BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM

From Washington Heights to Lower Manhattan, nearly every neighborhood includes at least a little office space.

And while it can be difficult to discern on the ground, most neighborhoods and ZIP codes have a single, predominant landlord who rules the roost.

To determine who controls each of the borough's nearly 50 ZIP codes, we combed the portfolios of Manhattan's 20 largest owners and drafted a turf map of sorts. In cases where none of the 20 largest landlords owned office property, such as in the Lower East Side and parts of the West Village, no victor is listed.

Gathered from each company's official website and media liaisons, as well as the United States Postal Service, the data after the jump includes ZIP codes for single buildings as well, numbered in inset maps.

To see the map, click here.

BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM

Before the typical Manhattan landlord even considers a new acquisition, his fleet of accountants, lawyers, risk managers and engineers weighs the high cost of operating in New York City.

Indeed, when even some midsize properties can rival the populations of a Midwestern town, it shouldn't be a surprise that the day-to-day expenses of everything from window washing and elevator maintenance to office equipment, insurance and property taxes can add up faster than a New York minute.

Analysts at Cassidy Turley, a full-service commercial real estate services provider, averaged the operating costs of several dozen Midtown buildings--ranging in size from 250,000 square feet to more than 1 million square feet--and then shared their findings with us.

The result: Annual operating costs ranging from $5.7 million to well above $23 million that would cause even the most successful real estate titans to lose a little sleep. After the jump, an illustrated breakdown of the cost of owning in New York City today.

To see the breakdown, click here.

BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM

With school back in session earlier this month, The Commercial Observer reviewed its library of leather bound text books and plucked at random a collection of 15 entry-level real estate trivia questions, touching on everything from ethic and law to pop culture and the brick and mortar itself.

While a high score won't ensure success in real estate, it does promise popularity in life and bragging rights at the water cooler. The answers are upside down below, after the jump. Buena Suerte!

To try the quiz, click here.

BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM

When a financial services firm vacated the 29th floor of 950 Third Avenue earlier this year, the building’s owners, Naomi and Andre Althoz, deemed the space entirely unsalvageable.

“The landlord at that point demolished the floor and white-boxed it and turned it into a marketing center for the building,” said Mikael Nahmias, the Cushman & Wakefield broker who, along with Jared Horowitz, acts as leasing agent for the East 57th Street building.

Within four months, however, executives at Coller Capital, a boutique private equities firm, came upon the 11,500-square-foot floor plate and its views of Central Park and the East and Hudson Rivers and made a decision to relocate from offices at 410 Park Avenue following an agreement by the landlord to custom-build the space to the tenant’s specific preferences.

After the jump, Mr. Nahmias reviews the plan with The Commercial Observer and discussed why officials at Coller Capital chose to ink a deal earlier this month at Naomi and Andre Althoz’s 32-story office tower.

To see the furniture plan, click here.

BY DANIEL EDWARD ROSEN

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank has appointed industry veterans Gerald Sanders and Lynda Gallagher, among others, to the executive board of Landauer Valuation & Advisory, a firm that the brokerage house picked up in its merger with Grubb & Ellis, The Commercial Observer has learned.

Greg Kendall, David Wood, and Milton Chacon will be joining Robert Von Ancken (pictured) on Landauer's Valuation and Advisory executive board.

By adding Landauer to the NGKF fold, the company expects to cover a broad swath of all real estate services.

“We efficiently and effectively leverage the prodigious data available to us because we are not just observers of the market. We are in the market, developing, providing capital, negotiating deals and resolving disputes,” said Mr. Von Ancken in a statement.

"We believe in the tremendous synergies between the capital markets business and the valuation business," said James Kuhn, president of NGKF.

To read the full story, click here.