{"id":207918,"date":"2025-09-07T15:23:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T15:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/207918\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T15:23:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T15:23:13","slug":"everybody-back-to-work-commercial-observer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/207918\/","title":{"rendered":"Everybody Back to Work \u2013 Commercial Observer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labor Day has come and gone. Little ones holding \u201cFirst Day of School\u201d signs stampeded all over our Facebook pages. It\u2019s time to get back to work<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Well, that sounds fine \u2014 except we were working all summer long!<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: What New York\u2019s Mayoral Contenders Intend to Do About Taxes<\/a><\/p>\n

Like kids consigned to summer school, many in the real estate industry didn\u2019t leave their desks this August.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a good and busy summer,\u201d declared Greg Newman, the head of construction lending for Bank OZK<\/a>, in last week\u2019s cover story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And while this has been the case almost everywhere in commercial real estate, there are certainly markets that stand out.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur main focus has been condos in Florida, and then multifamily and industrial deals in the Southeast,\u201d said Newman. \u201cThose are the deals that seem to make the most sense to us today. As far as markets go, South Florida is our largest market, so the Miami metro area. It\u2019s our largest book at the bank, and it\u2019s been a really good market for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the activity in South Florida is difficult to miss. Since Labor Day, CO reported that David Martin and Michael Stern had plunked down $120 million<\/a> for a condominium development called Bay Garden Manor at 1250 West Avenue in Biscayne Bay with plans to redevelop the property as an even more luxe condo.<\/p>\n

Over in Fort Lauderdale, Genesis US Properties<\/a> bagged $40.89 million in construction financing<\/a> from Hall Structured Finance<\/a> to build a 144-key Hotel Indigo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And Federal Capital Partners<\/a> picked up District West Gables, a 711,840-square-foot multifamily complex at 2001 and 2101 Southwest 67th Avenue in West Miami, Fla., for $111 million<\/a> (which is actually about $5 million less than the properties traded for a few years ago).<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget about Midtown<\/b><\/p>\n

Florida is fine, but a number of CRE players aren\u2019t taking prime Manhattan for granted.<\/p>\n

Last week there were the leases like Rho<\/a> expanding its footprint<\/a> at GFP Real Estate<\/a>\u2019s 100 Crosby Street; and the AI-powered writing platform \u200b\u200bGrammarly<\/a> taking a chunk of space<\/a> at BXP<\/a>\u2019s 360 Park Avenue South; and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey<\/a> logging 17,313 square feet<\/a> at Sioni Group<\/a>\u2019s 320 West 37th Street in Hudson Yards. All very positive signs.<\/p>\n

But there were also sales. Significant sales.<\/p>\n

The big kahuna would have to be Norges Bank<\/a> Investment Management laying down $542.6 million<\/a> to buy 1177 Avenue of the Americas from Silverstein Properties<\/a> and the California State Teachers\u2019 Retirement System. (Beacon Capital Partners<\/a> also acquired a 5 percent stake through the deal and will manage the property.)<\/p>\n

Blackstone<\/a> is throwing an estimated $100 million<\/a> into JEMB Realty<\/a>\u2019s Herald Towers at 50 West 34th Street as a preferred equity investor.<\/p>\n

An overseas mystery buyer is apparently spending $188 million<\/a> on the embattled Cohen Brothers Realty<\/a>\u2019s 3 East 54th Street just one week after Cohen Brothers offloaded 623 Fifth Avenue to Vornado Realty Trust<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And, not to be left out, Savanna<\/a> and Summit Properties<\/a> are planning to shell out $50 million<\/a> for the leasehold at 444 Madison Avenue. (That seems to be the magic number on Madison Avenue. Amancio Ortega \u2014 of Zara<\/a> fame \u2014 is selling 366 Madison Avenue to the Sioni Group<\/a> for $50 million, which is 57 percent less<\/a> than the $115.6 million he paid for the building back in 2004!)<\/p>\n

The thing that\u2019s most interesting about all this activity is that it\u2019s all offices.<\/p>\n

