While the first renderings were released in March 2023 and the Joe Sitt-led Thor continues to wait for the New York State Gaming Commission to advise further on requirements to get one of the three downstate casino permits, the group released updated renderings of the partnership’s vision for the 5 acres between Stillwell Avenue, West 12th Street and Wonder Wheel Way.

“For two years we have been speaking with the residents of Coney Island and Southern Brooklyn about the need for a project that creates careers, supports local businesses, and centers entertainment around the idea of a playground that is truly accessible to the people,” Sam Gerrity, the CEO of Saratoga, said in a statement. “[Coney Island] needs a project that provides year-round economic support while also lifting up the infrastructure in one of the most densely traveled areas of the community.”

The updates to the plan follow the New York City Council in April passing legislation to grant any developer who wins one of the three available downstate casino licenses a zoning amendment for a facility in a high-density and commercial manufacturing district as of right. 

It’ll be a fast track around the city’s long Uniform Land Use Review Procedure that’s usually required for zoning changes.

And the list of competing proposals for Sitt to put a casino in his native Coney Island is a weighty enumeration.

Related Companies and Wynn Resorts want a facility in the western portion of Hudson Yards; Point72 Asset Management’s Steve Cohen is planning one next to Citi Field in Queens; the Soloviev Group and Mohegan would like to develop an entertainment district near the United Nations; SL Green Realty, Caesars Entertainment and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation aim to build one in Times Square; and Resorts World New York City is hoping to redevelop its south Queens “race-ino” into a Las Vegas-style casino, partnering with their own rapper, Nas.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.

ICSC is a trade organization that promotes retail marketplaces where people (as its mission statement says) “shop, dine, work, play and gather.” The initials once stood for International Council of Shopping Centers, but these days it’s just ICSC.

Officially starting May 19, ICSC will get the ball rolling with a Retail Real Estate Case Competition with students from university real estate programs across the country presenting their solutions to real problems experienced by real companies.

The winners who impress the judges the most could get up to $20,000 in prize money, as has been the case in previous years.

This will take place May 19 between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Vegas time at the Wynn Las Vegas’ Mouton section of the casino.

From 1 p.m. to 4:15 p.m., you can pick your poison with a whole bunch of workshops that cover topics such as capital stack management, learning about search engine optimization and leveraging artificial intelligence, as well as a dealmaking master class.

These can be found in the Wynn’s Lafite section.

Then close out the day with a reception that will see sportscaster and former professional and college football coach Nick Saban give a keynote speech at the Cristal section of the Wynn, followed by an opening reception in the event pavilion and garden. ICSC’s Global Awards ceremony at Margaux then caps the day.

“Ninety to 120 days out, my team will start to focus on the meetings we want to schedule and think about how we want to spend that social networking time, because if you go there without a very defined agenda it’s really difficult to have the kind of interactions and meetings that you want to have,” Michael O’Neill of Cushman & Wakefield (CWK) told Commercial Observer.

ICSC’s first day will wrap up at 8 p.m. on Sunday — it’s a school night — but that doesn’t mean there won’t be opportunities to mingle. After-parties, however, may be invitation-only.

Nevertheless, Newmark will have a celebration on Sunday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Intrigue Nightclub at the Wynn and Marcus & Millichap will be hosting The Retail Party from 7 to 10 p.m. at XS Nightclub.

Shake off that hangover and do it fast because Day Two waits for no one.

If you get to the convention center by 7:15 a.m., you’ll be just in time to catch breakfast and a forum called “Women Dealmakers: Empowering Women to Do Business Their Way.” Moderated by ICSC COO Valerie Richardson, panelists will include Amy Fingerhut of CBRE (CBRE), Tanya Ragan of Wildcat Management, Tabassum Zalotrawala of McDonald’s USA and Robin Zeigler of Mural Real Estate Partners.

For those who hit the snooze button, another opportunity to digest food and insights will come in the form of “Building Retail Bridges: How Cities Can Align With National Retailers for Economic Development.” Starting at 7:30 a.m., the forum will be moderated by David Barilla of Orlando’s Downtown Development Board and include Pat Barber of Grocery Outlet and Meredith LeNoir of McDonald’s as speakers.

At 10 a.m., Naveen Jaggi of JLL will moderate the forum “The Marketplaces Industry:  Innovative Perspectives to Transformative Insights.” The discussion will include Angele Robinson-Gaylord of Starbucks, Barrie Scardina of Cushman & Wakefield and Zalotrawala of McDonald’s.

