{"id":358271,"date":"2026-09-27T18:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T18:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/358271\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T18:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T18:58:14","slug":"sunday-summary-let-the-sunshine-in-commercial-observer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/358271\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Summary: Let the Sunshine In! \u2013 Commercial Observer"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those of you who have been drenched by the dreaded nor\u2019easter<\/a> and are looking for a little relief, the best cure is sunshine.<\/p>\n

Specifically, Corcoran Sunshine.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: A Resilient New York City Wins Big at Commercial Observer\u2019s Power Gala<\/a><\/p>\n

Last week, Commercial Observer sat down<\/a> with Kelly Kennedy Mack, who has headed Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group<\/a> since 2006, and we talked about the luxury condo market \u2014 where, guess what, the forecast is actually pretty good! \u2014 as well as how she went from a kid living in Chinatown and going to a G&T program, to working for industry legend Louise Sunshine, to turning Corcoran Sunshine into the behemoth it currently is.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always somebody chomping at our heels, somebody who\u2019s trying to win business or steal our clients,\u201d Mack said. \u201cBeing No. 1 doesn\u2019t take priority over the actual work, which is doing the right thing by properties and clients. But being steadfast and relentless in that pursuit is probably what continues to make us No. 1. We certainly don\u2019t take it for granted. We don\u2019t have any level of complacency, ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been talking about condos \u2014 and multifamily in general \u2014 a lot lately. (We\u2019d gently encourage you to sign up for our residential newsletter<\/a>. We have been putting in a number of new weekly features like data stories<\/a>, Q&As with residential brokers<\/a>, reported profiles<\/a> and columns<\/a> from industry machers.)<\/p>\n

Beyond the deep dives and features, there\u2019s been a seemingly endless stream of residential news \u2014 be it Legion Investment Group<\/a> and SMA Equities<\/a>\u2019s $99 million construction loan<\/a> for their 300,000-square-foot development on the Upper East Side, to the flood of Florida deals like TA Realty<\/a>\u2019s $105.5 million buy<\/a> of the 366-unit Polo Lakes community, to the refinancing of housing<\/a> near college campuses like Texas A&M, to Part II<\/a> of the President Trump\/Mayor Mamdani bromance blossoming this time over Queens\u2019 Sunnyside Yard.<\/p>\n

Calm down and have some coffee<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the fact that retail has been enjoying something of a comeback, not all retailers have been doing equally well.<\/p>\n

Or, sometimes they\u2019ve been doing well in part and badly at the same time.<\/p>\n

For instance, Starbucks<\/a> announced Thursday that it will close 250 stores<\/a> across North America \u2014 making it the second time in two years that the java giant has had to resort to such a bitter tactic.<\/p>\n

While this could signal that Starbucks is in trouble, the company said that these were underperforming branches and, amidst a company-wide revamp, the brand is actually going to be opening more stores in the coming months. \u201cWhile most are benefiting from this overall momentum, some coffeehouses continue to underperform despite the hard work and commitment of all of you,\u201d said Mike Grams, Starbucks\u2019 chief operating officer, in a letter to employees.<\/p>\n

Maybe this speaks to the general state of weirdness in the American retail landscape \u2014 and real estate in general.<\/p>\n

One could point to the fact that interest rates are climbing, inflation and tariffs have been taking a huge toll on everybody, and that the war with Iran has sent the price of oil up, and yet\u2026 investment doesn\u2019t seem to be affected.<\/p>\n

If anything, it\u2019s been on the rise<\/a>. (For now.)<\/p>\n

According to a recent report from Avison Young<\/a> there was a total $233.6 billion invested in U.S. real estate in the first half of the year \u2014 a 14.7 percent increase from the same period last year, making it the \u201cstrongest first half of the year since 2022.\u201d How do you like them apples<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Power play<\/p>\n

Speaking of retail, last week the Real Estate Board of New York<\/a> named the best deals<\/a> of last year with Cushman & Wakefield<\/a>\u2019s Sean Moran, Patrick O\u2019Rourke, Catherine Merck and Steven Soutendijk scoring Most Ingenious Retail Deal of the Year for Urban Outfitters<\/a>\u2019 15,345-square-foot lease<\/a> at 575 Fifth Avenue, and Newmark<\/a>\u2019s Jeffrey Roseman and Drew Weiss nabbing Most Impactful Retail Deal of the Year for bringing Audemars Piguet<\/a> to 785 Fifth Avenue for its new flagship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just the night before REBNY\u2019s event was Commercial Observer\u2019s 19th annual Power Gala at Silverstein Properties<\/a>\u2019 7 World Trade Center.<\/p>\n

Much food, drink and music was enjoyed by a primo selection of the city\u2019s best and brightest \u2014 but we won\u2019t say anything more. To really find out who was spotted in the crowd, who won Investment Deal of the Year, and Finance Deal of the Year, and Urban Developer of the Year, and Office Deal of the Year, and the Executive Leadership Award, you\u2019ll just have to read our coverage here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stay dry \u2014 see you next week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For those of you who have been drenched by the dreaded nor\u2019easter and are looking for a little…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[133458,78204,2437,132592,44365,98515,98517,98067,131911,75,84,83,133459,9,24,63,28327,22437,78181,2182],"class_list":["post-358271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-1950-polo-lake-boulevard","tag-575-fifth-avenue","tag-7-world-trade-center","tag-785-fifth-avenue","tag-catherine-merck","tag-drew-weiss","tag-jeffrey-roseman","tag-kelly-mack","tag-louise-sunshine","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-mike-grams","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-patrick-orourke","tag-real-estate-board-of-new-york","tag-sean-moran","tag-steven-soutendijk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358271","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=358271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}