BY DANIEL GEIGER

Foursquare’s Soho offices are bright and open, with a large skylight in the center of the floor that allows sunshine to bathe down on a giant wooden replica of the teardrop-with-a-hole-punched-in-it logo that serves as the company’s locational icon. Look up a bar or a restaurant on Foursquare’s site and this is the tab you will see highlighting its suggestions.

Its prominence is a purposeful reminder of what the company wants to be—a location-based social network that people on the go will use to negotiate daily life—versus what initially brought it fame: a gimmicky online check-in service that has since been handily usurped by not one but two tech giants, Facebook and Twitter.

The tech world is a ruthless place, where battle happens both online and off.

Although it isn’t immediately apparent inside its offices just north of Prince Street and Broadway, where a predominantly 20-something workforce is quietly glued to its computers, the company’s building is itself a component in the battle to regain relevance and profitability.

“Look at this room,” Sean Black told The Commercial Observer last week. “Is this the kind of room where you say to yourself ‘I can’t wait to get out of here?’”

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BY DANIEL EDWARD ROSEN

The Park Avenue office of Transwestern’s scrappy New York City branch has the feel of a tech startup. A disassembled Ping-Pong table rests inside a conference room. The firm’s principals share office space with their employees. Meetings are sometimes held on the outdoor patio, which overlooks a frenetic Midtown scene. It captures the young, boutique feel that Lindsay Ornstein, 35, and Patrick Robinson, 53, have been aiming for ever since Transwestern—a Texas-based commercial real estate services, investment and development firm—tapped the duo to open up its New York City offices in 2011. Mr. Robinson and Ms. Ornstein, who previously worked together at Staubach before the firm was acquired by Jones Lang LaSalle in 2008, discussed Transwestern’s big steps into the crowded and competitive New York City marketplace.

What are some of the tenant deals that you have done in the past few months? Ms. Ornstein: Caplin & Drysdale, a law firm. Advent International, a private equity firm right here at 375 Park Avenue.

Mr. Robinson: Kelso & Co. We did a disposition for Fiserv, which is a national client. There was a sub-sub-sub-sub-lease we just finished up—

Ms. Ornstein: Millstein & Co. That one just closed, the ink just dried.

In terms of recruiting, you guys picked up Alyson Berg from Studley and John Grotto from The Durst Organization ... Ms. Ornstein: We have another big one starting in two weeks, who we will announce very shortly.

Can you give us a hint? Ms. Ornstein: It’s investment sales, coming out of a long time ago, one of the big investment sales companies— Mr. Robinson: —has been on the landlord side for a while, and is now coming back to investment sales.

Will John Grotto be doing strictly agency work? Ms. Ornstein: It will be everything, but with an eye toward retail.

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BY CARL GAINES

New York-based Rockwood Real Estate Advisors, which announced the launch of its West Coast platform earlier in September, has arranged $13 million in financing for Wheelock Street Capital’s acquisition of a California hotel.

Wheelock, headquartered in Greenwich and Boston, will use the money to buy the 242-key Marriott Pleasanton Hotel in Pleasanton, Calif.

Andrew Kern, a managing director of Rockwood’s hospitality team, led the transaction. Executives at the firm said that it was executed by Christopher Seter and Eric Baum—both managing directors in Rockwood’s Capital Markets team.

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The November issue of The Mortgage Observer will feature the 20 most promising commercial mortgage brokers under 35 throughout the tristate area--but we need your help determining the best and brightest.

Whether it's thanks to financing volume or the complexity of the assignments they're given, we want to know who's racking up accolades in the mortgage industry, and we want your nominees for New York's next generation of mortgage brokers.

The due date for nominations is October 8, 2012. Those selected will be featured in our November issue. Include titles and company names for all submissions and include a little bit about why you think they deserve to be featured. Nominate yourself, a colleague, a friend or your son and daughter. Doesn't matter to us, just send your submissions by October 8.

Send nominations to topmortgagebrokers@observer.com. All emails will be kept strictly confidential.

To read the full story on our website, click here.