By Daniel Geiger

Two financial firms are splitting the roughly 30,000 s/f 31st floor of 9 West 57th Street for big rents, according to sources. Lightyear Capital, the private equity firm founded by Donald Marron, who famously built Paine Webber into a stock brokerage powerhouse, and a separate company, Sycamore Ventures, both signed 10-year deals that start at $165 per s/f for the first five years and then rise to $170 per s/f. Lightyear will take about 17,500 s/f of the floor and Sycamore will fill the remaining 14,000 s/f.

Photos by Liana Grey and Jon Landers
At a live taping of “What’s Cooking in Real Estate,” a new web show by networking impresario Judy Sahagian, guests Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of retail sales and leasing at Prudential Douglas Elliman, architect Glen Coben of Glen & Company, and interior designer Gail Green put together a mouthwatering menu of mushroom-paneer appetizers, chicken and vegetable curry, and chocolate ganache with experts Phil Quilter, Nadia S. Day and ‘Chocolate Lady’ Lee Perrotta.

By Roland Li

Shortly after selling an apartment at the Trump Tower at 721 Fifth Avenue for $13.3 million, 48 Acquisition, LLC has closed on a unit at One Beacon Court for $14.45 million, according to city records. The seller of the unit, 46D, was Diana Quasha, who oversees the U.S. market for Empress Dutchess & Tart, a jewelry line. Quasha originally purchased the apartment for $6.23 million in 2005 from One Beacon Court’s developer, Vornado Realty Trust.

By Roland Li

Brazil is considered one of the premier emerging markets, with robust quarterly growth and a vibrant, young population. And like many foreign investors from booming countries, Arminio Fraga, one of the Brazil’s prominent economists, has decided to invest in Manhattan real estate. Fraga and his wife, Lucyna, purchased Unit #9 at 147 Waverly Place for $7.5 million, according to city records.