NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) – Media company Viacom Inc
has signed a long-term lease that will keep it at its
current headquarters in a 54-story skyscraper in Manhattan’s
Times Square, the owner of cable networks MTV and Nickelodeon
said on W edn esday.

“New York City is the undisputed media capital of the world
and a vibrant source of inspiration for Viacom’s innovative and
creative employees,” Viacom President and Chief Executive
Philippe Dauman, said in a statement. “We have had a great
partnership with SL Green and have been proud to help lead the
revitalization of the Times Square neighborhood for two
decades.”

April 24 (Reuters) – CBRE Group Inc, one of the
largest global commercial real estate services providers,
reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings on revenue
that rose 14 percent, as a strong showing from property sales.

Excluding $18.9 million in charges related to its acquisition
of ING’s real estate investment management business (ING RIEM),
CBRE reported first-quarter earnings of $45.9 million, or 14
cents per share, up from $40.6 million, or 13 cents per share in
the first quarter 2011.

NEW YORK, April 19 (Reuters) – Hedge fund manager William
Ackman sold his entire stake in Rouse Properties Inc
when the company was spun off from General Growth Properties Inc
, he said at a conference on Thursday.

After finding the market for lower sales generating “B” and
“C” quality malls, General Growth, the No. 2 U.S. mall owner,
spun off 31 malls in January to shareholders. As one of the
major shareholders of General Growth, Ackman’s fund company,
Pershing Square Capital Management received shares, which Ackman
immediately sold.

NEW YORK, April 18 (Reuters) – Beauty company Coty Inc has
signed a new lease for 317,716 square feet (29,517 square
meters) in New York City’s Empire State Building, adding two
floors to the four it already occupied in the iconic skyscraper.

The new lease, which expires in 2030, will call for Coty to
add 118,792 square feet of office space to the 198,924 square
feet it occupies in one of the world’s most famous landmarks,
said Anthony Malkin, president of Malkin Holdings, which
controls the building.

NEW YORK, April 13 (Reuters) – Vornado Realty Trust,
facing criticism from investors over its lackluster share price,
said it is mulling an array of options including selling its
stake in Toys R Us, buying back shares, and even breaking up the
real estate investment trust.

“Everything is on the table,” Chairman Steven Roth wrote in
his annual letter to shareholders, which was filed with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

NEW YORK, April 13 (Reuters) – Less than four months after
new technology company SocialFlow Inc moved from the fashionable
digs it shared with six other firms in Manhattan’s chic
Meatpacking District, it is again looking for more office space.

“We’re no longer a scrappy start-up,” Frank Speiser,
SocialFlow chief executive and co-founder, said from his new
Midtown offices. “We’re a start-up, but we have a lot of
momentum.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The plan to form a publicly traded property company with the Empire State Building as the centerpiece cost the building’s owners more than $10 million last year, according to a regulatory document filed on Wednesday.

The owners of Empire State Building Associates LLC, some of whom are fighting the proposed plan, were charged $10,327,424 “mainly related to fees relating to a proposed consolidation of Associates, other public and private entities supervised by Malkin Holdings,” according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The average vacancy rate at U.S. strip malls fell for the first time in nearly seven years in the first quarter and rents inched up, but it is too early to call a rebound for a sector battered by the housing bust and recession, a report by Reis Inc showed.

The real estate research firm said vacancies at large U.S. regional malls continued to decline in the near-absence of new supply, but consumer spending is not strong enough to lift retail real estate out of its slump.

NEW YORK, April 9 (Reuters) – Malkin Group’s plans to make
the Empire State Building the centerpiece of a real estate
investment trust have hit another snag — long-time investors in
the building could be vulnerable to huge tax hits, according to
filings with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission.

The tax bills could be triggered by differences in the type
of shares investors would receive compared with the type of
shares the Malkin family would receive.

NEW YORK, April 6 (Reuters) – A major shareholders advisory
service on Friday urged holders of U.S. gene sequenci ng company
Illumina to vote against rejected suitor Roche Holdings AG’s
proxy contest to expand Illumina’s board and fill it with its
own nominees.

Institutional Shareholders Services advised Illumina
shareholders to reject proposals from Swiss pharmaceutical giant
Roche, and agreed with Illumina’s board that the Swiss
pharmaceutical’s offer to take over the San Diego-based company
is inadequate.