Commercial Klutch: May Edition

At the risk of boring you dear reader, I’ll talk about 370 Jay/Transit Authority Building again. We hear the City is talking internally about how to get the building moving. No one to talk to at the TA…One of few larger office transactions recently, The City of NY took 7500 rsf at One MetroTech for $30 a foot…We hear the 10-year, 12,000-square-foot Federal Child Care lease at BellTel exceeded $9 million in value…While retail leasing is picking up smartly, certain retailers are struggling as are many of us. Case in point: Design Within Reach on Montague Street (photo) asked for a 40% rent reduction and received a 20% cut…‘Too many Court Street yoghurt shops death watch’ – 32 Court Street Froyo space failed and is going on the market shortly. Hear the new asking price is crazy.

You may think all Stop Work orders are created equal. Some are legit, some are arbitrary and capricious. All builders are reporting overzealousness, agency conflicts, nitpicking. This doesn’t make r.e. cheaper, makes jobs go on longer causing neighbors to suffer and screws small subcontractors. Example – BK DOB called the 53 Bridge Street steel removal an Alt A rather than a demo and it went ahead on that basis. The city-wide BEST squad came in and shut it down, saying they overrule BK and it’s a demo job. Stuck in the middle with DOB.