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Whenever you’re looking at bringing a development site to the market, there are several things that you always want to do to maximize the site’s value. They include investigating possession issues, having a zoning and massing study prepared, having an environmental report prepared, and looking for expansion possibilities to increase the land parcel or the density of the site. Generally, the larger the land parcel and the more buildable density you have, the greater the value of the site.

My inbox was flooded last week in response to my column slamming the 485x tax abatement program in New York. The main response around: Well, if not 485x, then what? I’ll get to that in a bit.

Bob Knakal has been a broker in New York City since 1984. Over that time, he has brokered the sale of over 2,339 buildings having a market value of approximately $22 billion.

The solution to New York’s housing crisis is squarely on the supply side. You don’t even have to be a believer in economics to reach that conclusion.

Empire Management has offloaded a 22-story Midtown office building it has owned since 2000, according to city records made public Wednesday. Gateway Realty, an affiliate of Empire, sold the property at 363 Seventh Avenue for $21.3 million to the Sioni Group, which used the entity 363 7th, records show.

Bob Knakal, winner of Best Multifamily Broker for 2023, has been a staple of the NYC multifamily world since 1984. In 2024, Bob went out on his own and assembled an exceptional team of experts to open BKREA, Bob Knakal Real Estate Advisors. Known for his "Knakal Map Room", their approach has revolutionized the NYC real estate scene and is considered amongst the top firms in the nation.

The property asset involved is an office building located at 363 7th Avenue in Chelsea, Manhattan. The property was sold for a total of $21,340,000, encompassing a total square footage of 83,642 and a price per square foot of $255.

BKREA has been retained to market for sale the legendary Friars Club Building at 57 East 55th Street. A cornerstone of New York’s entertainment history, the iconic mansion has hosted some of the greatest comedians and entertainers, including Frank Sinatra, Johnny Carson, and Robin Williams.

BKREA is exclusively marketing a prime full-block development site at 1584 White Plains Road, Parkchester, Bronx. This shovel-ready, mixed-use site spans 67,947 SF with R8 (C2-4 equivalent) zoning, allowing 606,232 GSF. Adjacent to the future Parkchester Metro-North Station, opening in 2027.

A prime Midtown Manhattan development site at 136-140 West 44th Street is now on the market. Spanning 5,021 SF, the site allows up to 74,270 SF of development with cantilevering opportunities. Located near Times Square, it’s ideal for residential, hospitality, or commercial use.

Avdoo & Partners Development has finalized its $52 million acquisition of five buildings on the Upper East Side that have been slated for demolition since late January.

In Proof Stacking, marketing strategist Edward Winslow reveals how real estate and business professionals turn proof into powerful marketing assets. Featuring insights from NYC real estate icon Bob Knakal, the book introduces a strategic framework using credibility to attract high-value clients and dominate competitive markets.

Avdoo & Partners Development paid $52 million for five buildings on the Upper East Side, where it plans to build its first residential project in the neighborhood. The firm, headed by Shlomi Avdoo, closed the deal for the Second Avenue and East 71st Street properties on Tuesday, the developer told The Real Deal. The purchase was backed by $32.2 million in financing from Valley National Bank.

While residential real estate agents upload photo carousels to hashtag-laden Instagram grids, commercial brokers are starting to hone their social media strategies. A small but serious new crop of brokers believes that LinkedIn is the place to network and build online brands. They are reaching wide audiences of the very people who might sign new office leases or consider an investment property with hopefully viral takes on the market and sleek videos from inside some of Manhattan’s premier office towers.

The Wharton Club of New York hosted a panel discussion, "The City of Yes - 80,000+ New Homes for New Yorkers," featuring key figures in urban planning and real estate. Industry experts Bob Knakal and Dan Garodnick delved into zoning shaping NYC's housing landscape.

Five buildings on the Upper East Side, containing more than 50 apartments and three former restaurants, are slated for the wrecking ball, records show.

Bob Knakal, Chairman & CEO of BKREA has launched a groundbreaking guide featuring 45 case studies of property conversions. Released to align with “City of YES” zoning reforms, this guide highlights Knakal’s visionary expertise in maximizing property values through strategic adaptations in an evolving market..

Bob Knakal climbed to the top of the commercial real estate sales business by focusing not on billion-dollar Manhattan skyscrapers, but on the tens of thousands of ordinary apartment buildings and land sites across New York City. Now, the 62-year-old sales executive is adding a new approach by using artificial intelligence. He says his new sales firm, BKREA, will harness property data and market observations that he has meticulously collected since the mid-1980s and couple it with the blooming powers of AI.

In New York City’s commercial real estate world, few names carry as much weight as Bob Knakal. Having personally brokered the sale of over 2,300 buildings valued at more than $22 billion, Knakal has been a dominant force in the market for four decades.

Bob Knakal has been awarded the prestigious SIOR (Society of Industrial and Office Realtors) designation, a global benchmark of excellence in the industry. This honor recognizes Knakal’s contributions to commercial real estate with over 2,341 building sales in NYC totaling more than $22 billion.

CIBS W, the women’s division of the Commercial and Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island, will host a discussion about the use of artificial intelligence in commercial real estate.

He’s king of the Big Apple’s commercial real estate scene. Now Bob Knakal’s spacious Park Avenue digs — last asking $13.45 million — is now in contract, just one month after a broker swap.

2 Oak Street in Brooklyn NY is a rare waterfront development site currently available by Bob Knakal Real Estate Advisors known as BKREA.

BKREA announces Genessy Jaramillo has joined the firm as a Land Sales Specialist in Manhattan, working alongside Chairman & CEO Bob Knakal. With a strong background in real estate and a commitment to client success, Genessy brings both experience and innovation to BKREA’s growing team.

