From the April issue: The battle to be the top commercial listing brokerage in Midtown is surprisingly fierce between rivals CB Richard Ellis and Cushman & Wakefield. And successful leasing transactions over the coming months could determine who leads the way when the economy recovers. Top national firms represent more than 41 million square feet of vacant space in the Manhattan office market today, and every foot represents not only potential commission income, but also space that each company could fail to lease. While CBRE and Cushman are neck and neck when it comes to Midtown listings, Downtown is a different story. CBRE has made a strategic bet and taken on far more assignments than rival Cushman. And in the smaller Midtown South market, Cushman holds a comfortable advantage. [more]

Vornado Realty Trust’s One Penn Plaza has some new Bollywood flair. Asia TV USA, the North American arm of the India-based media giant, has inked a deal for 8,841 square feet at the 34th Street, 57-story tower in a move to accommodate future growth and expansion, the company announced yesterday. The move officially took place March 1, with roughly 40 employees. Terms were not disclosed, but Abe Bose of UGL Equis, which represented Asia TV with the firm’s Joel Weinberg, said the television and film production company won a “very favorable, highly competitive rate.” Last year, Vornado was said to have offered 10 months’ free rent to the Dormitory Authority of New York when it renewed its 35,000-square-foot lease at the tower. TRD

From the March issue: There’s a recession. Deals are scarce. Commissions are shrinking. It’s a great time for broker rustling.
Commercial services firms are aggressively poaching their
competitors’ brokers and research analysts, figuring they will be
better positioned to win market share once a rebound takes hold. The
slow transaction volume means fewer money-making deals are tying
brokers to their firms, creating ripe opportunities for rival firms to
exploit the age-old tension between the lower-ranked agents and their
senior producers. [more]

From left: 399 Park Avenue, the site of Studley’s soon-to-be headquarters, and Michael Colacino and Mitch Steir

As it prepares to move to its new Midtown headquarters next month,
tenant representative advisory firm Studley is kicking tires at
approximately six companies to see which ones would make for a good
acquisition or joint venture partnership that could be worked out
before the end of the year, the firm’s top executives said. “We have about a half a dozen different companies we are looking at
right now about doing some sort of deal. Not all are acquisitions,”
company president Michael Colacino told The Real Deal in an exclusive interview last week. The company is looking to grow in the areas of brokerage, project
management and real estate investment banking and is eyeing companies
with a presence in New York City, Colacino said. In the interview with The Real Deal, Colacino and company
chairman and CEO Mitchell Steir discussed the various paths of growth
the firm is considering. The company is scheduled to move its
headquarters April 23 to 399 Park Avenue from 300 Park Avenue where it
will have the floor capacity to grow by approximately 60 percent from
the 136 professionals now. While they were not specific about their plans, some form of agreement is likely to be completed by the end of 2010. [more]

555 Fifth Avenue and Tadd Wisinski, a senior vice president with UGL Equis (building photo source: PropertyShark)

The New York office for the broadcast communications division of the
multi-billion dollar Harris Corp. is moving uptown from its Midtown
South location to Atco Properties’s 555 Fifth Avenue, at the corner of
46th Street, according to a release by the tenant broker on the deal,
UGL Equis.

The broadcast division is taking 17,460 square feet in the 19-story
building with a move-in date of April 1, a spokesperson for UGL Equis
said. The firm currently occupies 15,000 square feet in 99 Madison
Avenue at 29th Street.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Asking rents in the
238,000-square-foot building on Fifth Avenue, which is 18 percent
available, range from $49 per square foot to $54 per square foot,
according to leasing data Web site, MrOfficeSpace.com. [more]

Dario Zar, president at Zar Property NY, and 349 Fifth Avenue (Building photo source: PropertyShark)

The Midtown-based real estate firm Zar Property NY bought the JPMorgan Chase building at 349 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street across from the Empire State Building, for just under $20 million, David Zar, a vice president at Zar Property NY, told The Real Deal today. The purchase closed Dec. 15, Zar said, but he did not immediately provide an exact sale price. The sale has not yet appeared on the city’s public property Web site Acris. The price of about $300 per square foot for the 64,000-square-foot building was far higher than the bank received for a 1.1 million-square-foot property it is selling Downtown. JPMorgan Chase is in contract to sell 4 New York Plaza at Water Street for $108 million, or about $99 per square foot. The building was part of a nearly two-dozen-building portfolio that was put on the market earlier this year. The Fifth Avenue building merited the $300 price per foot, he said, because of the location across from the Empire State Building and the quality of the space, which was turned over fully furnished.  More

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From the December issue: Major lease deals signed at the Boston Properties trophy office building at 399 Park Avenue over the past month seemed to indicate the market was getting a boost. But the latest reports from the city’s commercial brokerage firms show continued slippage in Manhattan office leasing, and those mixed signals make it difficult for brokers to agree on what advice to give their clients. Erik Schmall, a senior managing director at commercial firm Studley, said at the start of the crisis, his firm counseled tenants to hold off on making deals. But that stance has softened recently, and the company believes low-priced space can be had at attractive pricing. “Whether we are at the bottom of the market or really close to it, we feel we are close enough where the quality of the deals we can get probably outweigh any possible further benefit,” he said. [more]

While their larger counterparts are laying off attorneys as the recession continues, small law firms are increasing staff, according to a second-quarter report from real estate firm UGL Equis that looks at law firm real estate. But the personnel growth has not meant additional real estate transactions for law firms, the report said. The report also said that law firms occupying 5,000 square feet or more saw a 4.57 percent decrease in average asking rent. The average asking rent for law firm space is now $70.92 per square foot, more than $10 higher than the average per square foot cost of Manhattan office space overall. The largest law firm real estate transaction of the quarter was Wachtell Lipton Rosen and Katz’s renewal of 240,930 square feet at 51 West 52nd Street, according to the report. TRD [more]