BY GUS DELAPORTE

Brooklyn’s popularity with investors has accelerated in recent years as waterfront development sites and retail properties have attracted a variety of buyers, according to a recent report from Eastern Consolidated.

The largest and most notable of recent transactions was Two Trees Management’s acquisition of the Domino Sugar Factory at 318 Kent Avenue for $185 million last year, but potential for future development still exists.

“There’s a whole new frontier in Brooklyn,” Barbara Denham, chief economist at Eastern Consolidated, told The Commercial Observer. “There’s the waterfront, and there are so many sites on Kent Avenue that have either traded or are in the process of going on the market.”

As significant as the sale of the Domino Sugar Factory was, it represented only 20 percent of the development site transactions in Brooklyn in 2012. In the first half of 2013, 40 development site transactions have closed for a total of $356 million, on pace with 2012.

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BY AL BARBARINO

Related Companies is reportedly landing another high-profile tenant at Hudson Yards, as Time Warner gears up to move from its Columbus Circle headquarters into a new 80-story skyscraper-to-be at the 26-acre west side complex.

Following a string of reports over the last several weeks indicating an imminent deal, The New York Times reported yesterday that Time Warner will buy more than half the space in the new 2.4-million-square-foot Hudson Yards tower.

The move would give Time Warner a highly visible corporate presence among a star-studded lineup of neighbors that includes Coach, SAP and L’Oréal, which cut deals with Related earlier this year at a separate 47-story tower currently under construction, known as South Tower.

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BY BILLY GRAY

American Realty Capital Properties, Inc. will acquire all of the outstanding shares of American Realty Capital Trust IV, Inc. for cash and stock in a merger agreement valued at $3.1 billion. The deal is a notable continuation of the trend of consolidation among real estate investment trusts.

The merger is also significant because both REITs are net lease, meaning that the 470 tenants in ARCP’s 2,579 single-tenant properties pay their own operating costs.

“Today’s announced merger solidifies our leadership position in the net lease real estate sector,” Nicholas Schorsch, the chairman and CEO of ARCP said in a prepared statement.

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BY JOSH SIEGELMAN

In today’s world of fast-paced retail leasing in Manhattan, a hot restaurant-equipped space does not last long on the market. Restaurateurs are perhaps the most active operators in the market right now, but because of today’s unsure economy, landlords have become very weary of new concepts and operators.

This leaves local businesses at a disadvantage.

Even though they are usually able to bid near the market asking rent, landlords will typically demand that an untested user pay a higher security deposit—up from three to four months through as much as six months base rent—but even then, if the space attracts the liking of a credit tenant, the corporate signature usually gets the worm.

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BY ROBERT SAMMONS

Human nature keeps us searching for the Next Big Thing. And when it comes to New York real estate, Lower Manhattan certainly comes to mind based on the dramatic changes underway.

But there is another area farther north that has as much going on and then some – Penn Station. Of course the primary reason is the greater Hudson Yards development, which is included in this Newmark Grubb Knight Frank submarket.

But there are other items afoot besides that massive project.

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