{"id":198014,"date":"2026-04-15T13:29:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/198014\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T13:29:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:29:24","slug":"cushman-wakefield-sues-sothebys-over-10m-commission-from-former-hq-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/198014\/","title":{"rendered":"Cushman &#038; Wakefield Sues Sotheby&#8217;s Over $10M Commission From Former HQ Sale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/placeholder.png\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Placeholder\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n      Sotheby\u2019s former headquarters at 1334 York Ave.\n    <\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Cushman &amp; Wakefield claims <a class=\"tag tag-197090\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bisnow.com\/tags\/sotheby\u2019s\" target=\"_blank\" data-tag-id=\"197090\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sotheby\u2019s<\/a> failed to pay a $10.2M commission for the sale of its former New York City headquarters after the brokerage\u00a0worked with the buyer of\u00a0the property.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Chicago-based Cushman filed suit in New York\u00a0State Supreme Court last week, asking a judge to force the auction house to pay it the $10.2M, as well as extra fees and damages.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Cushman &amp; Wakefield and Sotheby&#8217;s didn&#8217;t respond to Bisnow&#8217;s requests for comment. The Real Deal <a href=\"https:\/\/therealdeal.com\/new-york\/2026\/04\/10\/cushman-sues-sothebys-over-10m-commission-tied-to-hq-sale\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">first reported the lawsuit<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Cushman served as the broker for Cornell&#8217;s medical school and research division when it was looking to expand in 2021. By 2023,\u00a0it secured a 30-year lease of Sotheby\u2019s New York City headquarters at 1334 York Ave. Weill Cornell Medicine\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bisnow.com\/new-york\/news\/office\/weill-cornell-medicine-buys-sothebys-hq-for-510m-131220\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">purchased the building for $510M<\/a>\u00a0in October.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In the lawsuit, the brokerage\u00a0claims it laid the groundwork for the sale but wasn&#8217;t compensated for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">At the same time the lease was inked, Cushman and Sotheby\u2019s signed a written commission agreement\u00a0that stated that Sotheby\u2019s would pay Cushman for its part in executing the lease, as well as a sales commission of\u00a02%\u00a0of the building&#8217;s total sales price if Cornell bought it before the lease was up, according to the suit. Sotheby&#8217;s paid the lease commission, but not the one for the sale, Cushman claims.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">When the sale happened, Sotheby\u2019s allegedly neglected to inform Cushman &amp; Wakefield so it could execute a deal excluding the brokerage from receiving a sales commission, breaching the agreement. The brokerage sent an invoice to Sotheby\u2019s in December, but it was rejected by the auction house.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Cushman alleges Sotheby\u2019s kept the proceeds \u201cto address its deteriorating financial condition,\u201d which included a $175M mortgage it secured in 2020.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Sotheby\u2019s planned to use the money from the sale to pare down its debt and invest in an office renovation at the Breuer Building at 945 Madison Ave., which it\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bisnow.com\/new-york\/news\/deal-sheet\/this-weeks-ny-deal-sheet-sothebys-buys-945-madison-for-100m-126747\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">bought for $100M<\/a> in 2023, as well as other parts of its core business.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Cushman also alleges that Weill Cornell&#8217;s\u00a0lease increased the building&#8217;s property value and helped the auction house with a large asking price.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThis lawsuit is baseless and completely meritless,\u201d a Sotheby\u2019s spokesperson told TRD in a statement. \u201cWe will defend ourselves vigorously in court and we are confident that when the facts come out, we\u2019ll be vindicated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sotheby\u2019s former headquarters at 1334 York Ave. Cushman &amp; Wakefield claims Sotheby\u2019s failed to pay a $10.2M commission&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3272,9,11,10,13851,78923],"class_list":["post-198014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-cushman-wakefield","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-sothebys","tag-weill-cornell-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}