Indeed, there\u2019s been a significant comeback<\/a> in areas like Midtown South, which suffered tremendously during COVID. But if you were to look at the biggest leases of 2025 \u2014 NYU\u2019s 1.08 million square feet at 770 Broadway<\/a> or Verizon\u2019s 203,000<\/a>-square-foot lease at Penn 2 \u2014 and rents markedly above where they were in 2019, you wouldn\u2019t know that vacancies just two years ago were stuck at a miserable 16.9 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring COVID, Midtown South was the slowest to get back on its feet because the tech tenants were more apprehensive about how they were going to come back into the office,\u201d said Newmark<\/a>\u2019s David Falk. \u201cToward the end of COVID we started seeing these companies get clarity on the importance of being back in the office, and it was important for them to find buildings that spoke to who they are as a brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of which is to say that the landlord\u2019s job is over. Far from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe days of signing a lease and handing a tenant cash and saying, \u2018You do the work,\u2019 are over,\u201d said Michael Cohen of Williams Equities<\/a>. \u201cThey have been for years, and they appear to be for the foreseeable future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tenants are now expecting landlords<\/a> to not just provide physical improvements, but to take the lead on implementing them \u2014 whatever the costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a tenant walks in, you say, \u2018What do you need?\u2019 They say \u2018A, B and C,\u2019 and you make sure you give it to them, because otherwise there are so many options,\u201d said Genci Sela, president of Phase 3 Interiors. \u201cIn the past five years, the buildout cost has gone completely to the landlord. It\u2019s very rare that we do a buildout for the tenant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jobs, jobs, jobs<\/b><\/p>\n

Of course, while the real estate business had a busy summer, not every other industry could say the same. President Trump\u2019s firing of Erika McEntarfer<\/a> in August did not allay the bad news in the Bureau of Labor Statistics\u2019 Sept. 5 report that only 22,000 jobs<\/a> had been added to the economy last month. (The ray of sunshine in this? It probably strengthens the case that the Fed will cut interest rates. Another bright spot? Skilled construction job figures<\/a> were pretty good!)<\/p>\n

But, yes, we did see some notable people moves in CRE.<\/p>\n

Eastdil Secured<\/a> plucked Kevin Sheehan from JLL<\/a> and Sean Gulian from Nuveen Real Estate<\/a> to co-lead its National Housing Group<\/a> for Southern California.<\/p>\n

WeWork<\/a> tapped Cushman & Wakefield<\/a> vet Angela D\u2019Aguanno to be its new chief administrative officer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And our heads certainly turned when we heard that the Japanese financial services company Nomura Holdings<\/a> was hiring industry heavyweights<\/a> Larry Kravetz and Frank Gilhool away from Barclays<\/a> to lead its U.S. real estate lending platform.<\/p>\n

On a sorrowful note<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a harrowing number, but in 2023 some 5,000 construction workers<\/a> around the U.S. committed suicide.<\/p>\n

This rate was about 75 percent higher than for men in the general population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of reasons for the higher rates of suicide among construction workers. Some of it comes down to the stress of working a dangerous job for grueling hours. \u201cEverybody wants things built yesterday,\u201d said Shaun Carvalho, chief safety officer at Shawmut Design and Construction<\/a>. \u201cSo there\u2019s always this pressure to get the job done fast. That results in long days, and oftentimes we\u2019ve got big commutes to get to the job sites, so we\u2019re away from home for long periods of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another part of it undoubtedly has something to do with the chronic pain (and subsequent drug addiction) from work-related accidents.<\/p>\n

New York City officials as well as the Building Trades Employers\u2019 Association (BTEA) and the Real Estate Board of New York are calling attention to the problem, with training and educational programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cMental health and suicide are uncomfortable topics for many people, especially for our members and people who work in the construction industry,\u201d said Elizabeth Crowley, president and CEO of BTEA. \u201cWe want to raise awareness, because we need to do more to save lives. It\u2019s truly a silent killer.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is something that everyone in CRE should take seriously, and it\u2019s something to meditate on during this day of rest.<\/p>\n

Speak to you next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labor Day has come and gone. Little ones holding \u201cFirst Day of School\u201d signs stampeded all over our…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":207919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[114180,114181,114182,114183,114184,114185,5229,114186,114187,114188,103306,73367,114189,114190,114191,71681,114192,86931,114193,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,114194,114195,114196,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-207918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-100-crosby-street","9":"tag-1177-avenue-of-the-americas","10":"tag-3-east-54th-street","11":"tag-360-park-avenue-south","12":"tag-50-west-34th-street","13":"tag-770-broadway","14":"tag-america","15":"tag-angela-daguanno","16":"tag-bay-garden-manor","17":"tag-david-falk","18":"tag-david-martin","19":"tag-erika-mcentarfer","20":"tag-frank-gilhool","21":"tag-greg-newman","22":"tag-hotel-indigo","23":"tag-kevin-sheehan","24":"tag-larry-kravetz","25":"tag-michael-cohen","26":"tag-michael-stern","27":"tag-new-york","28":"tag-new-york-city","29":"tag-newyork","30":"tag-newyorkcity","31":"tag-ny","32":"tag-nyc","33":"tag-port-authority-of-new-york-new-jersey","34":"tag-sean-gulian","35":"tag-shaun-carvalho","36":"tag-united-states","37":"tag-united-states-of-america","38":"tag-unitedstates","39":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","40":"tag-us","41":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}