Marcus & Millichap Duo Takes Top Honors at REBNY’s Annual Most Ingenious Deal Awards 

New York City commercial brokerage leaders came together on April 13 to honor winners of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY)’s Sales Brokers Most Ingenious Deal of the Year Awards. The co-chairs of the sales broker committee, Woody Heller of Branton Realty and Michael Rudder of Rudder Property Group, presented the following awards at the in-person event at Convene, 117 W. 46th St. 

• The first-place Henry Hart Rice Achievement Award went to Eric Anton and Nelson Lee of Marcus & Millichap (pictured), for “Trust, Ping Pong, and Homemade Honey” at 1260 Broadway.  Anton and Lee overcame hurdles via unorthodox methods to sell the Martinique Hotel ground lease. Although the ground lease was valued at $0 by experts, their ingenuity resulted in a $55.5-million sale to Burnett Equities. 

• The second-place Robert T. Lawrence Memorial Award was given to James Millon and Tom Traynor of CBRE Capital Markets. for “Terminal Warehouse ($1.25 Billion)” at 261 Eleventh Ave. Despite historic uncertainty in the real estate capital markets, the future of office usage and whether New York City would ever return to glory, Millon and Traynor arranged a $1.25-billion, non-recourse construction financing for a 1.2-million-square feet project with no pre-leasing. 

• The third-place Edward S. Gordon Memorial Award went to Jarod Stern of Savills and Michael Affronti of CBRE for “A ‘Gem’ of a Formula – Keeping an Industry In Place” at 608 Fifth Ave. Stern collectively represented 28 gem industry tenants (ranging from 405–5,899 square feet) that were located at 608 Fifth Ave. to unify and represent them as one 40-50,000-square-foot tenant. Affronti was the building agent for 608 Fifth. Stern devised a rent formula and Affronti built an adjustable, living rent dashboard that ensured an equitable negotiation for the group to renew their leases and remain in the building.