From left: Geoffrey Bailey, director of TerraCRG, Triangle Sports, Timothy King, managing director of CPEX, and a rendering of the Barclays Center

National retailers and restaurateurs have been scrupulously scouting for real estate locations near and along Flatbush and Atlantic avenues in advance of the Barclays Center opening this year.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the most recent victim of the growing trend is Triangle Sports, the 96-year-old retailer at the intersection of Flatbush and Fifth avenues. With the weak economy and increased pressure from the national retailers and upscale boutiques that have descended upon the area, Triangle Sports owners felt it would be best to sell their property. [more]

Commercial sales and leasing firm CPEX has named Greg Roberts to the role of COO, where he’ll be overseeing systems, accounting, human resources, public relations and business development, the company announced today. Roberts, who worked on the planning teams for the Ritz Carlton Battery Park Hotel, the St. Regis Los Angeles Hotel, the Cipriani Toy Building and the Rubin Museum of Art, had been managing director prior to his promotion. He will be working directly with CPEX managing partners Brian Leary and Timothy King in his new position. TRD

Joseph Cayre and 242 Bedford Avenue

Discount clothing department store Marshalls and drugstore CVS are interested in leasing space in a troubled development site in Williamsburg, once the stalled construction project is completed, several brokers said. The national chain retailers are looking at a lower-level space at 242 Bedford Avenue, just south of North 4th Street, the brokers, who asked to remain anonymous, said. The half-built site is owned by Yehuda Backer’s Williamsburg-based Backer Group, which halted construction several years ago. Instead, the parcel has only steel shells with no current construction evident.
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From left: Pret A Manger is moving in on the corner of 29th Street and Seventh Avenue and Fresh & Co. is a recent addition to the neighborhood on the corner of 30th Street and Seventh Avenue

Once thought of as a transit hub for travelers moving in and out of Penn Station, a strip of Seventh Avenue is slowly gaining retailer clout. Brokers say the stretch of retail from 29th to 34th streets is improving because of shifting real estate values, large development projects on the horizon and the influence of one property owner: Vornado Realty Trust. In the last few months, the quality of retailers in the area appears to have shifted. Fresh & Co., an upscale — primarily lunch — eatery, opened several months ago at the corner of 30th Street and Seventh Avenue. Pret A Manger, meanwhile, has plywood up on the corner of West 29th Street. And, within a couple of months after Supermac macaroni and cheese joint’s closing last November, a new vegan sit-down restaurant opened in the location on Seventh Avenue between 29th and 30th streets. And, as these high-end eateries crop up, some retail experts say that the neighborhood is turning a corner. [more]

From left: Timothy King of CPEX and maps showing the retail corridors covered by the CPEX report

A new report on New York City’s traditionally tight-lipped retail leasing market lifts the curtain on pricing in more than 193 shopping districts in the five boroughs (see the full report after the jump). The survey, the first undertaken by the two-year-old Brooklyn sales and leasing firm CPEX Real Estate, gives ranges for rents based on a review of more than 1,200 leases as well as interviews with owners, appraisers and other industry sources, company principal Timothy King said. The overview is a rare glimpse into the retail leasing industry that remains far more secretive than residential and office leasing, brokers said. While brokerage firms release retail reports, for example commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis released a sophisticated fourth-quarter retail analysis of 10 shopping districts in Manhattan south of 86th Street this week, they do not cover all five boroughs. King said there were few surprises in the CPEX data. He said its value was as a tool for clients looking for a broad view of the market. “If a retailer comes from out of town, this is a road map to give you a logical starting point,” King said. [more]

Broker Timothy King (left) is suing Paul Massey’s firm Massey Knakal

A lawsuit filed last year by a minority partner of the Brooklyn office of Massey Knakal Realty Services was ordered to arbitration this week, in a move one independent observer called a victory for the commercial brokerage. Timothy King, a former COO with Massey Knakal, sued the brokerage in July 2008, alleging among other things that the company was poorly run, was lending money to itself improperly and made false statements on tax filings. But those allegations had a slim chance of holding up in court, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Carolyn Demarest said in her ruling issued Monday, and instead she sent the case, including charges, to arbitration. [more]

Broker Timothy King (left) is suing Paul Massey’s firm Massey Knakal

Despite a year passing since broker Timothy King filed a $3 million
lawsuit accusing his former partners Paul Massey and Robert Knakal of
Massey Knakal Realty Services of improper activities and mismanagement
of the firm, the two sides remain at loggerheads after a hearing in
Brooklyn court today. A judge in State Supreme Court rejected motions introduced by both
sides and left open the possibility that she would move the dispute to
arbitration. King filed suit June 2008 on behalf of Massey Knakal Realty of
Brooklyn, a partnership in which he holds a 10 percent interest.
Massey, CEO of Massey Knakal Realty Services, and Knakal, that
company’s chairman, are 50-50 partners in Massey Knakal Realty
Holdings, which owns 70 percent of the Brooklyn entity. King is not
suing the other five individuals who have a 20 percent stake in the
Brooklyn office. [more]