News
INGENIOUS BROKERS; THE DEAL SHEET
April 5, 2011
| Looking through the list of 13 major sale, lease, and finance transactions, it must have been difficult to pick so few brokers out of the 25 nominated for REBNY’s Most Ingenious Deal of the Yearawards. But last night, seven of them were honored for their clever dealmaking at the industry’s Academy Awards for transactions, hosted by Studley’s Woody Heller (a superb James Franco). |
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| The third place Edward S. Gordon Award went to CBRE’s Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan, here with judge Bob Knakal of Massey Knakal. The power team negotiated the sale of leasehold development rights at 250 E 57th St and the creation of a public-private partnership for the construction of three new public schools totaling 320k SF, 115k SF of retail, and 485k SF of residential apartments. The process took more than five years to complete. |
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| The second place Robert T. Lawrence Award was presented to Newmark Knight Frank’s Mark Weiss, Robert Eisenberg, and Barry Gosin (not pictured, so just pretend Bob is Barry), who negotiated a247k SF lease with a purchase option for SEIU-32BJ at 620 Avenue of the Americas. Challenges included a landlord in default of its mortgages and in litigation with its lender. However, they were able to negotiate a HQ deal for NYC’s largest private-labor union, saving it more than $15M per year. |
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| And the first place Henry Hart Rice Award went to (drumroll, please) Newmark Knight Frank’s David Noonan and Jennifer Schwartzman, who facilitated the sale of 13 W 15th St, a 42k SF loft building. The transaction required being able to understand the mortgage and litigation complexities of the union-owned building, and the duo were able to reinvigorate the market for a property that had been on sale for four years. The sale included securing 122k SF of air rights from the adjacent building. The night’s judges also included Eastern Consolidated’s Peter Hauspurg, Extell Development’s Dov Hertz, Capital One’s Rick Lyon, and attorney Wayne Lopkin |