At 10:45, Ken McIntyre of the Real Estate Executive Council, a trade association seeking to boost industry diversity, will moderate “Deal or No Deal: Key Considerations for Future Investing” with Karly Iacono of CBRE, Bryant “Bo” Okoroji of Steerpoint Capital and Vince Tibone of Green Street.

“Transforming Tradition: Reimagining Mall Design to Meet Consumers’ Needs” will begin at 1 p.m. and will be led by Stephanie Cegielski of ICSC. The forum will include Mark Hunter of CBRE, Annmarie Plenge of Pacific Retail Capital Partners and Greg Whitney of Poag Development Group speaking on the topic.

“The Breaking Ground Series: Women-Led Retail Concepts Transforming Shopping Spaces and Places” will start at 1:45 p.m. and will be a chance to hear from Open Realty Advisors’ Carren Coston on her successes and future prospects.

At 2:30 p.m., retail coach Caroline Harrelson will moderate “Urban and Suburban Renewal Strategies — Lessons From Successful Revitalization Projects” with panelists Kevin Kramer from Village of Hoffman Estates, Arturo Sneider of Primestor Development and D. Lynn Spruill, the mayor of Starkville, Miss.

Meghann Martindale of Avison Young will moderate “The Office: The Effect of Flexible Work Models on Foot Traffic” at 3:15 p.m. with panelists Ethan Chernofsky of Placer.ai and Brandon Isner of CBRE.

“Retailtainment Concepts – An Experience Worth Shopping” begins at 4 p.m. and will include Alanna Joy Loeffler of Cushman & Wakefield as moderator and David Hochberg of Jaguar Bolera, Christine Nebiar of Brand Urban, Holly Rome of JLL and Eric Taylor of Sky Zone as panelists.

From 5:30 to 7 p.m. ICSC’s diversity reception will take place in the Margaux section of the Wynn.

“We’re focusing on meeting with all the child care operators. We actually have a private event that we were invited to by a broker on Sunday, and we’ll meet with child care operators there and outside of the ICSC event itself,” Pablo Barreiro, chairman of Fortec, told CO. “I think that it is good to have a conversation off site because it is a big event, things go fast and you don’t have a lot of time to talk.”

On Monday night, NY Developers are hosting an invite-only party at LIV Beach in Fontainebleau Las Vegas from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m.

Thus Day Two will end.

Day Three will start at 10 a.m. with panels much like the day prior. “The Social Shopper: Influencer Marketing’s Impact on Consumer Buying Habits” will be moderated by Najla Kayyem of Pacific Retail Capital Partners and paneled by Ashlyn Booth of JLL, Liz Glosson of The Dealey Group, Kyle Inserra of Zelnick & Company and Christine Mastandrea of Whitestone REIT.

Learn about “Shifting Store Formats: The Impact on Tenant Mixes, Leases and Portfolio” at 10:45 with moderator Anjee Solanki of Colliers (CIGI) leading the discussion with Michael Moran of CBRE, Scott Schnuckel of Kohl’s Department Stores and Caroline Wu of Placer.ai.

The last panel of the day will be “Tech-Driven Retail Experiences: From Augmented Reality to Contactless Payments,” which will be moderated by Amanda Metcalf of ICSC and include James Cook of JLL, Darren Mann of The ARIA Network and Deborah Weinswig of Coresight Research.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.

A spokesperson for Burgess declined to share the length of the lease or asking rent, but average asking rent for office space on Madison and Fifth avenues in Midtown was $102.12 per square foot in the first quarter of 2024, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report.

Matt Emerson, senior partner at Burgess, brokered the deal for the firm and said in a statement that 540 Madison “epitomizes the sophistication and prestige” of the Plaza District. 

The fancy location was important to Burgess since its brokers often meet with their yachting world clients at the office, Emerson added.

Aside from its New York space, the London-based Burgess also has outposts in Miami and Beverly Hills, Calif., and 16 offices in total around the world, according to the company.

It’s unclear who brokered the deal for DivcoWest. A spokesperson for the landlord did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The 39-story office building between East 54th and East 55th streets has recently signed up a few new retail tenants on the street level, including Danish electronics maker Bang & Olufsen and Brazilian jeweler H. Stern, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.

The forecast projects the expected growth rate for the county’s annual assessment roll, an inventory for all taxable property. Local governments use the forecast as a basis for their budget proposals. 

