By Roland Li

Shalom Azani of Ahabel Realty Inc. has purchased a building at 293 Tenth Avenue for $7.4 million, according to city records. The Chelsea building has a long-term lease with Paul Kasmin Gallery, which has displayed the works of Andy Warhol and Frank Stella. In April, Azani sold a development site at 508 West 20th Street to Sherwood Equities for $7.3 million. He had owned the site for over 20 years, and has a portfolio of commercial properties in the area.

Mary Ann Tighe, Steven Spinola, Leonard Litwin, Burt Resnick and Scott Stringer, Photo by Steve Friedman
Leonard Litwin and Burton Resnick, two industry giants, now have something else in common: both of their names will forever be connected to rooms at The Real Estate Board of New York.
REBNY dedicated a classroom and a conference room in their midtown office at 570 Lexington Avenue to celebrate the careers of these two standouts of the New York City real estate industry.
Litwin, REBNY’s Secretary since 1991, became a member in 1980 and …

Photos by Liana Grey for Real Estate Weekly
Sales kicked off last Wednesday at 305W16, a seven-story condop on the corner of 16th Street and Eighth Avenue developed by Centaur Properties. CORE is marketing the building, which features studio through three-bedroom residences, a roof deck fitted with a 34-foot-high daisy sculpture by West Coast artist Rob Buchholz, a fitness center, and a second-floor Zen garden. “This is a fantastic opportunity for prospective homebuyers to purchase a new home in one of Manhattan’s hottest neighborhoods where there’s such a small amount …

By Roland Li

Jonathan Ashley and his wife, Susan Amy Ashley, have sold a condo at Extell Development Co.’s Ariel West for $6.07 million, according to city records. Ashley is the chief operating officer of Newcastle Investment Corp., a real estate company and affiliate of hedge fund giant Fortress Investment Group. The buyer was Eric Leathers, managing director of Pine Brook Road Partners, LLC, a private equity firm, and his wife, Heather Ibrahim-Leathers.

By Daniel Geiger

OrbiMed Advisors, a private equity fund that invests in healthcare, has signed a lease for the entire 54th floor of 601 Lexington Avenue for rents above $100 per s/f. The space, about 30,000 s/f in size, had been occupied until recently by the law firm Howrey, which dissolved its operations earlier this year. OrbiMed will be relocating from 767 Third Avenue, where it leases that building’s 30th floor. Although it wasn’t clear by press time exactly what OrbiMed will pay in the deal at 601 Lexington, several knowledgeable sources said that the company agreed to rents that start just higher than $100 per s/f.

By Roland Li

New York University is advancing as-of-right expansions in Downtown Brooklyn and the east side of Manhattan, while a controversial four-building plan in Greenwich Village enters the land use review process. The school has selected EYP Architecture & Engineering, and Kohn, Pedersen, Fox Associates (KPF) to design a new 170,000 s/f facility for its College of Nursing at 433 First Avenue.

By Daniel Geiger

Rockpoint Group is offering its minority share in the office building 299 Park Avenue for sale, according to sources. The real estate investment company purchased a 49.5% interest in the 1.2 million s/f skyscraper from the Swiss bank UBS, which is also the building’s largest tenant, at the beginning of 2010. The company paid about $150 million for the stake and assumed a portion of the tower’s $325 million mortgage, according to written reports at the time. A little over a year later, Rockpoint has now hired an investment sales team from CB Richard Ellis led by Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan to shop the stake.

The idea of allowing a tenant to start to perform work in, or to move its equipment into a space before a lease is fully negotiated and executed is anathema to most landlords and lawyers. However, in the right circumstances this can be appropriate and necessary.
Situations arise where a tenant is negotiating to lease the space but has not yet executed a lease, or where the lease is executed but the parties are in a due diligence period during which the tenant can elect to terminate, or has a termination …