BY BILLY GRAY

Faith Hope Consolo omits names but doesn’t mince words when she describes her visits to Real Estate Board of New York meetings in the late 1980s.

“I once walked into a Stores Committee conference. Back then it was this little club. And some bozo—I won’t say who—said, ‘What are you doing here? Why don’t you try residential real estate?’” said Ms. Consolo, chairman of the retail group at Douglas Elliman.

Rosemary Scanlon, dean of NYU’s Schack Institute of Real Estate, recalls some incredulous replies when she told people she was an economist. “They’d look at me and—in all seriousness—say ‘Oh, home economics. You must be a good cook,’” said Ms. Scanlon.

Upon hearing that Jennifer Carey, president of the Association of Real Estate Women and JLC Environmental Consultants, had majored in biology in college, “people all assumed I was a nurse,” said Ms. Carey.

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BY THE EDITORS

Last week, The Commercial Observer spoke to nearly one hundred prominent women in commercial real estate, most of whom were happy to report that industry complaints about mistreatment or outright sexual harassment are now few and far between compared with even 20 years ago, when fewer women held top executive positions in the real estate industry.

But the problems created by such disparities persist, as evidenced by several anecdotes relayed to The Commercial Observer reporters during our in-depth interviews last week. Below, one executive’s sordid tale of a negotiation in the early ’00s with a well-known financial services company honcho and her well-behaved male boss on the eve of the Great Recession.

Names and details have been redacted to protect the innocent.

To read her full story, as told to The Commercial Observer click here.

BY AL BARBARINO

Real estate brokerage Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of two apartment buildings in Chelsea for a combined $7.2 million, with both properties going to 1031 exchange buyers, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The buildings, at 368 8th Avenue and 311 West 29th Street, bring the private investors who purchased them an opportunity to realize significant upside through upgrades and renovations, brokers at Marcus & Millichap said.

The 7,225-square-foot property at 368 Eighth Avenue, between West 28th and West 29th streets, sold for just under $3 million and consists of 22 SRO apartments, most of which are vacant. Also, the 2,400-square-foot, ground floor retail space is occupied by 7-Eleven.

“This gives the new owner a credit tenant and a big corporate brand with a long lease, starting them off with a very stable, strong income stream and a foundation they can build upon,” said Marcus & Millichap’s Peter Von Der Ahe, who handled the transactions exclusively with Joseph Koicim and David Lloyd.

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BY BILLY GRAY

Monday Properties announced the 31,700-square-feet expansion of Macy’s, Inc. at 1440 Broadway, the building Monday Properties owns and operates on the southern fringe of Times Square at 40th Street.

It was the storied 150-year old retailer’s third expansion in two years at the 25-floor office building, and gave it full occupancy of the 10th floor, which Advance Magazine Publishers had subleased to Skadden Arps since 2006. CBRE Vice Chairmen Scott Gottlieb and Michael Laginestra represented the tenant, while Monday Properties Director Jordan Berger represented the owner. 1440broadwayext-medIn addition to the expansion, Macy’s extended its lease on the building’s sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and 13th floors. Both elements of the deal are on 11-year terms. The retailer now occupies 197,000 square feet of the 743,000-square-foot building. “It’s been really organic, steady growth for Macy’s,” said Brian Robin, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Monday Properties.

The intricate deal included Skadden Arps seeking a sub-sublease on the space. “It was nuanced,” said Mr. Robin. “But when reasonable people work on a complex negotiation, it’s not hard to get a good outcome. This all came together quite elegantly.”

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BY KARSTEN STRAUSS

Australian pie maker, Pie Face, closed on its sixth New York location, grabbing space within shouting distance of the Hudson Yards development.

The company will transform 464 Ninth Avenue into one of its pie kitchens, offering sweet and savory pastries, in a 1,000-square-foot corner. The company closed on the 10-year lease early last month. The asking price was $120 per square foot.

“They like the space, the like the traffic there during the day,” said CBRE associate, Robert Bonicoro, who represented Pie Face. The company intends to “aggressively” seek new locations in Manhattan with no specific neighborhood in mind. Areas in Brooklyn will also be considered if they offer adequate foot traffic and friendly rental fees. Optimal spots would be up to 2,000 square feet or as small as 500 square feet if basement space or storage is included.

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