From left: TF Cornerstone President Fred Elghanayan, Chairman Thomas Elghanayan and a rendering of East Coast

Developer TF Cornerstone’s 41-story 4545 Center Boulevard rental building in Long Island City has topped out, the firm announced today. The rental is the fifth and largest property in its 21-acre East Cost development project. [more]

From left: TF Cornerstone Chairman Thomas Elghanayan, Weichsel Beef President Sam Farella and 525 West Street

The last meat purveyor in the trendy Meatpacking District operating outside of the neighborhood’s city-owned cooperative market will join the others next month when it leaves the ground floor of TF Cornerstone’s West Coast apartment building.

Weichsel Beef has been operating for 45 years at 525 West Street, at the base of a former meat refrigeration warehouse at the corner of Gansevoort Street, Sam Farella, the company’s president, said. Weichsel plans to relocate to about 7,000 square feet at 826 Washington Street in the Gansevoort Market co-op under the High Line, just a block away, on Sept. 29. [more]

Justin Elghanayan

As the Elghanayans’ 2009 split into two companies drifts further in the distance of the rearview mirror, the families’ wounds are beginning to heal, especially among the younger generation. In an interview with the New York Times, Rockrose Development President Justin Elghanayan, whose future within the company was among the chief reasons his father, Henry, orchestrated the split with his brothers, TF Cornerstone founders Thomas and Frederick, said there has “definitely” been healing within the families and he has a “very, very good relationship” with his cousins. That’s a departure from Henry telling The Real Deal in July that there are still scars in the families’ relationship. [more]

From left: TF Cornerstone Chairman Thomas Elghanayan, President Fred Elghanayan and 602 West 57th Street

Updated: Residential developer TF Cornerstone signed a long-term lease to take control of four parcels on the West Side where AvalonBay once considered building a luxury rental tower.

Thomas and Fred Elghanayan’s TF Cornerstone closed on the 99-year lease for 602 West 57th Street with property owner Four Plus, a real estate investment company based in Montgomery, Ala., on May 29, documents filed with the city show. [more]

Brookfield's Phil Wharton and a rendering of Manhattan West

The Far West Side earned the latest confirmation of its potential as a residential neighborhood when office developer Brookfield Office Properties recently said it was considering adding 900 apartments to its Manhattan West project, according to the New York Post. The area already has thousands of new rental units from developers such as TF Cornerstone, Glenwood Management and the Related Companies, and has thousands more on the way from those developers, the Gotham Organization and Iliad Development. [more]

The interior of 4615 Center Boulevard

The latest installment of TF Cornerstone’s East Coast project in Long Island City is officially on the rental market, Curbed reported. The 42-story building, at 46-15 Center Boulevard, has 367 units and a gym and concierge. The pet-friendly tower was designed by Arquitectonica. [more]

47-20 Center Boulevard and Council member Jimmy Van Bramer

The Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ petitioned TF Cornerstone yesterday in Long Island City, the New York Daily News reported, alleging the developer doesn’t provide proper benefits to workers in its LIC buildings and “bullies” workers who want to unionize.

TF Cornerstone workers and City Council member Jimmy Van Bramer delivered the petition to the leasing office at 47-20 Center Boulevard, signed by about 430 tenants in the 485-unit building, where the News noted rents for two-bedroom apartments are $5,400 per month. [more]

Thomas Elghanayan

The Elghanayan brothers’ TF Cornerstone has more than a dozen residential projects rising in Long Island City, of 35 total in the area, the New York Observer reported. So what makes the Elghanayans, who left their brother Henry, of Rockrose Development, to form TF Cornerstone in 2009, so confident that Queens is the next Williamsburg? “It’s four minutes on the 7 train to Grand Central [Terminal],” Thomas Elghanayan told the paper.

Elghanayan goes on to say that LIC is “the prime outer-borough location,” that TF Cornerstone has refinanced its entire portfolio to the tune of $1.1 billion, and that while he is glad Henry is building in the same area, his and Frederick’s is “the real luxury property out there.” [more]

From left: Halstead Property Development Marketing President Stephen Kliegerman and Citi Habitats President Gary MalinCiti Habitats President Gary Malin and Halstead Property Development Marketing President Stephen Kliegerman whipped out their crystal balls for amNY and noted five trends to watch for in the city’s “booming” real estate market in 2012.

Low interest rates, the strong rental market and the stock market’s daily swings will attract Wall Street investment to new developments, which Malin and Kliegerman say will become more prevalent next year. As for those new buildings, developers will likely offer deals on apartments in buildings that haven’t even begun construction yet in order to kick off sales…. [more]

Matt Leon, a young upstart at real estate services firm Newmark Knight Frank, is taking over as head of a leasing team that handles the Manhattan office portfolio of TF Cornerstone, the New York Observer reported, including Carnegie Hall Tower, 645 Madison Avenue and 387 Park Avenue South. Leon takes over leasing at the properties from his former mentor Billy Cohen, the Observer said, a top Newmark broker who is stepping down because of growing responsibilities tied to other agency assignments. He handles leasing at Malkin Properties’ assets like the Empire State Building. [NYO]… [more]