140 West Street

As part of efforts to consolidate and cut costs, Verizon is planning on selling or leasing roughly half the space inside its 31-story headquarters, Bloomberg News reported. The company will keep the first 10 floors of the property, which is located at 140 West Street, across from the World Trade Center site.

Real estate investors are headed to the building this week to ascertain its potential uses, which include hotel, residences and retail, according to a statement from the communications giant cited by Bloomberg. [more]

Sandy flood waters in Lower Manhattan

Verizon, attempting to replace all underground copper wiring in Lower Manhattan with fiber-optic cables in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, says it has run into problems with landlords, the telecommunications firm said in a petition to state regulators. Some landlords have allegedly refused to let Verizon through their doors altogether, while others have demanded fees for entry, the New York Times reported. [more]

From left: Steven Spinola and Lower Manhattan

Between 15 to 18 million square feet of Lower Manhattan commercial space remains closed five weeks after Hurricane Sandy, the New York Times reported, but there’s an added complication: phones are still disconnected.

Moreover, they can’t be repaired quickly. Under current repair timelines, Verizon won’t finish their work until May, which Mayor Bloomberg said on Tuesday during a speech was “just not acceptable.” Real Estate Board of New York President Steven Spinola said that if Verizon can get service back soon, then 95 to 98 percent of the still vacant offices can be back up and running by the beginning of next year, but that timetable depends entirely on Verizon’s repair work. [more]

Michael Stern at Walker Tower

From the August issue: Twenty-nine-year-old Michael Stern was riding the elevator in a Verizon-owned building at 212 West 18th Street when he found out that Lehman Brothers had filed for bankruptcy.

Stern’s company, JDS Development, wasn’t actively acquiring properties at the time, and he’d been dragged “kicking and screaming” by a broker to check out the prewar building, which Verizon was using as storage for copper wire. But once Stern saw the views from the upper floors of the Art Deco tower, he knew he wanted to turn it into residential condos. [more]

101 Market Street

CBRE Group has entered into talks with potential anchor tenants for a proposed one million-square-foot office tower that would be the commercial centerpiece of a radical redevelopment plan for downtown Newark, The Real Deal has learned.

Under the master plan being developed, the Richard Meier-designed SOMA Newark (SOMA stands for South of Market Street) project calls for 15 million square feet of development, including 8,000 residential units, 4.75 million square feet of commercial space and 550,000 square feet of retail, located across from the University Heights section of Newark. [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]

M&T Bank has reached a tentative agreement to sell the former Verizon tower at 375 Pearl Street to a joint venture of YoungWoo & Associates and Seattle’s Sabey for over $100 million, sources told the Wall Street Journal. Verizon sold the 32-story tower, widely considered one of the city’s worst eyesores, for $172.5 million in 2007 to Taconic Investment Partners, which had planned to wrap the gray façade in glass and renovate the 700,000-square-foot property into a modern office tower. But those plans never materialized, and M&T took control of the mostly-empty building last year after Taconic defaulted on its mortgage payments. … [more]

More than five hours after Linda Stein was believed to have been bludgeoned to death inside her Fifth Avenue apartment, her personal assistant left a message on the one-time punk rock manager turned celebrity real estate broker’s voice mail (listen to audio clip above). “Hey Linda, it’s Natavia,” began the message, which was played at the murder trial of the assistant, Natavia Lowery, in Manhattan Supreme Court. As the voice mail continued, Lowery, 28, told Stein that her ex-husband Seymour had called earlier that day then stated it was around 5:30 p.m. and that she was “leaving the office,” purportedly referring to the office of Prudential Douglas Elliman where Stein worked. “I hope that the [property] showing goes well,” Lowery’s brief message ended, “and I’ll see you tomorrow.”… [more]

Between the thousands of condominium developments in various stages of development and the reduction in sales volume, it is not surprising to learn that lenders are taking back the keys for high-rise condo projects or forcing developers to turn their condos to rentals. During the first week of the month, Fortress Investment Group took over the defaulted mortgages and acquired possession of the Sheffield 57, the condo conversion of the 50-story building at 322 West 57th Street. The property was purchased in 2005 for $418 million by a partnership of Kent Swig, Yair Levy and Serge Hoyda. … [more]

Prudential Douglas Elliman broker-to-the-stars Linda Stein was killed in her Fifth Avenue apartment by her personal assistant after a confrontation over work demands, law enforcement sources said. On October 30th, the assistant, Natavia Lowery, tried to negotiate with Stein about reducing the amount of extra work the broker gave her, sources said. Stein said she would pay for Lowery’s lunch, but Lowery insisted she could pay for it herself. Stein then allegedly asked how Lowery, an African-American, could afford lunch when people of her race lack money, Lowery said, according to law enforcement sources. Lowery took the yoga stick and attacked Stein with it, police said…. [more]