BY DANIEL EDWARD ROSEN

The sale of 204 Huntington Street, a 62,404-square-foot asset in south Brooklyn, was 10 years coming.

The investment sales firm Massey Knakal Realty Services had first noticed the property, a warehouse-turned-multifamily development, in 2003-2004. Later, Area Property Partners owned and managed it between 2009 and 2010, before its principals decided to place the asset on the market.

To market such a property, Massey Knakal tapped a Bay Ridge-born broker whose tenacity in the investment sales sector had already earned him a reputation as one of the borough’s most active up-and-coming agents.

“We were prepping for this in late 2011, and there naturally had not been many, if [any], multifamily transactions,” said Stephen Palmese, a 30-year-old director of sales at Massey Knakal.

This multifamily offering, however, had an “added value play.”

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BY DANIEL GEIGER

Virginia Pittarelli, better known in the brokerage industry as Ginny, left Madison Retail Services last year to join the retail real estate investment firm Crown Equities, where she leads a new brokerage offshoot of the company called Crown Retail. Now, about a year later, Ms. Pittarelli sits down with The Commercial Observer to discuss how the new venture has panned out and a resurgent retail market that has kept successful deal-makers like her very busy.

The Commercial Observer: The office market is definitely in a summer slowdown, perhaps even a more pronounced slowdown, given the data. How is retail doing in the city right now? Ms. Pittarelli: Manhattan is on fire, we are so busy. Everyone has been reading about the leasing in some of the primary markets, like Upper Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue. Go back to ICSC in May, which was a positive show in Vegas, where the environment was one where people were positive and activity was brisk, in a climate that is still fragile and turbulent. Look at our own situation and of course Europe too. New York is somewhat isolated from that.

What retailers have you been working with lately? I’ve been doing deals with the next retailers that are coming into the U.S. I can mention one in particular, Jack Wills from London. Peter Williams [the CEO] is a terrific guy and has amazing things to say. We’ve done 12 stores for them, and they continue to grow. They’re one of several new clients we are fortunate enough to have. Everyone is expanding. The tenant demand side is almost at an all-time high. Not in all areas, but the primary markets. Rents are escalating, Fifth Avenue is realizing per-square-foot rental rates that would have been unheard of just a short time ago, 3,000 a square foot. That’s the market there, north of 48th Street. South of 48th, people are quoting $1,000 a foot, which is incredible. Sometimes we even get a little concerned—not all retailers can afford this. Madison Avenue is back, Greenwich Avenue (in Greenwich, Conn.) is back, Third Avenue in the 60s, which had really softened, is back. In Times Square you can’t even find any space.

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BY DANIEL EDWARD ROSEN

Interior decorators Sygrove Associates Design Group has found themselves a new space to decorate after they inked a 10-year deal at 594 Broadway in Soho, The Commercial Observer has learned.

Sygrove Associates, which had been at 448 West 51st Street for a number of years since launching in 1982, will be taking a 1,228 square foot office space inside the 12-story building.

Daniel Lolai of Murray Hill Properties represented Sygrove Associates in the lease transaction. Donna Vogel of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented Newmark & Company Real Estate, the owners of 594 Broadway.

Asking rent was $53-a-square-foot.

“The fact that the company got great was a big factor for them for such a small space,” said Mr. Lolai.

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BY DANIEL GEIGER

Moods of Norway, purveyors of colorful dresses, plaid sports jackets and hot pink suits, is opening its first Manhattan outpost after settling in a handful of other U.S. cities like Los Angeles, The Commercial Observer has learned. The company is taking a little more than 4,000 square feet at 75 Greene Street in Soho, a neighborhood known for its fashion retailers and ecclectic, stylish boutiques.

Rents in the 10-year deal are in the $200s per square foot sources familiar with its terms say.

The space, which includes a 2,300-square-foot ground floor and 1,800-square-foot lower shopping level, came available in recent months when JNBY, one of the first China-based fashion retailers to open a store in the city, closed its operations after just two years at the location.

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