BY DANIEL GEIGER

George Comfort & Sons is in talks to purchase 75 Rockefeller Plaza, several sources with direct knowledge of the deal told The Commercial Observer.

Neither the price nor the structure of the transaction was immediately available. The British billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed owns the 600,000-square-foot tower, and when he put the property on the market at the beginning of the year he had wanted to arrange the sale as a leasehold interest in the property.

Such a transaction would essentially allow a buyer to rent the entire building for a longterm period (many leaseholds stretch 99-years) but would keep ultimate ownership of the building in the hands of Mr. Al Fayed and his family and generate rental income for them. It wasn’t clear however if the deal George Comfort & Sons appears close to arranging will be a leasehold or an outright sale.

A person who had been involved in the bidding for the building said there had been wrangling between the buyer and seller, suggesting that the arrangement Mr. Al Fayed had originally wanted may not be what is ultimately agreed upon.

To read the full story, click here

BY DANIEL EDWARD ROSEN

Rose Associates has been ousted as the property managers of the controversial Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complex, according to reports.

CW Capital Asset Management, a subsidiary of CW Financial which took over the complex in 2010, has tapped CompassRock Real Estate, also a subsidiary of CW Financial, as its new property manager, effective September 1, 2012.

In doing so, CW Capital expects to reduce its management fee by 33 percent, and have a bigger hand in the leasing and marketing of the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village developments, the company said in a press release.

"Since taking control, we have realized significantly improved financial performance and at the same time improved the resident experience," said Charles Spetka, CEO of CW Financial Services in a statement. "Our intent is to continue both trends."

Rose Associates, headed by Adam Rose, had been managing the property since 2010.

To read the full story, click here

BY DANIEL EDWARD ROSEN

A Harlem retail property that counts the Hamilton Grange Annex of the US Postal Service as a tenant sold for $5.5 million to the Harlem River Management Corp.

The seller, Colonial Park Management LLC, sold the property as part of a 1031 Exchange, an Internal Revenue Services code that offers the seller tax benefits.

The 14,729-square-foot property at 99 Macombs Place was originally built in 1951, according to CoStar data.

The property had been owned by Colonial Park Management for "some time," and the family-run business decided that now was the best time to sell.

To read the full story, click here

If you own commercial real estate in Manhattan and you haven't filled out our Owners Questionnaire, now's your last chance.

Weighing in at more than 100 pages--more than twice the size of last year's issue--this September's annual Owner's Magazine includes responses from 50 of the city's leading commercial real estate owners, not to mention a package of features stories on the topics you care about most.

But we still have room for more, and we desperately want to hear from you. For more information, or to receive a questionnaire to be filled out, please email Commercial Observer Editor-in-Chief Jotham Sederstrom at jsederstrom@observer.com.