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.

By Holly Dutton
Bellmarc is jumping aboard the Coldwell Banker train and becoming a franchise member.
The two companies announced last week they will be partnering up to become Coldwell Banker Bellmarc with five office locations in Manhattan.
Bellmarc principal Neil Binder said he and co-owners Anthony DeGrotta and Larry Friedman envisioned growing their company through a partnership with Coldwell Banker.

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 partnership of four New York real estate principals who acquired Winoker Realty in February has re-launched the brokerage as EVO Real Estate Group.

Dana Moskowitz, the newly-named president of EVO, made the announcement. Her partners in the acquisition are Ira Fishman, who serves as CEO, and Nathan Halegua and Josh Halegua, principals

Carlton chairman Howard L. Michaels announced today that he organized an equity partnership between Ian Schrager, Steve Witkoff and Howard Lorber to form a joint venture to buy an equity stake in a West Village site owned by real estate investment firm, Area.

He said it is the second of three high profile deals he’s been working on with the trio of headline-makers and that the third “huge, confidential Manhattan hospitality transaction” with Schrager, Witkoff and Lorber will be announced shortly.

Mack-Cali Realty and its subsidiary, Roseland, are set to break ground on a new 280-unit luxury rental unit on Jersey’s Gold Coast.

The developer will be joined by officials from the Township of Weehawken next Wednesday for a ceremonial dirt-digging for what’s being called RiverParc.

The $100 million building will be the latest addition to the Port Imperial mixed-use master planned development which spans more than two-and-a-half miles of waterfront property facing Midtown Manhattan.

The Brill Building, a landmark historic building located at 1619 Broadway at the corner of West 49th Street, has been purchased by real estate investor Eric Hadar of Allied Partners, along with the private equity firm Brickman, in a deal valued at close to $250 million.