By Orlando Lee Rodriguez
New York’s commercial and residential real estate landscape is being driven by the battle between retiring Baby Boomers and Generation X and Y as they clash over the direction of the workspace, and issues ranging from what a desirable neighborhood is and how often one physically comes into the office.
Speaking at the CoreNet Global NYC “New Trends in Real Estate Development” event in Midtown last week, a panel of experts weighed in from different vantage points on how the retirement of Baby Boomers makes this changing workforce spectrum, and how it effects the real estate market much differently than in years past.

New subway route puts Bushwick on track as market’s next big thing

By Orlando Lee Rodriguez

Gentrification that has spilled over from industrial East Williamsburg to residential northeast Bushwick is spreading inexorably southward — thanks to a little help from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The MTA’s decision to re-route the M train through the heart of midtown Manhattan in 2010 erased the invisible barrier that Myrtle Avenue — the area hit hardest by arson fires in the late 1970s — posed for years, according to real estate.

And now the well-kept townhomes along Weirfield Street that are typical of this section of Bushwick will lead the gentrification as the young people that populate East Williamsburg and northeast Brooklyn settle down and raise families.

By Orlando Lee Rodriguez
The Subway sandwich chain is nearing the end of a $178 million venture with the Carlyle Group to upgrade stores lining major tri-state traffic corridors.
The chain is in the process of finishing renovations for rest stops along I95, I395, the Merritt Parkway and Wilbur Cross Parkway in Connecticut. All locations will feature Subway and Dunkin Donuts restaurants.
The venture is part of a carefully crafted yet free-flowing growth strategy that places Subway restaurants in New York City within eyesight of each another, without competing for business.

Sandwiched between the Village and Midtown, Madison Square would naturally seem like an investment no-brainer, but landmarking of the area has made new development difficult to achieve.

Enter 241 Fifth Avenue, one of the only new developments to go up within the Madison Square North Historic District.

For Chase Welles, growing up in New Haven, Connecticut, attending the prestigious Yale University should have been a pretty clear-cut choice.

The alumnus of six U.S. presidents and the home of the exclusive Skull and Bones fraternity was, after all, located right in his backyard.

But Chase chose to pack his bags for New York City, heading to Columbia University on West 116th Street, a neighborhood where he would eventually make a major impact.

The movement of New Yorkers choosing to live below 23rd Street continues to trend upward, even as vacancy rates edge lower and rents particularly for larger units, move toward record-high levels.
With newer tech companies and start-ups concentrated from Chelsea/Flatiron area south through Union Square to SoHo, rents are following the trend of demand steaming from workers looking to walk to their jobs.
“I think Silicon Alley is a significant force,” said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel Inc.
SoHo and Tribeca lead in median rents at $5,245 a month. Wall Street and Battery Park City come in second at $3,600 per month.

As hurricane season begins in the Atlantic, New York needs to be better prepared for future direct hits by major storm, a report issued by The New York Building Congress said last week.

Eight months after Hurricane Sandy flooded some and destroyed other parts of the city, wholesale improvements to energy infrastructure and changes in building codes are what will need to be implemented in areas considered at risk for flooding under FEMA’s proposed new 200-year storm maps.

“The physical damage inflicted by the storm was devastating,” said former Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch, who chaired the task force that put together the report. “Questions were raised about New York’s future given that commercially important parts of the city were located within the flood zone.”

By Orlando Lee Rodriguez
“It’s who you know.” That is the tagline on GFI Realty Services Inc.’s logo.
Anyone with experience as a commercial broker knows that, unlike residential sales, where your first deal could be your mom’s Cape Cod house in Larchmont or your drinking buddy’s ranch in Fort Lee, commercial real estate sales, especially in dense New York City, are an entirely different animal, where getting access to a decision maker is not easy without a guide.
And that is where a senior executive comes in handy as a mentor with a map.

The utilization of a public relations professional, learned in the ins and outs of crisis communications, is needed, industry leaders say for real estate firms. In order to be prepared for the unexpected, a crisis communication plan needs to be put in place. The problem is, where to start. Experts in this field give Real Estate Weekly readers their best advice.

By Orlando Lee Rodriguez

In somewhat of an about face, Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday (Tuesday) laid out his $20 billion plan to protect the city from flooding through a series of flood walls, levees and sand dunes.

The Mayor, speaking at the Duggal Greenhouse at Brooklyn Navy Yard, unveiled the city’s plan to tackle rising sea levels and coastal flooding from more potent storm surges.