Wednesday October 17, 2012
|
|
 |
|
| Tech Booming in MTS. But For How Long?
|
|
|
|
|
BY DANIEL GEIGER
Late last year, when the education publishing company Scholastic offered up about 60,000 square feet of sublease space at the top of the Soho office building 568 Broadway, the firm quickly found it wouldn’t be difficult to fill.
Within weeks, a host of tenants were competing for it, including several tech firms, one of the most active sectors of the leasing market in Manhattan right now. Tumblr, foursquare and AppNexus, all well-known names in the industry, moved to the front of the pack.
On the face of it, such a decision would seem easy. Of the three, only AppNexus, a firm that specializes in online advertising and is backed by the software giant Microsoft, is known to be profitable. But in a tech boom in which riches don’t always flow from the most likely sources, the deal for the space took a different turn.
To read the full story, click here.
|
|
|
| When It Comes to 421a, Politicos Don’t Know |
|
|
|
|
BY ROBERT KNAKAL
If I read one more comment from an elected official condemning the 421a tax abatement program, my head is going to explode.
The reason their comments have been so frustrating is that their positions show very clearly that they have no idea how the program they are condemning actually works. Nor do they understand the benefits this incentive provides to the market and to New York.
The 421a program was initiated in 1971 as an incentive for the private sector to build new residential apartments in the city. To date, the program has been responsible for the construction of more than 110,000 units. The program was significantly hamstrung in 2006, as many elected officials felt that an incentive was no longer needed to induce new residential construction, given the strength of the New York City development market at that time.
To read the full story, click here.
|
|
|
| Email Fine, But Don’t Count Out Telephone
|
|
|
|
|
BY ADELAIDE POLSINELLI
“Are you selling your property?”
“How much do you want for your building?”
“I have an offer for you!”
“How fast do you want to close?”
“Make the deal!”
A broker’s most effective tool is a phone call. It’s how we reach out and touch someone.
Emails and texts are effective too, but a call can make all the difference in whether a deal goes forward or dies on the vine. The tone, inflection, urgency, pitch and content are all synergistically intertwined to elicit an intended response. Sometimes these invisible catalysts are the reason deals get the response that a broker is looking for. A broker who can use these tools masterfully can make magic happen and bring deals to fruition that may not have had a chance without that call.
To read the full story, click here.
|
|
|
| LionTree Climbs Into 660 Madison Avenue
|
|
|
|
|
BY DANIEL GEIGER
LionTree LLC has inked a deal for 10,400 square feet at 660 Madison Avenue, The Commercial Observer has learned.
The company, founded by the former UBS executive Aryeh Bourkoff, will take a portion of the building’s 10th floor, where asking rents are around $95 per square foot according to the online leasing database CoStar.
LionTree is one of several boutique financial firms that occupy space at 660 Madison Avenue, a building best known for the large Barney’s department store on its first nine floors.
To read full story, click here.
|
|
|
|
