authority with an extra 900,000 square feet to lease. [more]

“One World Trade Center is now New York’s first address for premier corporate office tenants,” Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Executive Director Chris Ward declared today as he took the stage on the 34th floor of the yet-to-be-finished Freedom Tower to announce Conde Nast’s signing for one million square feet in the building (see photos above). “Already the announcement has generated new interest in 1 World Trade, and let me tell you, the word is now out: See you Downtown.”

Symbolic as today’s signing might be of a transforming neighborhood, many in the real estate industry say the landscape has been changing for a while now. [more]

Wells Fargo’s asset-based lending subsidiary is expanding its office space at SL Green’s 100 Park Avenue for the fourth time in three years, the Observer reported. The latest deal, which adds 34,044 square feet, or the entire 14th floor, brings the company’s tally to 102,805 square feet at the 36-story property. Wells Fargo is now one of the largest tenants at the newly redeveloped trophy tower, named the “Best Renovated Building” of 2009 by the Building Owners and Managers Association. [more]

Bank of America is looking for as much as 1 million square feet of new office space in Manhattan, even as it gets comfortable in its brand new LEED-certified eponymous mammoth at 1 Bryant Park, the Post reported. The bank, which is looking to replace the roughly 1 million square feet it has scattered amongst some older Manhattan buildings, including 1185 Sixth Avenue and 114 West 47th Street when their leases expire, has put out requests for proposals with landlords in Midtown and Downtown. Sources said the bank is looking for space with similar features to 1 Bryant Park, which it co-owns with the Durst Organization. That means two likely contenders are SJP Properties’ new 11 Times Square in Midtown, where 500,000 square feet is still available, and the rising 1 World Trade Center, in which Durst recently acquired a minority stake. Condé Nast recently signed a letter of intent to anchor the building, rejuvenating what was once a derided project, and Bank of NY Mellon is also reportedly looking there. Cushman & Wakefield’s Tara Stacom, who is representing the building, declined to comment. [Post]

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