“It has been a challenging few years as the local and national economies respond to a variety of factors, whether it be residential or commercial,” Prang said in a statement. “Our analysis indicates that property values are going to grow for the 14th consecutive year, which is good news for property owners and for local governments because they rely on property taxes to pay for vital public services. However, sales volume declined significantly in 2023 and commercial properties, especially Downtown Los Angeles, have actually experienced huge declines in value.“

While average apartment rents are at all-time highs in L.A. County, multifamily real estate — along with most other asset classes — has continued to see significantly fewer trades after the first quarter this year amid higher interest rates and inflation. And in the city of L.A., an additional transfer tax via Measure ULA has further dissuaded investment activity.

On the single-family side, home median prices remained at an all-time high, with the average home valued at about $900,000, per Prang’s report. Property sales are expected to be the largest contributors of assessment roll revenue with more than $51 billion. 

Prang also expects an increase of $6 billion in new construction revenue this year, with major projects such as Intuit Dome, the new home of the L.A. Clippers, providing “significant value.” The forecast also notes a healthy chunk of value in special use property types, such as $400 million for major construction projects like SoFi Stadium and YouTube Theater. 

Though decline-in-value reductions will take away some $2 billion from the assessment roll this time around, per the forecast.

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.

“The problem has been that when you’re using commercial PACE it’s typically a very long-term instrument and it didn’t really fit very well with how condos were developed in the fact that they get sold off in a matter of three, four or five years and then it would fall under a residential PACE program,” Mansoor Ghori, CEO and co-founder of Petros PACE, told CO. “We tried to develop a product that would fit into commercial PACE but be a much shorter term product than the traditional commercial PACE product.”

The three- to five-year loan cycle will fit well for what is the typical development cycle of a new condo property between construction of the building and selling off all the units, according to Ghori. He noted that the offering will focus heavily on populous coastal areas like South Florida and Southern California where there is strong market demand for condos. 

Ghori stressed that a new Florida law that will be taking effect next year in response to the 2021 deadly collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Fla., will amplify the need for more new condo projects that will benefit from C-PACE financing. The new regulations require all condo properties more than 30 years old to undergo inspections for seismic safety measures, which Ghori said will hamper a number of properties and spark the need for more developments. 

“All those older buildings are now having huge assessments placed on them that they’re going to have to pass through to their condo unit owners, so you are seeing the value of those buildings go down,” Ghori said. “People are going to continue to develop these newer, more energy-efficient, more seismic- and hurricane-resistant condos that won’t have any of the issues that the older condos will have.”

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com 

Currently operating in North America, Europe and Israel, the Tel Aviv-founded proptech company will use the new funding to expand its Manhattan-headquartered U.S. operations, as well as to grow its global footprint, said Bar Mor, the CEO and co-founder of Agora. In addition, that expansion will include its product offerings in operational and financial services such as payments, taxes, IRA investments and liquidity solutions.

“The past two years were difficult for both the tech industry and also real estate with the high interest rate environment,” said Mor. “We managed to double our valuation from the previous round in a time when most companies that I know of are doing down rounds.”

Founded in 2018, Agora has achieved threefold revenue growth year-over-year, according to the company. It is seeing 80 to 85 percent of its growth in the U.S., which is the company’s prime target market, but plans to expand into Australia and Latin America as well, Mor said.

Even as Agora’s client growth has attracted investors despite high interest rates, the war in Gaza presents another challenge for the startup.

“We’ve managed to really show resilience through all the challenges,” said Mor. “Last quarter was our best quarter ever, so I think it really shows that the company is resilient. Although we had employees that went for reserve duty, we managed that process and our customers haven’t felt anything. And I think that we received great support that we are super thankful for from our customers.

“If you speak about investments, VCs, I’ve personally felt that, yes, it has some effect, which is reasonable. If I was an investor, I would also consider that,” he added. “But, overall, both customers and investors also want you to continue to execute.”

Agora provides its clients with tools to streamline operations and enhance efficiency, including through optimizing investor relations, automating reporting, and simplifying fundraising processes, according to the company. As a software and advisory company, Agora helps real estate firms manage more than 70,000 investors and $150 billion assets under management across every asset class.

“Agora’s visionary approach, exceptional leadership and market expertise, combined with their transformative solutions, have significantly reshaped the real estate investment landscape,” Sivan Shamri Dahan, managing partner at Qumra Capital said in a statement. “Having followed their progress over the past couple of years, we’re particularly excited to lead this funding round as we believe in Agora’s potential to become the industry’s standard. Agora represents the new generation of startups that grew rapidly but efficiently during the global downturn and are now ready for their next massive expansion phase.”

Philip Russo can be reached at prusso@commercialobserver.com.