{"id":378049,"date":"2026-10-20T16:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T16:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/378049\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T16:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T16:48:12","slug":"williams-equities-michael-t-cohen-robert-getreu-and-andrew-roos-take-manhattan-commercial-observer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/378049\/","title":{"rendered":"Williams Equities\u2019 Michael T. Cohen, Robert Getreu and Andrew Roos Take Manhattan \u2013 Commercial Observer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Williams Equities<\/a>, a family-owned, New York City-focused commercial real estate firm run by Michael T. Cohen, Robert Getreu and Andrew Roos, marks its 100th anniversary this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the company\u2019s centenarian status, the trio of principals operates a portfolio largely in its prime, energized by a youthful wave of tech companies flooding Midtown South and an overall vigorous Manhattan office market<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: New York Office Tenant Improvement Totals Rise in 2026 Amid Market Shifts<\/a><\/p>\n

Cohen, Getreu and Roos are second- or third-generation leaders of the company, originally established in 1926 by Victor Cohen as Williams & Company. The fledgling brokerage firm acquired its first property in 1953, and its portfolio grew to 2.1 million square feet by the end of the decade. Williams went on to establish strategic partnerships with Roos and Getreu\u2019s predecessors, and their mounting acquisitions included 1700 Broadway, 1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza and 28-40 West 23rd Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 1990s saw then-Williams Real Estate Company transform into a leasing and brokerage operation, GVA Williams \u2014 a bid to stay competitive in an institutionalizing real estate world. The entity was sold in 2008 to what would become Colliers<\/a>\u2019 New York office.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to manage assets, not people,\u201d Roos told Commercial Observer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Williams Equities now operates as a business within a business, and Cohen, Getreu and Roos all hold senior posts at Colliers. Williams Equities separately owns and manages its 14-property portfolio, made up of 12 directly owned and two affiliated buildings. Colliers afforded the family business a heightened platform and market insights, as well as fabulous Bryant Park views from 1114 Avenue of the Americas.<\/p>\n

From that lofty perch, the principals oversee an office portfolio largely concentrated in Midtown South, a submarket that recently enjoyed its strongest first half-year of leasing since 2002<\/a>, according to Colliers data, with tech-driven demand up 20 percent over the two quarters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Williams recently added another Midtown South feather in its cap \u2014 the heavily discounted 470 Park Avenue South for $147.5 million<\/a> \u2014 with redeployed capital from its $160 million sale of 655 Madison Avenue to developer Gary Barnett\u2019s Extell. Williams Equities also joined a new partnership at the Flatiron District\u2019s 888 Broadway with Global Holdings and Cannon Hill Partners.<\/p>\n

Cohen, Getreu and Roos sat down with Commercial Observer in early September to discuss the 100-year history of Williams Equities, including the hard lessons and the strategic successes, and what\u2019s in store for the company\u2019s future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

Commercial Observer: You\u2019re all second- and third-generation principals at Williams. Were you always going to get into this business?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michael T. Cohen: My grandfather was one of the founders of Williams, so I\u2019m the third generation of my family. I started right out of college in 1981. I was pretty much brainwashed. The irony is I really didn\u2019t appreciate what the business was going to be like until I was inducted with a desk and a phone, and told to call strangers and see if they wanted to do business with me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So it was quite a comeuppance for a kid that grew up on the Upper East Side, private school, Ivy League. It hit me like a ton of bricks.<\/p>\n

Robert Getreu: I\u2019m theoretically second generation. My father-in-law and brother were partners with Michael and Andrew\u2019s dads. I did some construction and building management before coming into the brokerage side of the business in 1993.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I eventually entered the ownership side of the business while carrying on with brokerage work and portfolio management at the same time. I\u2019ve had a host of roles over the years, which have now morphed into the ownership role that we all sit in today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Andrew Roos: Growing up, I planned to be a journalist. I worked for the Associated Press and took pictures for Rolling Stone. I thought I was going to be one of those \u201cAlmost Famous\u201d guys. When I realized that I couldn\u2019t make the kind of living I wanted, I decided to try real estate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My father set up an interview for me at the Washington office of Julien Studley. I put on a denim suit, Frye boots with stacked heels and had hair down to my shoulders, and to this day I can\u2019t understand why they didn\u2019t offer me a job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I joined Williams Real Estate Company in 1976, third generation. My grandfather was partners with Michael\u2019s grandfather. So I\u2019ve been here for roughly half the history of Williams, and my son, Mac Roos, works with us now. He would be the fourth generation.<\/p>\n

