BY DANIEL GEIGER

It didn’t take long for Jeff Rosenblatt to sense something awry in the house of Kent Swig. It was 2009 and Mr. Swig, at the time a large landlord in the city, had purchased the real estate services company Helmsley-Spear a year earlier. In the months after his big acquisition of the legendary brokerage firm, Mr. Swig had offered Mr. Rosenblatt a senior position managing its leasing operations.

Mr. Rosenblatt had been a successful leasing broker at several major brokerage companies, including Newmark Knight Frank, Cushman & Wakefield and Grubb & Ellis. But Helmsley-Spear seemed to have a real chance to become a power of its own in the city.

Not only did the company have a decades-old brand and name recognition with some of the city’s biggest and most powerful landlords, but Mr. Swig’s ownership also appeared to give the firm a guaranteed pipeline of business handling deals in his substantial commercial portfolio.

Like many brokers before him who have gambled on a startup or sought to move to a less-established firm for the chance to build a brokerage from the ground up, taking a personal hand in styling its culture and cultivating its talent, Mr. Rosenblatt was intrigued. Mr. Swig was also very charming, wooing Mr. Rosenblatt over lunch at some of the city’s best power dining spots, like the Regency. Mr. Rosenblatt had also known Mr. Swig—though not well—for almost two decades, since the early 1980s when Mr. Swig was dating Elizabeth Macklowe, the daughter of landlord Harry Macklowe, who had worked at Newmark Knight Frank when Mr. Rosenblatt was there early in his career.

“When I first met him, he just seemed like this really nice California surfer guy,” Mr. Rosenblatt recalled.

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BY CARL GAINES

Simon Gibbs is a partner at CWM New York—the U.S. outpost of London’s CWM, which provides consultancy services for retail clients looking for space. On the other side of the pond, the firm represents, among others, Diesel, Hugo Boss, AllSaints, True Religion, and Kate and Jack Spade. Mr. Gibbs is tasked with translating the CWM model in the States and helping to bring European retailers to our shores. On the heels of a successful lease for U.K. sushi chain Wasabi at 561 Seventh Avenue, he spoke to The Commercial Observer about the challenges of familiarizing foreign retailers with the New York market and why “consultancy” is a better fit for what the firm provides than “brokerage.”

The Commercial Observer: Can you tell me what CWM’s focus is in the U.K.? What do you tend to work on there? Mr. Gibbs: In the U.K. we’re around about 40 members of staff right now. We only do retail. We act on behalf of large landlords in Central London, in Covent Garden and Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, and we also advise about 70 retailers that include Diesel, Hugo Boss, All Saints, and Kate and Jack Spade.

How long had you all been thinking about opening up a New York office? We’d been thinking about opening a New York office for a number of years but we couldn’t find anyone to head it up. I had joined CWM in 2005 as a graduate [junior advisor], when we had quite a small team, and as the business grew I was the graduate to the CEO, Scott Murdoch, and after seven years working with him, it was a natural step for me to come over and open up the CWM New York office. I knew the business model inside out from London, and it was a case of coming over to the States and trying to implement that same British level of advice over in the U.S.

What clients do you currently represent in their search for space here in New York City? We’ve got brands ranging from beauty retailers to high-end fashion and home wear. I’m working with about 20 brands. Some of them include Neal’s Yard Remedies, ToyWatch and Irregular Choice. We’re doing Wasabi, which is kind of a premium sushi chain.

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BY DANIEL GEIGER

Legislation related to EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, a financing pipeline that has been used to fund several major development projects in the city, has cleared one hurdle towards renewal.

Last week, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that would restore an important component of the program set to expire at the end of September. According to people familiar with EB-5 and the legislative process to preserve it, a bill must now pass through Congress in the next few weeks before the program sunsets, an event that could possibly cut off millions of dollars of financing for a number of construction projects.

According to Rick Spees, who chairs the law firm Akerman Senterfitt’s government affairs and public policy practice group, members of Congress had pledged to renew the legislation if it passed through the Senate. But the bill has been put under the review of a Congressional committee that may decide to examine either it, or other immigration-themed bills that it is bundled with, more closely.

“They have the right to say we need more time,” Mr. Spees said. “I would put the odds of this legislation getting renewed at about 65 percent to 35 percent in favor of it getting done. But you don’t know, it could always get hung up in the bureaucratic process.”

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BY CARL GAINES

Tech company Operative Media, which provides digital advertising business solutions, has signed for 30,720 square feet of space at Himmel + Meringoff Properties’ 6 East 32nd Street. The company signed an eight-year lease at the 173,600-square-foot building and will relocate from its current space at 40 West 25th Street.

Jones Lang LaSalle’s Jim Wenk and Ryan Masiello represented the tenant, while Mark Stein and Jason Vacker represented the landlord in-house.

Mr. Wenk said that Operative Media is expanding, yet wanted to stay near its current office.

“The company preferred 6 East 32nd Street, as it was an ideal location for its employees, given the building’s close proximity to mass transportation,” Mr. Wenk said. “Operative Media’s new space offered dramatic ceiling heights and an efficient floor plan that will foster increased collaboration as well as accommodate its rapid growth plans.”

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