Real Estate

B’Berry phones home to Park Ave. S.

BlackBerry is making a bold move and leasing its first office in the Big Apple. The Canadian-based company will be able to keep moving into a 10,000 square-foot space at the top of 440 Park Ave. S.

It is unclear when the tech company will flow into the full 16th floor of the prominent 1913-era building on the northwest corner of East 30th Street that is distinguished by three-story high columns around its base.

To serve the future employees, California Pizza Kitchen is on the street level while a Starbucks and soon a Hale & Hearty Soups will be located at neighboring 432 PAS.

Last week, both AT&T and Verizon began taking orders for the eagerly awaited Q10, which has the tactile keyboard preferred by die-hard BlackBerry users like me.

The company will report its first-quarter results on June 28 and officially change its name from RIM to BlackBerry at its annual meeting in July.

Mogull Realty represented the tech firm while the owners, Samco Properties, represented themselves in-house. Neither companies returned calls for comment.

Joshua Gettler of New Street Realty Advisors recently represented Hale & Hearty Soups in a lease for 2,800 square feet at 432 PAS, which is also owned by Samco.

“Midtown South in general is attracting all sorts of top-caliber tenants these days,” Gettler said. “I specialize in retail hospitality and we are seeing it from the shared office spaces like Grind Park at 419 Park Ave. — in the building where my offices are located — to the tech and media tenants like BlackBerry. It used to be a five-day market, but now with the hotels [like the NoMad, Ace and Gansevoort Park and another coming to 444 PAS], it’s more of a seven-day market.”

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On the southeastern side of the World Trade Center between Trinity and Greenwich Streets, the 26-story Two Rector was sold yesterday to Kushner Companies and CIM Group for $140 million, or $300 per foot.

The 465,000 square-foot downtown office tower was marketed by Ron Cohen, Richard Baxter, Scott Latham and Jon Caplan on behalf of Savanna and Larry Gluck, which have completed a beautiful lobby renovation.

Ray Cecora of the CIA Group brought in the buyers.

According to a source, the partners believe the building is in “the path of growth” as the World Trade Center opens and more people move downtown and want to live and work nearby.

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Two Jeff Sutton properties took home the top prizes last night at the Real Estate Board of New York’s Retail Deal of the Year Awards.

Sutton, who chose to see his daughter off to the prom, did not nominate the deals and was ineligible for any awards.

The Retail Deal of the Year Award for the most ingenious and creative retail deal that demonstrates exceptional broker acumen was presented to David LaPierre of CBRE for “All Aboard the Express to Times Square: Express’ Journey to 1552/1560 Broadway.”

That building is owned by Sutton and SL Green Realty Corp. with a portion leased from Jeff Gural of Newmark.

The Retail Deal of the Year Award for the deal that is most important to the New York City Retail Market was presented to Jacqueline Klinger and Chase Welles of SCG Retail for representing “Whole Foods Harlem” at 100 W. 125th St., which is owned and is being developed by Sutton.