Halstead gets its day
Halstead Property threw itself a big party on April 5 to mark the launch of its re-branding effort. The $5 million to $10 million re-branding includes print, online, and outdoor advertising as well as interactive plasma TVs at Halstead’s storefront offices. The party was held at Guastavino’s on the East Side, and a highlight of the posh event was the announcement of a proclamation from the mayor, which declared April 5 “Real Estate Appreciation Day” in New York City on behalf of Halstead. (We thought every day was real estate appreciation day.)
Mayor the man for Ground Zero, poll says
The people want Mayor Michael Bloomberg in charge at the World Trade Center site, according to a recent poll. The mayor has talked up for several months now a mixed-use future for the site in Lower Manhattan — he wants both commercial and residential, with a healthy dose of retail tossed into the development mix (and he may have finally gotten Larry Silverstein to understand that). In mid-April, a Quinnipiac University poll showed that 67 percent of New York City residents wanted Bloomberg to take the lead in deciding the World Trade Center’s site. That flies in the face of the law, which puts Gov. George Pataki and New Jersey Gov. John Corzine in charge of redevelopment because they appoint board members of the Port Authority, which owns the site.
REBNY honors 2005’s savviest commercial deals
The Real Estate Board of New York on April 4 honored those the board considers the most ingenious commercial dealmakers of 2005. Two brokers each from Newmark Knight Frank and Cushman & Wakefield snagged the night’s top prize, the Henry Hart Rice Award for the most ingenious deal of 2005, for a lease involving 1211 Avenue of the Americas. REBNY presented Moshe Sukenik and Mark Weiss of Newmark Knight Frank and Mitchell Arkin and John Gray of Cushman & Wakefield the award at an annual reception at the 101 Club in Manhattan. CB Richard Ellis’ Brian D. Gell and Gary Kamenetsky took home the second-place award for 2005, the Robert T. Lawrence Award, for a deal involving a 175,000-square-foot purchase at 83 Maiden Lane. The Edward G. Gordon Award was presented by REBNY to the third-place winners for last year, Patrick Hanlon and Simon Ziff of the Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group, for their financing of 522 Fifth Avenue.
Trump draws a crowd… for a friggin’ mortgage company
It was on a Wednesday. In the morning. And it was to launch a mortgage company. Nevertheless, on April 5, Donald Trump’s (brand)name drew a large crowd — plus tabloid media like “Entertainment Tonight” and “Access Hollywood” — to Trump Tower, where Trump, with his son Donald Jr. and new Trump Mortgage CEO E.J. Ridings, announced the start of his lending firm. (Trump Mortgage actually started in November, after getting a New York State license). Even the Donald expressed surprise at the party turnout. He told the several hundred in attendance, according to the New York Observer, “If you had told me we would have had this many people for a friggin’ mortgage company opening — give me a break.”
Staten Island on $68,500 a day
And you thought you blew through a lot of money every day. The prospective owners of the proposed NASCAR stadium on the West Shore of Staten Island could end up spending about $68,500 a day for the next seven months pushing the stadium, according to the Staten Island Advance. The International Speedway Corporation, a sister company of NASCAR, wants to build an 80,000-seat stadium, with surrounding retail complex, toward the edge of the city’s smallest borough. The corporation, though, has had a tough go convincing some Staten Islanders that the speedway is worth the traffic and noise it would bring on race days.