Okada & Company's Top 5 in Q1 2017

What a fast quarter! I feel time flies even quicker these days. From a new POTUS, to Snapchat going public, what a time to be alive. New York City has especially seen some pretty remarkable events. From the opening of the Second Avenue Subway, to the record breaking number of protestors marching down Fifth Avenue, to Winter Storm Stella, it was all very interesting.

For us at Okada & Company, we too had a pretty remarkable quarter.

Here are the top 5 pretty awesome things that happened to us in the first quarter:

 

5. Supporting friend Paul Massey on his Mayoral Run

Paul Massey Is Running For Mayor!! We had a chance to meet up with a friend of our firm Paul Massey in a private fund raiser at the New York Athletic Club on January 9th. He's a good guy with lots of ideas. Good Luck Paul!

 

4. Hello ClickPay Good Bye Roku | 45 West 34th Street

It's the circle of real estate life. Entertainment and hardware provider Roku has left the building. They were a great tenant at 45 West 34th Street, but as our occupancy is over 95% we couldn't give them the extra space they needed. However, we're super excited to have signed up internet company ClickPay as one of our newest tenants. ClickPay a subsidiary of NovelPay is a service provider to landlords and makes paying rent and HOA fees a cinch. Credit is due to Dana Moskowitz & Richard Price at EVO Real Estate Group for handling the leasing there. Congrats all around.

 

3. 50th Transaction With Falcon Properties

In March of 2017, Okada & Company completed its 50th lease transaction with Falcon Properties. The business relationship started in 2006, a time when Falcon Properties did not work with other real estate firms. After some convincing they opened doors to our book of clients and the rest is history. Congratulations & Thank You to everyone at Falcon Properties!

 

2. Third Time Selling 256 west 15th Street

Selling a property in Chelsea is always great. But selling it three times in a 3.5 year time span? Now that's rare! I wrote about it briefly here however, the key thing to note is that every time it sold, it was profitable.

 

1. OUR NEW WEBSITE!

Our last website was created in October of 2009. It's truly remarkable how much has changed in New York, in the United States, and in Technology. Our newest update tells a better story of our history, our accomplishments, and our value propositions.

For more information of Okada & Company please visit us at www.okadaco.com

Third Time's A Charm: Just Sold

SUCCESSFUL TRANSACTION

Okada & Company is pleased to announce the sale of 256 West 15th Street, New York, NY in the amount of $14.1M. This is the third time Okada & Company has sold the property since 2013. Christopher Okada & David Ho represented the sellers in the transaction Daniel Tamir of DTE represented the purchaser.

Okada & Company is a multi-faceted commercial real estate firm that specializes in commercial leasing and investment sales in the Midtown and Downtown sub-markets of Manhattan. 

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DAVEK Umbrellas Lands New Office Diggs

Known to be one of the world's toughest umbrellas, Davek Umbrellas has moved its offices to 115 West 30th Street. Alexander Vellios of Okada & Company represented the fashion accessories company, and Adam Justin of Justin Management represented the landlord.

Okada & Company is a multi-faceted commercial real estate firm that specializes in commercial leasing and investment sales in the Midtown and Downtown sub-markets of Manhattan. 

Looking for a good office deal? Contact Us Here
 

Real Estate Weekly: Young Gun Okada Has His Eye On Big Invesments

Christopher Okada started his vocation with a handicap. The 36-year-old — now in his 11th year as founder and CEO of real estate investment firm Okada & Co. — had to constantly prove his dealmaking prowess because his looks didn’t inspire confidence.

“I definitely had people tell me: ‘Wow, you look so young,’” he said.

Okada compensated for his baby face with the boundless energy youth provides. He likened his firm’s early years to that of a start-up, with survival depending more on determination rather than business acumen.

“It was a very fun time. (We were) very much like a start-up… I was very nervous and very excited. I was 25-years-old and I felt like I was ready for war,” he said. “When it was go time, I didn’t care if I was young or old. I just wanted to win.”

He has since flipped his youth to have a positive effect. He considers himself to be physically durable, enough to defeat the demands of constant dealmaking and competitors; and he expects everyone else in his company to keep up.

“I have a lot of resilience. I can get back up faster and think quicker… I’m willing to push myself physically. And when I say physically, I mean setting up more meetings and making more phone calls,” he said.

“Today, being young and ambitious is very advantageous. The company feeds off of this energy.”

While many real estate executives cite oblique and poetic reasons for exceling in moving Manhattan real estate, Okada declined to engage in ambiguous ramblings. He’s in it for the payoff, and he competes ferociously to get it. “There’s no feeling in real estate like winning and the payoff,” he said.

Okada, who started in real estate as part of his father’s Manhattan firm, got his first payday 18 months into his career.

“I went to go work for my father and I started doing leasing in the Plaza District. Within 18 months, I sold my first building. The total commission was $76,000. I was 24-years-old and I felt that was a tremendous amount of money. I was very proud to be able to give my father $38,000 in one shot.

