BY AL BARBARINO

Back in March, President Barack Obama proposed changes to the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act, suggesting (to the delight of much of the commercial real estate industry) that easing its barriers would increase foreign cash flow into the U.S., leading to job creation for the middle class.

A new report from CBRE backs the president’s claims, arguing that the proposed changes could increase foreign investment in a number of major U.S. cities, particularly those with historically lower rates of return on investments, and trickle through the economy.

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BY GUS DELAPORTE

Professional information firm Reed Elsevier has signed a 10-year, 71,083-square-foot lease for the entire seventh floor at 230 Park Avenue, The Commercial Observer has learned.

“By its size and the tenant on its own, [the deal] means a lot,” said Brian Robin, president of Monday Properties. “The tenant has exceptional credit and is a very stable organization, which is our sweet spot.”

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BY BILLY GRAY

There were no vacancies at the Opera House Hotel over Labor Day weekend. But the new boutique hotel’s neighbors in the South Bronx fear that guests are merely taking advantage of cheap rates as they spend their days and dollars in Manhattan rather than the surrounding neighborhood.

Visitors spent $160 to $200 a night as they filled the Opera House’s 60 rooms over the long weekend. It was a solid turnout for the lodging, which Empire Hotel Group opened just two weeks ago at 436 East 149th Street in the Melrose neighborhood.

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BY ROBERT SAMMONS

Doesn’t that sound like a fantastic title for a sci-fi/action movie? In reality, though, it has to do with the largest office buildings in Manhattan—in this case, those 2 million square feet and up (for the purpose of this column, we’ll stick with rentable building area, which in some cases could include retail space).

You may be surprised to find out that among the 1,224 Manhattan office buildings tracked by Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (no less than 441.5 million square feet of inventory), there are only 21 (what I’ve termed the Big 21) that contain at least 2 million square feet (for a total of 51.6 million square feet). That, my friends, is just 1.7 percent of the building stock but 11.7 percent of the inventory.

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