Are there plans in place for the next generation at Williams Equities?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cohen: Robert and I don\u2019t have offspring in the business the way Andrew does, but we\u2019re grooming the next generation. Like any 21st-century business, we\u2019re going to find the right people for the job to keep the machinery running over time. It\u2019s a chapter that hasn\u2019t been written yet, and only time will tell.<\/p>\n

Roos: Many of the companies that were around when we started don\u2019t exist anymore, like Cross & Brown and Edward S. Gordon Company. I think the fact that we\u2019re still here is rather extraordinary in and of itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your portfolio has historically been concentrated in Midtown South. Do you think of that as your domain?<\/p>\n

Getreu: We have other assets throughout the city, but we feel very comfortable in that area. We recently sold 655 Madison<\/a> in the Plaza District and bought 470 Park Avenue South<\/a>, a Midtown South building, because that\u2019s what the market was reacting to. We\u2019ve seen a total resurgence of that marketplace in the last 12 to 18 months, and we\u2019re working to capture it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cohen: The irony is, I think that the institutional buyer, or the internal rate of return buyer, is driving down returns for the Midtown steel and glass buildings, and our stock and trade, the Midtown South terra cotta and cast-iron buildings, offer a better risk-
adjusted return.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the pandemic, some in our industry started preaching this idea that there were Class A\u2019s and Class B\u2019s, and the Class B\u2019s were doomed. I believe they completely missed the gradations within Class B. The top-ranked Class B\u2019s have a different appeal from steel and glass but are very robust. We\u2019re seeing that now<\/a> expressed by the technology companies and the AI companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roos: Midtown South is Williams\u2019 sweet spot. People want to be between 14th and 23rd streets, like Google at 111 Eighth Avenue. The types of people that occupy those buildings \u2014 a lot of them are half my age \u2014 but they raise billions of dollars, and they want a building that enables them to brand and attract people that will help them succeed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cohen: We also have some blue-chip tenants in the portfolio. Netflix is our anchor tenant at 888 Broadway<\/a>. We have Ramp at 28-40 West 23rd Street<\/a>. We\u2019re very happy to be predominantly, but not entirely, Midtown South.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve added 470 Park Avenue South and 888 Broadway to your portfolio over the past year. Is Williams in a growth period?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cohen: We have other buildings in our portfolio that, like 655 Madison, would be better suited for redevelopment. Our investor base is more risk averse, and we\u2019re not developers, so the money from 655 Madison was recycled into 470 Park Avenue South. There will be other opportunities in the portfolio to do the same thing.<\/p>\n

There is one office-to-residential conversion in our pipeline, but that\u2019s several years out. There are other buildings that we are keeping an eye on, and saying, \u201cWhat\u2019s the highest and best use?\u201d I think we will continue to be opportunistic.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Williams
\n\t\t\tPHOTO: Axel Dupeux\/for Commercial Observer\t\t<\/p>\n

When the three of you discuss a building\u2019s highest and best use, is it always a clear choice?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Getreu: The idea of expanding or contracting is an asset-by-asset decision. Everything has to be opportunistic. 655 Madison was a somewhat obsolete office building, and we traded it for something that the market was looking for. So would we like to buy more? Absolutely. Would we like to retain what we have? Absolutely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cohen: We\u2019re looking at acquisitions now because we feel that the environment is conducive to it. Our forefathers bought many of these buildings in the late `70s and early `80s and even the `60s, and we took a breather for a while.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We acquired the leasehold interest of the Argonaut at 224 West 57th Street with an offshore fund in 2007. In 2008, the world changed, and our investment was pretty much wiped out. We had a deep-pocketed partner, though, and we tripled down on that building. We bought the fee simple interest for $88 million in 2010. Once the building was 100 percent rented, we sold it for a modest profit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019d had this near wipeout experience and were chastened by it. We stayed on the sidelines during the market\u2019s run-up in values between 2012 and 2019. When the pandemic occurred and interest rates doubled, we were able to survive. <\/p>\n

So we\u2019re not compelled to buy through the ups and downs. We try to pick our shots very carefully, and there\u2019s a window that\u2019s opened now. I fully expect it will shut again, and we\u2019ll go back to the sidelines.<\/p>\n

I imagine that after 100 years, you\u2019ve accumulated a lot of lessons. You\u2019ve seen the dot-com boom and bust, the Global Financial Crisis and the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roos: And that\u2019s only this generation. There was the tax code change of the early `90s. It was \u201cStay alive till `95.\u201d It\u2019s a feast and famine business. You can make money in either market \u2014 it\u2019s when it\u2019s stagnant that it\u2019s very difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I love telling the story of when I met Harry Helmsley early in my career. I said, \u201cWhat\u2019s the secret?\u201d and he said, \u201cSimple. Just live.\u201d What he meant was that you\u2019ve got to live through the cycles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The AI leasing boom in New York City has been compared to the dot-com days. How do you contrast those two eras?<\/p>\n

