Sorry not sorry: I’ve just returned from an electric week in New York, so this issue is dominated by the classic New York stuff: megadeals, palace intrigue, & shenanigans deep in the capstack. Back to broader programming Monday 🗽 🏀 - HS

Is any stretch of Manhattan feelin’ as good as Madison Avenue right about now? This fabled retail & office corridor had taken quite the hit during Covid, and unlike its tonier cousins Park and Fifth took its time coming back. But what a renaissance it’s now having: Not only is there torrid retail demand, w/ availability down to just 10.5% (likely even tighter now) and asking rents in the v high $800s/ 🦶 in Q1, there’s been a surge of development & capital-markets activity to go along with it. Consider this snapshot of power moves 👇

This week on the pod, we look at Texas billionaire Tilman Fertitta’s $18B megadeal for the Caesars 🎲 entertainment empire - really an excuse for us to talk Tilman, one of the industries "C"haracters. Next, we dive into CoStar’s $800M acquisition of home-data firm Zonda – part of Andy Florance’s quest to control every piece of data in the real estate 🌎 . And finally, it might be curtains for prominent multifamily developer ZOM Living, who we’re told is prepping a bankruptcy filing. Plus, our Punch List rundown of the newsiest industry news: NYC rips, S2's special servicing, Fisher Island fracas, Brookfield bombs again, and banks are back!

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• 625 Madison: After spanking Ashkenazy in a ground-lease battle (Insiders: See your section for the tremendous backstory on that one), SL Green (see related item 👇 ) sold the site to Related Cos., which is bringing in Saudi sovereign money to build a tippy-top office tower
• 655 Madison: Gary Barnett’s Extell is charging ahead w/ a new mixed-use supertall, financed w/ $1.1B from JPM & Adi Chugh’s Tyko, and reportedly a sale of the retail condo at the base to Chanel 💄
• 590 Madison: Scott Rechler’s RXR (via new feeapalooza vehicle Gemini Office) & Elliott Management teamed up on NYC’s 1st billion-dollar office buy in 3Y
• 690 Madison: Richemont, parent co. of existing tenant Van Cleef & Arpels, opted to buy the retail joint from SL Green & Jeff Sutton in March for $55M ($6,900/ 🦶 ).
• 550 Madison: McLaren 🏎️ is set to open a razzle-dazzle showroom at the base of Saudi conglomerate Olayan (an OG snapshot here)’s office tower (fka Sony Building)
• 346 Madison: SL Green is building an 850K sf office tower, and just brought in Japanese developer Mori Building Co. (also their guys at One Vandy) as a JV partner
• 841 Madison: Aby Rosen’s RFR is in contract to buy the 17K sf Prada-occupied retail condo 👜 for ≈ $57M ($3,350/ 🦶 ), The Promote understands. The seller is JSRE, a holdco for the mighty Brazilian banking Safra dynasty (Safras still 💓 the corridor tho; they paid $40M ($4K/ 🦶 for 713 Madison in March.) At 841, Prada’s on a legacy lease likely at below-market rents, so plenty of room for Aby to run. 🖼

We wonder: Will corridor regent Larry Friedland ever cash out?

On Wednesday, Promote Insiders got an in-depth look at the capstack-sniping going on at 63 Madison. SL Green has moseyed into the debt stack at the Manhattan office building and is eyeing a quick payday, and we’re now hearing there’s potential for further action (moving to potentially buy Wells out too). If this sounds like your jam, sign up for Promote Insider on a 2W free trial and read it here.

On Thursday, 6/18 at 12pm ET, we’ll be hosting the 3rd installment of “In Conversation,” our Insiders-only series of unplugged discussions w/ CRE industry leaders (Highlights from our first 2 chats, w/ Lightstone’s David Lichtenstein here, and Naftali’s David Hochfelder here). Hiten will be speaking with Northwind founder Ran Eliasaf. Northwind’s one of the most prolific debt funds out there, with action in office-resi, new dev, and one of our growing obsessions: SNFs. Ran will get in-depth about the Northwind playbook and what sponsors, lenders and brokers should be thinking about. Sign up for Insider to get access.

Quite the exit at New York’s largest and deal-hungriest commercial landlord: Brett Herschenfeld, a 20Y+ vet of the REIT and one of its most seasoned deal guys, is leaving to stand up a CRE vertical at $35B AUM multistrat pvt. credit player Kennedy Lewis, The Promote understands. Herschenfeld quarterbacked SL Green’s epic and ultimately unsuccessful campaign to bring a $5B casino to 1515 Broadway in Times Square. He also oversaw the REIT’s retail portfolio, but over the past couple years the casino work has been all-consuming, per sources. It’s unclear if there are plans to replace him. He was still listed as part of the executive team as of Thursday, though SLG put something on the gram after The Promote broke the news.

Herschenfeld was known as a close acolyte of former SLG president Andrew Mathias, and as a mentor of current prez & CIO Harry Sitomer. Herschenfeld hired Sitomer as a summer intern in ‘11, and Sitomer has since catapulted up the corporate ladder to become Marc Holliday’s right hand, a consolidation of power hastened by the departures of key execs like Isaac Zion (‘20, now at Acram), David Schonbraun (‘21, now at GreenBarn), and of course Mathias (‘23, now a free agent JVing w/ Related on 625 Madison - Insiders: see related timeline item 👇 ). As we like to say at The Promote: There’s titles, and then there’s juice – Sitomer currently has both. 🧃

We’re getting word that Nick Gesue, a veteran agency-lending leader (Lancaster Pollard —> Lument) who was most recently CEO of NewPoint, is coming into Greystone to replace outgoing COO Chip Hudson. Greystone has been busy trimming the fat on its underwriting team of late, while also moving to fill several holes in both its rainmaker and exec ranks - see Greystone’s 🧠 drain.