BY THE COMMERCIAL OBSERVER STAFF

Each year, hundreds of young real estate agents find themselves toiling the proverbial mail rooms of the city’s biggest brokerages, having left behind native cornfields of Nebraska, bayous of Louisiana and ivies of Massachusetts for a shot at playing in the big leagues. But commercial real estate has never been for the faint of heart, and thus for every [slideshow]college graduate who makes the cut as a junior broker at Studley and CBRE, an equal number of determined peers find themselves marveling at just how disciplined the competition can be.

And still there are the rest of you, who thrive off such tests of strength. And so it’s for you who we present The Commercial Observer’s first annual list of New York’s most promising young commercial real estate brokers under 30. From Jones Lang LaSalle’s youngest vice president to a broker who names Stonehenge co-founder Ofer Yardeni as a mentor, this year’s crop of talent proves that hard work and powerful connections pays off.

Earlier this month, we asked executives, communication directors and your peers to nominate individuals they most admired under the age of 30—the ones they believe rank high among New York’s next wave of tenant and landlord representatives, investment sales agents and retail fixers. And after reviewing client rosters and career statistics, we were able to whittle a long list of talented individuals into what you see before you.

So with that in mind, enjoy reading about this year’s crop of “30 Under 30” brokers today, but know that by next year these same agents may be nipping at your heels.—Jotham Sederstrom, Editor-In-Chief

To see the full list, click here.

BY AL BARBARINO

Bon Bé Bé, a division of International Intimate Holdings, Inc., has signed a 10-year lease for 10,157 square feet of office space at 34 West 33rd Street, a building also known as The Childrenswear Center, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The asking rent for the new space was $39 per square foot and occupancy is anticipated for December 2012.

Coldwell Banker Commercial Alliance Principals Richard Selig and Peter Sabesan represented the tenant in the transaction.

“We are delighted to bring this well-established international company home to the center of children’s clothing,” Mr. Sabesan said. “It is one of the few remaining niche buildings in the area and an address that is recognized throughout the industry. The owners have kept this an industry building and if you’re in children’s clothing, this is the building to be in.”

To read the full story, click here.

BY KARSTEN STRAUSS

Regus announced plans to expand its prebuilt office space footprint in Manhattan with four new locations slated for leasing in the coming year. The Luxembourg-based company has 60 such business centers in the tristate area, 26 of which are in New York City.

New locations include 23,000 square feet at 747 Third Avenue, two floors at 275 Seventh Avenue, two floors at 136 Madison Avenue and space at 555 Madison Avenue. All centers have an open business lounge with wifi, private offices, meeting rooms and virtual offices, said company spokesperson, Grant Greenberg. Regus’s 747 Third Avenue location – opening in February – is it’s first location with a ground floor lounge.

The trend toward prebuilt office space is booming, said Mr. Greenberg. Given economic uncertainty, some companies do not want to be constricted by long term lease agreements, he said, adding that growing companies can also take on more space as they scale. “It’s easier and more flexible than being locked into a long term and more expensive,” he said.

Regus, which maintains some 1,300 prebuilt business centers globally, sees New York as a growth market and there are plans to expand into surround boroughs, Mr. Greenberg said. The company is also finding demand in suburban areas such as Westchester and parts of New Jersey, as companies want to set up offices nearer to their employees..

“We’ve been prebuilding space for over a year and a half,” said Gerard Nocera, partner with Herald Square Properties.

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BY BILLY GRAY

Fashion label DKNY has put its 150,000-square-foot Midtown headquarters on the market for $65 million. A partnership led by Sitt Asset Management owns the property at 240 West 40th Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. Sitt enlisted Jones Lang LaSalle to handle the sale. Richard Baxter, Scott Latham and Glenn Tolchin will lead the JLL team.

DKNY fully occupies the 12-story building in a lease that expires in 2016. Those details could either encourage investors or steer them away from the property, reports Crain’s. Given the lackluster leasing market, there’s a fair chance that the company–a subsidiary of international luxury goods behemoth LVMH–will exit the buiding when the lease is up, leaving 240 West 40th Street with full vacancy.

While the 23-year-old clothing and accessories line is headquartered on 40th Street, its parents company, DKNY International, claims several floors in nearby 550 Seventh Avenue, a 250,000-square-foot building. That leads prospective buyers and others following the deal to believe that the organization might want to consolidate space at the larger location. (Strengthening that theory: DKNY renewed its 40th Street lease for a brief five years in 2011.)

To read the full story, click here.