Bob Knakal creator of the Knakal Map Room and BKREA a real estate investment property brokerage firm in NYC is transforming the way CRE brokerages produce with industry changing ai and data strategies.

Bob Knakal’s new brokerage firm, BKREA, is off to a remarkable start, closing $51 million in deals, securing a $52 million development site under contract, and being retained to sell 20 properties worth $1.2 billion in just six months.

Bob Knakal and the BKREA team successfully completed the $27 million sale of a 10-story office building at 37 East 18th Street in NYC's Flatiron District. The historic property offers significant lease-up potential and user-occupancy opportunities in a prime Manhattan submarket near Union Square.

Zar Property NY has purchased a 67,051-square-foot office building a block north of Union Square for $27 million, according to city records made public Friday.

In 2006, the hulking office building at 135 West 50th Street in midtown Manhattan sold for US$332 million. Tenants occupied nearly every floor; offices were in demand; real estate was booming.

The sale price of 135 West 50th Street in Midtown, which is only 35 percent full, was a sign of how much the pandemic upended the market for office buildings in New York City.

As someone who strongly believes “it’s not who you know, but who knows you”, being in the NYREJ 540 times means that we were working on our market presence and NYREJ helped us get the word out about what we were doing and how we were doing it. Being in the NYREJ has always been a priority for us given the reach the publication has. More broadly, NYREJ has been helpful to the industry as it is another place to go for market information and exposure for the movers and shakers in the commercial real estate business in our market.

Knakal is celebrating his 40th year anniversary being an investment sales broker in the New York City commercial real estate market. As of last week, Bob has brokered the sale of 2,339 properties in New York which is generally considered to be the highest total for any individual broker in the United States.

Bob Knakal, a real estate broker credited with selling the most commercial buildings of any single agent in New York City, is now expanding his road map in search of further success.

Bob Knakal celebrates 40 years in NYC commercial real estate, having brokered 2,339 property sales totaling over $22 billion. Commercial Lending News features an exclusive interview discussing his career achievements, innovative approaches, and future outlook.

Composed largely of high-net-worth individuals and private family offices — typically boasting fortunes of $150 million (on the low end) and $150 billion or so (on the highest of the high end) — this class of the rich, very rich and super rich has expanded its membership over the last 20 years and has now emerged as a new league of shadow players in the debt and equity markets of commercial real estate.

The Dursts are looking to sell their large development site in East Harlem after the state hammered out a replacement for 421a.

The investment sales market in New York City is in unprecedented circumstances. During each of the past major corrections — savings & loan crisis in the early 1990s, the recession in the early 2000s, the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 and the “long slide” from 2016 through 2021 — every product type was losing value, just to varying degrees.

BK Real Estate Advisors, the New York-based real estate advisory firm started by well- known real estate broker Bob Knakal, recently expanded with the hiring of Faraz Cheema, Justin Rice-Moore and Jas Saini.

BKREA, a cutting-edge investment brokerage firm spearheaded by legendary New York City broker Bob Knakal, announces the latest addition to their rapidly growing NYC Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Firm. Jaskirat (Jas) Saini. Jas will be focusing on Land, Office, and Multifamily properties in Manhattan, bringing extensive experience and unique background to further elevate BKREA's client-focused services.

NYC Commercial Real Estate entrepreneur Bob Knakal announced Justin Rice-Moore has joined the new investment property brokerage. The new firm combines old school business fundamentals with cutting edge ai and technology tools providing market information never before available.

Faraz Cheema has joined the newly formed ai and technology driven NYC commercial real estate invest property brokerage BKREA.

“If you start me up, I’ll never stop,” sang Mick Jagger in a 1981 Rolling Stones hit. Jagger turned 80 in 2023, and, far from slowing down, he turned his lissome frame loose on another world tour following a brand-new studio album.

At the end of last month, commercial real estate deity Bob Knakal got together with the social media upstart known as “Strip Mall Guy” to host a gathering at Hudson Yards called Real Estate X Gala for the social media world to mingle.

With over four decades of experience, Bob has shaped some of the most significant transactions in New York's real estate market, and we're excited to collaborate with him for our soon-to-be-launched Commercial Real Estate section on NewYork.com.

After 40-plus years of a real estate career that has seen some 2,300 transactions totaling over $21 billion in New York City, and stints with some of the largest brokerages in the world, Bob Knakal has realized one major thing.

BKREA, led by Bob Knakal, has appointed Seth Samowitz as COO. Renowned for his expertise in real estate and AI, Samowitz aims to enhance operational efficiency and integrate cutting-edge technologies in NYC's land sales sector.

Bob Knakal, the renowned creator of the Knakal Map Room and founder of Bob Knakal Real Estate Advisors (BKREA), has been recognized as the number one Social Media Influencer in Commercial Real Estate in the USA by the Commercial Real Estate Influencers (CREi) Summit.

Bob Knakal, the high-profile New York City broker who left JLL in February, has launched an investment sales firm of his own with plans to try to leverage artificial intelligence to help sell more properties in the country's largest commercial real estate market.

Bob Knakal has struck out on his own and on Tuesday launched the artificial intelligence-backed capital markets brokerage BK Real Estate Advisors.

Bob Knakal, the veteran sales broker who has arranged more than $20B in New York City commercial real estate deals, is back with a new venture.

The veteran dealmaker is launching a new company, BK Real Estate Advisors, which will use AI to help sell property.

Veteran New York City broker Bob Knakal is embracing both his entrepreneurial spirit and the growing importance of artificial intelligence in commercial real estate with the launch of a new boutique brokerage firm, BK Real Estate Advisors.

Bob Knakal, a seasoned sales broker renowned for his role in over $20 billion worth of New York City commercial real estate deals, has launched Bob Knakal Real Estate Advisors (BKREA), a new brokerage firm backed by artificial intelligence.