BY AL BARBARINO

One of the largest banks in Chile, CorpBanca, has signed a 15-year lease for a 13,854-square-foot, full-floor office space at the Lipstick Building at 885 Third Avenue, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The relocation from its previous location just one block away, at 845 Third Avenue, gives the firm turn-key access to the 33rd floor tower, which features panoramic, 360-degree views and efficient floor-plates, brokers involved in the deal said.

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BY GUS DELAPORTE

This fall, residents of the 900-unit luxury building Mercedes House at 550 West 54th Street will be able to do their food shopping in the building when MH Supermarket Corp. moves into a 5,000-square-foot retail space at the property. The independent operator, which currently runs a market on Tillary Street in Downtown Brooklyn, has signed a 15-year lease with Two Trees Commercial to open a new location later this year. Asking rent was $60 per square foot.

“It’s going to a ‘Mom and Pop’ with great customer service for tenants,” Caroline Pardo, director of leasing at Two Trees Commercial, told The Commercial Observer. “They will focus on delivery, trying to push the delivery market for the residents and the people in the neighborhood.”

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BY BILLY GRAY

Months after launching a New Jersey office, Winick Realty Group is doubling down across the river with a New Jersey investment sales division.

“The investment sales market is red hot right now, with a substantial amount of business that reaches prerecession levels,” Tyler Bennett, a senior vice president and founding partner of the office, said in a prepared statement. “We believe it is the right time to launch an investment sales division to meet this demand.”

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BY ROBERT KNAKAL

Participants in the commercial real estate industry are caught between wanting the economy to tangibly recover and wanting it to continue its slow slogging recovery.

While a tangible recovery would be very helpful for underlying fundamentals, it would cause interest rates to rise. It’s easy to connect the dots between our extraordinarily low interest rate environment and the tremendous recovery seen in commercial property values. On the flip side, while a recovery similar to the proverbial “pushing on a string” doesn’t do much for the economy, it does keep interest rates low, further encouraging market participants to, well, participate.

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BY RICHARD PERSICHETTI

The office condominium investment market is back ... to 2007 levels. Through the first five-plus months of 2013, office condo sales averaged $784.13 per square foot, almost matching the level last seen in 2007, when the average price per square foot was $784.31—a mere 18-cent difference.

The number of office condos sold this year was 47, staying consistent with the same time period over the last two years—46 in 2012 and 49 in 2011. The big difference this year is in the price per square foot—it has spiked up to 49.7 percent since the end of 2012 and is up 106.2 percent since the office condo market bottomed out in 2009.

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