Business

ROOSEVELT OFF THE MARKET

HANG onto the $1 bil lion you might have planned to bid on the Roosevelt Hotel.

It turns out the long-in-coming offering was yanked by the hotel’s Pakistani owners just before the recent disputed election back home, which granted Prime Minister Pervez Musharraf another presidential term.

“It was taken off the market,” said Cushman & Wakefield investment sale ace Ron Cohen, confirming the buzz that swept law firm Fried Frank’s well-attended annual real estate holiday party at Cipriani 42nd Street last week.

“Now we’re waiting for instructions,” Cohen said.

The Roosevelt, which takes up the block bounded by Madison and Vanderbilt avenues and East 45th and 46th streets next to Grand Central Terminal, has long been regarded as a candidate for demolition and redevelopment.

But previous attempts to sell it collapsed because of feuds between the Karachi government’s PIA Investments and its former partner, Saudi Prince Faisal bin Khalid, and between Pakistani factions.

My colleague Lois Weiss reported in July that the Roosevelt was finally hitting the sale block, with Cushman fielding offers.

Cohen said yesterday that the owners again hit the hold button even before a formal “book” had gone out.

But the saga is far from over – so stay tuned.

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The Empire State Building famously took little more than a year to complete – and more than 75 years to be properly leased. But the landmark, once known as a wholesale shoe mecca, is taking smartly to its new status as a destination office address since Wien & Malkin, led by Anthony Malkin, took control last year.

Latest to sign on for a full floor is Italian financial advisory firm Funaro & Co., which will move from One Penn Plaza.

Funaro has taken the 41st floor with 20,008 square feet. The asking rent was $60 a square foot.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Michael Burgio repped the tenant; CB Richard Ellis’ Stephen Eynon repped the ownership.

The Empire State is undergoing $500 million in capital improvements. A roster of some 550-office tenants just two years ago has been whittled down to 409 as spaces were consolidated and modernized.

Recently, Brennan Beer Gorman Architects took the entire 25th floor.

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So, what’s up at the big Boston Properties/Robert Gladstone development site on Eighth Avenue between 54th and 55th streets?

We first reported on Oct. 10 that Boston was in advanced talks with law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher for 200,000 square feet in a planned 900,000 square-foot office tower. Old buildings on the site are being rapidly demolished.

Then, last week, Real Estate Weekly online reported that another law firm, Proskauer Rose, had a “handshake” with Mort Zuckerman‘s company for an even larger deal – 500,000 square feet.

Yesterday, Web site GlobeSt.com carried the same “news” as an “exclusive,” although its story upped the square footage to 600,000.

In between, the Times reported Friday that Boston and Gladstone were in talks to buy air rights for the project from Broadway’s Shubert Organization – a deal that would have to be approved by the City Planning Dept.

How can Boston sign tenants and build without having all its development rights lined up? Leasing agent CB Richard Ellis declined to comment.

However, sources said any air rights that Boston has yet to buy are relatively small and not absolutely necessary to build.

And the law firms? A source said a Gibson Dunn lease is close but not done.

Further, Proskauer’s “handshake,” although meaningful, was still just that – and no term sheet, much less a lease, is imminent.

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Add one more location to downtown Brooklyn’s development frenzy.

On the heels of my colleague Rich Calder‘s report that $9.5 billion worth of projects are in the pipeline, the Dermot Co. has teamed with Grosvenor Investment Management US to scoop up a big site at 29 Flatbush Ave.

The 16,575 square-foot parcel is now a parking lot. Dermot plans to build a high-rise rental apartment tower starting in 2009.

Terms of the purchase were not disclosed. The site is on a triangle bounded by Flatbush Avenue, Fulton Street and Rockwell Place.

Dermot is also developing a luxury condo project at One Hanson Place in the former Williamsburg Savings Bank tower.

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Young Jared Kushner has struck again.

The 26-year-old publisher of The New York Observer, whose Kushner Cos. owns 666 Fifth Ave., just scooped up the former National Audubon Society home at 700 Broadway.

He’s in contract to buy the building for $80 million from Lincoln Property Co., which bought it from the Society in 2006 for $53 million. The Society, which will move to 225 Varick St., was repped by Cushman & Wakefield.

Kushner’s plans for the 100,000 square-foot Broadway address are not clear, but he said, “It’s difficult to resist an architectural masterpiece located in a vibrant neighborhood.”

Meanwhile, the American Numismatic Society has sold 140 William St. to Kent Swig for about $24 million. The Society will move into 20,000 square feet at One Hudson Square. Swig’s downtown holdings also include 110 William St., 90 Broad St. and 44 Wall St.

CB Richard Ellis’ Tim Sheehan and Ned Midgley, plus Tom Kaufman and Whitten Morris, represented the society on both the sale and the Hudson Square lease.

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Outgoing Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff‘s chief of staff James Whelan is leaving to become senior vice president of public affairs for Muss Devel opment. Muss’ proj ects include the Oceana in Brighton Beach and the Brooklyn Marriott.

Meanwhile, Richard Bernstein has left Trammell Crow to join Colliers ABR as a vice chairman, focusing on expanding Colliers’ business.

steve.cuozzo@nypost.com