News
EAST MEETS WEST
May 31, 2011
| Sin City may have a fake Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building, but the real New York, New York was at the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Bellagio. We found plenty of Big Apple folks in town for last week’s ICSC RECon. | |
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| Massey Knakal has branched out into retail, CEO Paul Massey(pictured with retail head Ben Fox) told us. This year, they’ve brought on nine producers to rep retail landlords in the NYC metro area and the plan is to hire 30 in 2011 (out of 3,500 applicants). The retail specialists will be paired in each territory submarket with a sales broker and a finance specialist (another line of business they’ve launched recently). Preliminary figures: with retail, Massey Knakal will gain a 10% to 15% market share on what is potentially a $30M to $40M expansion. “It could double our business,” Paul tells us. And things are rocking at home, too. Paul’s daughter (a rising sophomore at Denisen) and son (a rising senior at St. Lawrence) are home for the break. And yes, both have summer jobs. | |
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| Robert K. Futterman & Associates is also in expansion mode, recently opening a sixth office in Miami and doing some biz in the Windy City. Retail in NYC is as hot as it could be, says founder and CEO Robert Futterman, here with RKF investment sales guru Jeff Fishman. Growth along the West Side (from 42nd to the High Line and Hudson Yards) has solidified other neighborhoods like Herald Square. There’s also plenty of investment in retail-driven assets—RKF has three retail condos under contract, with two in high-demand areas and occupied by banks, says Jeff. “We’re back to ’05 levels of interest and volume of phone calls, both locally and nationally.” | |
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| Winick Realty Group recently launched the leasing for 555 Sixth Avenue, which spans an entire block from 15th to 16th St in Chelsea, says Monica Kass, Lori Shabtai, and Kelly Gedinsky (Lori points out the over 370’ of all-glass frontage). The 18k SF space can be divided, they say, and is located on the ground floor of a 160-unit rental apartment building being renovated by Stonehenge. Retailers moving in will be joining neighbors like Bed Bath & Beyond, The Container Store, and TJMaxx on the hoppin’ Sixth Avenue corridor. | |
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| And hundreds of New Yorkers descended upon the Bellagio’s poolside for the New York Developers party on Tuesday night, where we snapped Breslin Realty’s Charlie Navarro, Great American’s Ginny Wheeler, Interstate Management Corp’s Allen Pilevsky, and Great American Brokerage’s Paul Fetscher. Charlie’s quite the jack-of-all-trades (perfect for Vegas) at Breslin, working on assisted living and car dealership transactions, as well as deals for La Bottega and Red Mango. And Paul recently returned from the Middle East Council of Shopping Centres, where he taught restaurant leasing to attendees from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Abu Dhabi (he formerly worked on merchandising for Dubai Festival City). Fun fact: not only is Paul a marathon runner, he’s also competing for longest ICSC badge. | |
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| SMDL Group’s Shlomo Mushell, Thur Retail’s Shary Thur, RKM Development Corp’s Donald Wallace, and Marcus & Millichap’s LA Drinkwater. Shary, who was visiting from Virginia, owns Italian restaurant Extra Virgin in Arlington (where we hear the homemade pasta is a must try). And LA, who’s from Marcus & Millichap’s New Haven office, tells us that there’s been great improvement in the retail market, thanks to a supplied-constrained Northeast making it difficult to get product. But there’s capital ready for opportunity when it does arise, she says. | |
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| The Feil Org’s Brian Feil, ABS Partners’ Alan Cohen, and Meister Seeling & Fein’s Matthew Kasindorf relaxed a bit before Matthew had to fly home and participate in a few note sale transactions. “The energy is much better,” he said of this year’s RECon. | |
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| TerraCRG’s Geoffrey Bailey, Newmark Knight Frank’s Joe Pierik, Winick’s Cosmo Montemurro, and Crown Retail Services’ Jordan Barker and Isaac Mograby. Geoffrey heads up retail for Terra, which focuses primarily on Brooklyn, and says there’s lots of retailers seeing potential in the borough—it’s a matter of understanding the neighborhoods and positioning the tenants in the right one. | |
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| Doherty Enterprises’ Timothy Doherty with Sabre Real Estate’s Jayson Siano, Amanda Warden, and Russel Helbling. Timothy’s firm owns and operates 93 Applebee’s and Panera Bread locations on Long Island and NJ. It will open five more this year (including Panera in Rego Park and Lake Grove and Applebee’s in Elmont) and another five to seven next year. And what an exciting year for Jayson: not only did he launch Sabre, but he just moved and has a baby on the way in September. Sabre’s a full-service retail real estate brokerage with a core focus on tenant and owner rep and also has retail, restaurant, and franchise consultation, as well as investment sales and property management. In its few short weeks, Sabre’s already hired nine brokers and already reps large national brands like Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, Ulta Cosmetics, and Dots. | |
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| Welco Realty’s Jason Gerbsman and Etan Shalem with Bohler Engineering’s Joe Deal. This was Joe’s second night at the Bellagio—Bohler had its annual client and colleague party for 600 on Sunday night, an opportunity for everyone to have fun and relax before the busy days of meetings and walking the floor. Perhaps walking is an understatement—it could take as long as 20 minutes and three-quarters of a mile to hike between the convention halls. | |
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| Natixis’ Geoffrey Smith, Hillmann Consulting’s Kelly Jarosz, and Ackman-Ziff’s Shawn Rosenthal. Financing’s back, says Shawn, with lenders much more aggressive and enthusiastic about deals, leading to plenty of activity in New York and across the country. He chaired an ICSC interactive program on Sunday with Ackman-Ziff’s Lee Norman, Cantor Fitzgerald’s Michael May, and Wells Fargo’s Joe Tufariello, which taught attendees how to create presentations that will get them noticed and get a quick response from capital providers (particularly avoiding the “TMI syndrome”—for those not in the cyber-acronym know, that’s “too much information.”) | |
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| Houlihan Lokey’s Gary Gordon, MoMo Acquisitions Group’s Michael Mosberg, Hartman & Craven’s Sean Altschul, Marcus & Millichap’s Karen Dome, Hartman & Craven’s Tracey Daniels and Stephen O’Connell, and Home Owners Mortgage Express’ Rolan Shnayder. Steve and Tracey recently closed two portfolio refis—one with 17 loans for Sovereign Bank, and another six with New York Community Bank. Rolan’s been the preferred lender on many new construction buildings and has been instrumental in getting the units closed for purchasers, Tracey says. Karen tells us Marcus & Millichap’s Brooklyn and Manhattan office is seeing its highest level of activity since the recession began—multifamily is hottest, but there’s greater interest in mixed-use, and a number of recent deals resulted in an auction-like environment. She’ll be back in Vegas for CREW’s delegate conference on June 9 and 10 (that is, after her and Tracey work on their handicaps at the joint NYCREW/AREW golf outing this Friday). |