Cohen: Same cycle, but different details. We\u2019re seeing rental inflation coming out of the pandemic, which is typically the way the city recovers. For most of my career, the underlying variable of rents was the key determinant of real estate values, but, because rents are inflating at the same time that the interest rates on five- and 10-Year Treasurys have risen precipitously, we\u2019ve had value destruction, even though our primary variable of rental income has increased.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is an extraordinary juxtaposition, and it calls for a different strategy.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the strategy?<\/p>\n

Cohen: You have to plan around more expensive money. You need to have a larger percentage of equity, and you have to effectively overcapitalize based on the previous generation of investments. Less debt, more equity.<\/p>\n

Does this strategy mean more partnerships, like at 888 Broadway?<\/p>\n

Cohen: I think so, yes. When we look at redeploying capital now, we talk to others who have similar goals. Institutional equity is pretty much sidelined now, and most of the investment community today are cash buyers and 1031 buyers like ourselves.<\/p>\n

A lot of your buildings are older than Williams itself. Is there an ebb and flow to how much capital you put into repositioning them?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Getreu: It\u2019s market driven. The broker comes into the marketplace and has their checklist. When we add an amenity space<\/a> or a new lobby, we get a positive reaction. We\u2019re deploying that throughout our portfolio when possible.<\/p>\n

Cohen: The lobby that appealed in 1985 or even 2000 is not the lobby that will appeal in 2026. The properties may be 50 or 100 years old, but the people occupying them are of the current generation, and the repositioning has to reflect what\u2019s desired.<\/p>\n

Roos: Our building at 28-40 West 23rd Street is a good example. It was a former ladies\u2019 department store with an annex building. Michael\u2019s father had a plan to re-create the Plaza Athenee in Paris. He installed a skylight, French-style windows and iron balustrades. That was fine for many years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now we\u2019re spending $20 million to $30 million to renovate it. Could we have leased it the way it was? Yeah, we could have. But we\u2019re in the business of trying to maximize the experience in our buildings. These buildings have floor plates of almost 70,000 feet, and these growing AI and tech tenants need to expand but don\u2019t want to be vertically stacked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

79 Madison Avenue was placed on the market as a conversion in 2025, but it wasn\u2019t picked up. Its lease with WeWork expired, too, and I understand the building is in a difficult limbo now. What\u2019s going on there?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Getreu: We were assured of its viability as a residential conversion, and we have a number of offers to execute that deal. But the market changed, and it looks like the value creation may be greater if it goes back to the office market. We said, \u201cHold on, we could always convert it, right?\u201d There\u2019s always that safety valve.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was successful as an office building for many years, but the problem really came about when you were getting $50 per square foot rents in that marketplace, and you had to put $150 or $200 per square foot into the building. Now we\u2019re seeing rents of $70, 80, $90, and, all of a sudden, putting that kind of money in for an office tenant becomes possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We terminated leases with deals that we had structured many years ago, with the anticipation that maybe this was a conversion at some point. This is a long gestation period in order to get to a residential conversion. When you have an operating office building, it can take years to figure out emptying it out, restacking it, moving tenants and canceling leases. It\u2019s an enormous undertaking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now we have a number of people interested in the building as an office building, so we\u2019re working weekly to figure out what is the right answer here.<\/p>\n

The building\u2019s return to office use would be a pretty compelling story after all that office has been through. Speaking of which, do you have a favorite property?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Getreu: I don\u2019t think I have a favorite, really. You\u2019re passionate about something as you\u2019re redeveloping it and leasing it successfully. That\u2019s what you\u2019re in love with. You really have to have a little bit of passion about this business, or else you\u2019re not going to be successful in it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roos: It\u2019s like picking your favorite child. I love them all uniquely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cohen: The food is best at 57 West 57th Street, where Quality Italian is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Emily Davis can be reached at edavis@commercialobserver.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Williams Equities, a family-owned, New York City-focused commercial real estate firm run by Michael T. Cohen, Robert Getreu…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[138899,138900,138901,138902,66097,138903,24530,138904,138905,66100,75,84,83,138906,9,24,63,66102],"class_list":["post-378049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-1-dag-hammarskjold-plaza","tag-1700-broadway","tag-224-west-57th-street","tag-28-40-west-23rd-street","tag-470-park-avenue-south","tag-57-west-57th-street","tag-655-madison-avenue","tag-79-madison-avenue","tag-888-broadway","tag-andrew-eoos","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-michael-t-cohen","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-robert-getreu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378049","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=378049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}