Regional exec: New ownership will help C&W compete better
By ALEX PHILIPPIDIS :: December 20, 2006

Cushman & Wakefield’s top regional executive says its pending $563 million all-cash acquisition by Italian-owned holding company IFIL Group can only help the brokerage compete in an industry where competitors keep growing bigger.

“With regard to our area, I don’t think we’re going to see a dramatic effect,” said Jim Fagan, senior managing director for C&W’s Fairfield and Westchester offices in Stamford, Conn., and White Plains. The offices have a combined 30 brokers, including two of the bigger names in the local office market, senior directors Christopher O’Callaghan and Glenn Walsh.

“We’ve basically teamed up with a wonderful partner, so I would imaging we’re going to be more nimble in the future as potential opportunities avail themselves to us,” Fagan said.

He wouldn’t discuss what those opportunities are likely to be, though talk in national real estate reports and within the industry has C&W possibly pursuing opportunities in mortgage banking and pension fund management.

C&W’s eye on growth comes as arch-rival CB Richard Ellis closed on its $2.2 billion acquisition of Trammel Crow Co. The move created a $4.4 billion colossus in the national and global real estate scene.

“They have issues because Trammel Crow is no longer Trammel Crow. Trammel Crow is now CB. We are Cushman & Wakefield and we will always be Cushman & Wakefield,” Fagan said.

IFIL is controlled by the Agnelli family, which was looking to broaden its investments beyond those it has in Italy, France and Switzerland. IFIL will purchase a 67.5 percent stake in C&W from Rockefeller Group International Inc. The remainder will be held by C&W managers and employees.

C&W will continue to be headed by Bruce Mosler, who during a press conference said the company was looking to grow internationally so that half of its annual revenues would come from outside the United States: “We will be particularly focused on expansion in Europe and Asia.”

St. Agnes developer trims units, medical space
By ALEX PHILIPPIDIS :: December 20, 2006

North Street Community L.L.C. on Wednesday announced a change to its White Plains project that will see fewer units for older buyers and less medical office space, but more assisted-living units and units to be sold at below-market prices.

North Street’s latest plan calls for 353 condominium homes, down from the 390-home plan it pursued for more than a year until it ran into opposition from neighboring residents and members of the city’s Common Council. The homes will be sold to seniors 60 years old and older, up from the previous “active” adult age limit of 55 years old.

“We have listened seriously to our immediate neighbors, other White Plains residents and our city officials,” commented Alfred Caiola, a partner in North Street Community, in a press release announcing the changes. “Based on that input, we have refined the plan in ways that we believe successfully address the concerns and ideas that have been expressed. We now have a plan that includes significant reductions and that offers an improved design.”

Prices for the units won’t change. They will range from the $500,000s to $1 million, said Geoff Thompson, a spokesman for North Street Community.

Also unchanged will be the the 41,200-square-foot Carvel Children’s Rehabilitation Center, built on the 23-acre campus in 1996. Parking for its staff will be increased from 95 to 105 spaces and incorporated into one of the sites new subsurface garages, however.

Revised plans also call for eliminating 38,800 square feet of medical space to have been created by renovating the main building of what had been St. Agnes Hospital until it shut down in 2003. Instead the developer will fill the existing medical building at 311 North St., now only half occupied, Thompson said.

And instead of medical space, the former main hospital building will be converted to a space for 92 residents who need assistance with daily living – 84 one-bedroom units, eight two-bedroom.

Also eliminated will be the 26,300-square-foot medical building at 305 North St. That will be razed and replaced by a partially-underground three-level parking garage.

The tallest building will be trimmed in height from seven to six stories tall, and buildigs wil be moved further back from the neighboring Wyndham Close housing development – where many opponents of the earlier project live. North Street hired a new architectural firm, Perkins Eastman, to design the latest plan.

The changes were presented to the White Plains Common Council during a twilight special meeting.

“It is not the city’s responsibility to make the developers, quote, whole financial. But at the same time for this project to work, there’s a certain level of unit count and usage that we feel is necessary in order for this very expensive project to be economically viable,” Thompson said.