AL BARBARINO

A 105,000-square-foot development site surrounding the Weirfield Coal Company Site in East Bushwick is on the market for $8.5 million, creating an opportunity for a huge residential development in a neighborhood that is evidently next in line for the wave of gentrification pushing south through northern Brooklyn along the L subway line.

It started with the Bedford stop in Williamsburg. More recently it took hold along the Jefferson and Morgan Avenue stops in northern Bushwick. Now “it’s just a matter of time” before changes grip the area surrounding the Halsey Street subway stop, said Massey Knakal Director of Sales Michael Amirkhanian, who is exclusively marketing the site.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this is moving further south,” he said.

Because the neighborhood’s residential development is generally of a smaller scale, the rare size of the site could give rise to a residential rental complex that would serve as a catalyst for growth in the neighborhood, Mr. Amirkhanian said.

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BY KARSTEN STRAUSS

Basic Trust, a not-for-profit childcare center, has purchased an Upper West Side townhouse to house its programs. The organization paid $3.8 million for the four-story plus townhouse at 127 West 94th Street. The building offers 5,541 square feet. The deal closed late January.

The building is owned by The Mandell School, which operates at several locations throughout Manhattan and offers kindergarten through eighth grade classes. Basic Trust will move into the 94th street location when Mandell’s current tenant – MCC, an organization serving autistic children – vacates in 2014, said David Lebenstein, senior managing director and principal of Cassidy Turley who represented the buyer.

Basic Trust, which currently operates out of St. Michael’s Church at 225 West 99th Street, has been seeking a place of its own since about 2005, said Mr. Lebenstein, who spent years assisting the organization in their search. “On and off over many years we’ve looked at many options.” Though it had a cordial relationship with St. Michael’s, the organization felt it wanted to own its own building.

Because of the nature of its business, Basic Trust needed a townhouse or commercial condo in the same neighborhood in which it had been operating. Those specific criteria are difficult to come by in the Upper West Side Market where little new product emerges, Mr. Lebenstein said. “It’s hard to find this kind of stuff.”

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BY GUS DELAPORTE

A 2.1 percent increase in tourist visitors to New York City in 2012 generated growth in retail sales and expansion, according to the fourth quarter Manhattan Retail MarketView from CBRE Global Research and Consulting.

“It has been a good year for retail, New York is coming off its best year for tourism, which translates to better retail sales and hotels at higher occupancies,” Andrew Goldberg, executive vice president at CBRE told The Commercial Observer.

Tourism has driven business to New York’s primary retail corridors, Mr. Goldberg noted. “Retailers are expanding in their current space, growing store counts, doing new flagships and seeing growth,” he said.

Five of the 11 major retail markets in Manhattan experienced slight decreases in average asking rent in the fourth quarter, according the CBRE report.

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BY MICHAEL EWING

Join the Real Estate Board of New York’s Commercial Division Retail Committee for a lunch at the Harvard Club.
REBNY Commercial Division Retail Committee lunch, Harvard Club, 35 West 44th Street; 12 pm to 2pm, contact Desiree Jones at djones@ rebny.com for more information.