“From that point on, I was hooked. I never experienced anything like that. At 24-years-old, making $38,000 in a single check, it’s a lot. That closing was really what kept me in real estate,” he said.

He has gone far since then. His firm has closed $150 million in acquisitions over the past four years. This includes partial interest in 432 West 52nd Street, a former St. Vincent’s Hospital facility that has been converted into luxury condos, and a $9.5 million deal for the retail space at 135 West 52nd Street, which used to be a location for a Flatotel hotel.

He attributes a fraction of his achievements to a tribal division in business. He said that as an Asian company, his firm has directly benefitted from the migration of Asian firms into Manhattan.

“We’re Asian. I gotta throw it out there. In New York City right now, it’s very hot to be Asian. Every single year, we somehow make money bringing Asian companies. We capitalize off of that,” he said.

Nonetheless, he refuses to credit his ethnicity for his firm’s trajectory. “There are many Asian companies that only work with other Asians. That’s not us at all. We work with everyone,” he said.

“People come to us because we have the best deals and the best strategy. They come to Okada because they want good deals. Period. And we work like hell to find them.”

Just Sold: 161 West 23rd Street

Successful Transaction: Okada & Comapny is pleased to announce the sale of 161 W 23rd Street an 8,500SF mixed-use property in the amount of $13.25M. The purchaser is JVL Property Group, which was represented by Christopher Okada & Hiro Iwata of Okada & Company. There were no other brokers in the transaction

The Real Deal: Chetrit sells retail condo at Flatotel conversion tied to alleged money laundering

The fight over stolen cash allegedly tied up in the Chetrit Group’s condominium and office conversion at 135 West 52nd Street continues, but sales at the property are apparently proceeding regardless.

A group of investors including the principals of real estate advisory and investment firm Okada & Co., Christopher Okada and Francis Leung, paid $9.5 million for a 5,000-square-foot commercial condominium at the property, the former Flatotel in Midtown.

BLT Prime steakhouse has leased the space from the group, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Chetrit, along with partner Clipper Equity, bought the 254,000-square-foot property in 2013 for $180 million. The developers planned 109 condominium units at the property, all but 22 of which had sold as of last week.

A lawsuit filed in October by Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, and BTA, one of the country’s largest banks, alleged that Chetrit had accepted a $40 million investment of what the suit alleged was stolen money. The suit was settled in November. Chetrit has prevented the alleged thieves from taking their money out of the project, pending resolution of the charges against them.

Chetrit has a $100 million stake in the project, according to court papers. [WSJ, third item] – Ariel Stulberg

Clarification: Clipper, while a partner in the project, was not named in the lawsuit filed by BTA and Almaty. The text has been updated to reflect such.

The Real Deal: St. Vincent’s Midtown resi conversion is 50 percent sold

A former St. Vincent’s nursing facility in Hell’s Kitchen converted into luxury condos by JVL Property Group, Okada Acquisitions and Zion Enterprises is 50 percent sold in about six months after sales launched.

432 West 52nd Street, NYC

The 55-unit project hit the market in October, with condos priced in what Okada president Christopher Okada called the “affordable luxury” range — between $610,000 to $2.4 million, working out to $1,400 to $1,600 per square foot.

“It’s a very vibrant mix of people that have been purchasing,” Okada said. “I think it’s the price point.”

Buyers have included young couples, parents buying for their children who are studying in the city, and foreign nationals looking for a pied-à-terre. Construction is 100 percent complete, and new residents have already started moving in.

The building’s priciest units, rather than being penthouses, are ground-floor level duplexes with outdoor space on both the below-ground and first-floor levels. The highest recorded sale to date was one of these, at $1.6 million. Two others, including a $2.4 million, one-bedroom, 1.5 bathroom duplex, are still listed.

Listing broker Jaclyn Boulan of Stribling & Associates described the setup as townhouse-style living.

The Chetrit Group started the residential conversion but then sold the partially completed project to the current group of developers in June for $41.4 million. Chetrit held onto two adjacent lots, where it has plans to build a160-unit residential project at 416 West 52nd Street and a townhouse at 422 West 52nd Street.

Okada & Company's New Website

Okada & Company gives their website a new look and feel: Over the past year Okada & Company has been working with Blueswitch.com to develop a website that integrates both style and professionalism . "We received quotes and portfolios from more than a dozen website developers located here in the city" says President Christopher Okada "but felt the Blueswitch had exactly the kind of design flavor we needed."

Satya Jewelry takes space at 449 W. Broadway (Soho)

Satya Jewelry takes space at 449 W. Broadway (Soho): High end jewelry retailer Satya Jewelry subleased the former Joan Michlin Gallery from sub-landlords Bullet International.  The space consists of 500 Square feet and "is prefect for high end retailers who wish to expand their presence in Soho without committing to 2,000SF" says Keiko Masubuchi who is Executive Director of Sales at Okada & Company.

Ms. Masubuchi represented the sub-landlords, and Bill Butler of Baple Inc. represented the tenants.