News
INGENIOUS!
April 28, 2010
| Last night, 15 of last year's top deals vied for Most Ingenious Deal, as we joined the sales brokerage community at REBNY's 66th annual awards. It was remarkable for an industry that all but shut down last year, so all should be congratulated, said Studley's Woody Heller, master of ceremonies. |
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| The third-place Edward S. Gordon Award went to Cushman & Wakefield's Michael Rotchford, who along with colleagues Andrew Sachs and Louis Wolfowitz, negotiated the financing for the $225M sale-leaseback of the 750k-SF leasehold condominium interest at the New York Times HQ between The New York Times Co. and W.P. Carey & Co., a deal that adhered to restrictive bond covenants. Joining him are Eastern Consolidated's Peter Hauspurg, Woody, M&T Bank's Gino Martocci, and Grubb & Ellis' Vincent Carrega, who judged the 15 entrants along with The Feil Org.'s Jay Anderson and Greenberg Traurig's Robert Ivanhoe. |
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| The second-place Robert T. Lawrence Award was presented to CBRE's Ken Meyerson and Eric Deutsch for negotiating a lease for The Gap at 40 Worth Street; the 265k-SF lease was part of a two-stage relocation by the company from its offices at 620 and 675 Sixth Avenue. The building, which was owned by a partnership led by Jeff Gural and Newmark Holdings, was being redeveloped in contemplation of residential use, but those were put on hold and later dismissed in view of this opportunity—the third largest lease in '09, the largest relocation in '09, and the largest relocation Downtown in over five years. |
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| And the winners of the first-place Henry Hart Rice Award went to Studley's Daniel Horowitz and Ira Schuman, memorializing Henry, who was a past Most Ingenious Deal of the Year Award winner and five-time Robert T. Lawrence Award recipient. The duo facilitated interdependent transactions that included the sale of Hunter College School of Social Work's outdated 127-133 E. 79th St. campus and the purchase and construction of a new facility on 118th St. They couldn't sell 79th St. if Hunter didn't have a new home, and the whole deal was dependent on the proceeds from the sale to purchase and build the new facility. |
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| REBNY president Steven Spinola (or “The Grand Poobah,†as Woody called him), Newmark Knight Frank chairman Jeff Gural, CBRE CEO of the NY Tri-State region and REBNY chairman Mary Ann Tighe, and Durst Org. chairman Douglas Durst. |
