BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM

When the William Macklowe Company acquired 386 Park Avenue South late last month, the firm’s chief executive, Billy Macklowe, wasted no time devising a plan to reposition the 20-story asset, from a building filled with legacy tenants and multiple businesses on each floor to an oasis in Midtown Manhattan for that market’s rapidly growing number of tech startups, media companies and full-floor corporations.

But aside from the renovations, Mr. Macklowe and a leasing team headed by CBRE Vice Chairman Paul Amrich created a program at the 270,000-square-foot building, including a pair of 13,000-square-foot, full-floor prebuilt offices designed to house the city’s next big thing.

Last week, Mr. Macklowe and Mr. Amrich reviewed floor plans with The Commercial Observer and explained what tenants can expect when space at the building hits the market later this week.

To see the annotated floor plan, click here.

BY ROBERT SAMMONS

44.6 percent—that’s the percentage of leasing transactions (by square footage) that were in the tech/advertising/media/information (TAMI) fields in Midtown South during the year to date.

The average size of those TAMI deals was rather small, at just over 26,000 square feet, and ranged from leases such as Havas, with 226,000 square feet, down to Speed Media, with just under 2,000 square feet. But we think TAMI has legs in Midtown South, due to the variety of firms taking space—it’s not just one particular segment of these creative fields.

To read the full story, click here.

BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM

With all the talk about Midtown South’s incredibly shrinking vacancy rate, it’s easy to conclude that deals by a swarm of new-media companies, social applications and tech startups are at the heart of the market’s heralded rebound.

But a closer look at third quarter leasing activity suggests that companies with long histories, like Estée Lauder, should take equal billing.

Ken McCarthy, senior economist at Cushman & Wakefield, reviewed Midtown South’s third-quarter activity and explained why the market and its five submarkets performed so well in the last quarter and in the past 12 months.

To see an annotated 3Q12 leasing chart for Midtown South, click here.

BY DANIEL GEIGER

Johnson Capital has arranged a $9.5 million loan for a Long Island City hotel at 44-29 9th Street. The loan closed on October 5.

The financing will replace two land and bridge loans on the property, the Wyndham Garden Hotel. It was provided by Texas-based Hall Structured Finance, which earlier provided $21 million for the construction of a 137-key Holiday Inn Hotel—also in Long Island City. Mike Jaynes, president of Hall Structured Finance, told The Mortgage Observer that the company was paid off on that loan early in the year—making the Wyndham its second opportunity.

“We like the story of that area being a low cost alternative to staying in Manhattan—that tied in to the the proximity to the train to get in to Manhattan,” Mr. Jaynes said. “And also the strength overall of the Long Island City Hotel Market.”

To read the full story, click here.