Kensico begins onerous land-use review for 509 Mad conversion

December 17, 2025 / no comments

The starting gun has sounded for Kensico Properties’ slow march to a luxury hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The Department of City Planning certified the developer’s application to transform 509 Madison Avenue from a 21-story office building to a 30-story hotel, Crain’s reported. That officially launches the application into the seven-month Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, which will require approvals from numerous stakeholders before Kensico can go forward. Hoteliers Nabil and Fouad Chartouni are planning the Lowell Modern, a companion to the luxury Lowell Hotel in the Upper East Side. Their proposal calls for 96 rooms, amenities and a lobby across […]

This article originally appeared on The Real Deal. Click here to read the full story.

Mark And Fellow Fund Manager Hold Talks Over Possible €10B Merger

December 17, 2025 / no comments

UK-based Mark Capital Management has held early-stage talks with Amsterdam-headquartered Orange Capital Partners over a potential merger that would create a €10B real estate company, according to Green Street News.
Both companies have around €5B in assets under management and are understood to have been looking at ways to expand at scale as the market enters a new cycle. Discussions are thought to be on hold until 2026, with OCP also free to speak to other potential partners. 
Mark Capital Partners is a privately held real estate investment management firm specialising in urban, mixed-use and value-add real estate. The company was founded in 2004…

Lawsuit filed to nix Midtown South rezoning

December 17, 2025 / no comments

The City Council unanimously approved the Midtown South rezoning in August, but a local nonprofit is looking to upend that with litigation. The Midtown South Community Council, led by John Mudd, filed a lawsuit last week to overturn the rezoning, Crain’s reported.  The nonprofit claims the city violated local and state environmental review laws when deliberating the rezoning. Air quality, access to open space and potential displacement of residents and businesses are top concerns. “The rezoning represents a wholescale departure from longstanding public policy that respects air quality, health concerns, open space, air and light, stress on sensitive historical sites, […]

This article originally appeared on The Real Deal. Click here to read the full story.

Manhattan’s top office leases of 2025

December 17, 2025 / no comments

New York office leasing finally shook out of its pandemic-era rut in 2025.  In the year that JP Morgan opened its new $3 billion headquarters at 270 Park Avenue as the ne plus ultra of the workplace, tenants showed that the office is not, in fact, dead.  The kinds of mega-deals that epitomized office leasing’s boom years (we’re looking at you, NYU, taking 1 million square feet) are back, and they’re helping drive the market to record numbers. Manhattan was on track in December to top 40 million square feet worth of deals for the year, which would be the […]

This article originally appeared on The Real Deal. Click here to read the full story.