BY AL BARBARINO

On Thursday, Nov. 1, Virgo Business Centers made 27,321 square feet of temporary, furnished office space available at 14 Penn Plaza. Companies displaced by Hurricane Sandy filed in one by one, and by the following Thursday, the space was full.

“Typically, that process takes about a year,” said Pasha Erkin, director of sales at the company. “It’s all about readiness. You could literally bring me 40 people today, and I could have the space ready tomorrow. All you have to do is walk in, flip on a switch, plug in and start working.”

In that building alone, the company took on 177 employees from displaced companies like Coronet, amfAR, Linda Decorato, Ambrose and others located on the eastern tip of Downtown and other areas hit hard by the hurricane.

The company offers furnished space for stays as short as one month for between $1,200 and $5,000 per month, depending on the size of the office space. Companies offering plug-and-play access to furnished office space without the commitment of a traditional lease have fared well post-Sandy.

They offer just one of the alternatives to subleasing that, in many ways, will put a damper on the hopes of companies with extra space, as displaced companies, many of which have lease obligations that will resume once buildings reopen, avoid signing into complicated agreements, experts told The Commercial Observer.

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BY DANIEL GEIGER

Paul Massey began his career at CBRE in 1984 but disembarked on his own within months after becoming disenchanted with the company’s hierarchical atmosphere. Senior brokers there, he found, were unwilling to collaborate with or groom younger talent.

It was the start of what seemed like the career of someone bent on doing things his own way.

Four years later, Mr. Massey would launch the scrappy, eponymously named startup he founded with colleague Robert Knakal, overseeing just a handful of staff. The two developed a system of brokerage that no other firm had then employed, in which employees were assigned to specific territories in the city.

Many observers of the firm thought the plan would be a death knell, limiting its ability to recruit talent. After all, what top broker would want to be assigned to some obscure neighborhood in Queens or Staten Island?

The pair eschewed the real estate establishment in more glaring ways, too.

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BY BILLY GRAY

The Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn has been billed as one of the city’s most up and coming areas for the better part of a decade despite the literally toxic nature of its namesake canal.

Now, development-wary locals are viewing the surge of dirty water that Hurricane Sandy brought to the Superfund site as a rallying cry in their restrained fight against Gowanus’ residential and commercial rehabilitation.

Residents of the 39th District encompassing Gowanus, Carroll Gardens and Park Slope, among other neighborhoods, addressed their concerns in a letter to the Lightstone Group, which is planning a $257-million, 700-unit rental apartment complex between Bond Street and the canal along First Street.

“As you are no doubt aware, the site of your proposed development was under several feet of water during the storm,” wrote City Councilman Brad Lander in a letter urging Lightstone to “reconsider—and, for the time being, withdraw” plans for the site.

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BY AL BARBARINO

Springhouse Partners has purchased 105 Grand Avenue, a 38,500-square-foot, newly-constructed residential building in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn for $16 million, sources tell The Commercial Observer.

The sale was an off-market deal brokered by Sean Lefkovits, Joe Koicim and Peter Von Der Ahe of Marcus & Millichap; and the seller was a group of undisclosed Brooklyn-based investors that decided to part ways, sources said.

“Sometimes when a partnership is splitting up it is more feasible to complete an off-market transaction as a broker, and we knew the perfect buyer who was well aware of the future growth potential found in the neighborhood,” said Mr. Von Der Ahe. “It was a good match for both parties.”

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BY KARSTEN STRAUSS

One New York Plaza is officially open again – as of this past Saturday – following a shutdown due to tropical storm Sandy. Building owner, Brookfield Office Properties, said that the company has property, casualty and flood insurance and anticipates full coverage of losses. “The storm will have no material financial impact on the company,” the firm said as part of a release.

Hurricane Sandy caused a surge that increased ocean water levels and flooded numerous coastal areas of New York City, including the southern tip of Manhattan where One New York Plaza is located.

“Brookfield’s property operations and maintenance personnel removed all water, restored services and prepared the building for the safe return of tenants,” a Brookfield spokesperson said.

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