Wine importer plants roots in White Plains
Mionetto USA, a 15-year-old importer of Italian and German wines, this summer will relocate its corporate headquarters from Brooklyn”™s Dumbo neighborhood to downtown White Plains.
The company has leased approximately 6,800 square feet of class-A office space at 81 Main St. The move to Westchester County will increase its headquarters space by nearly 70 percent.
Founded in New York City in 1997, Mionetto USA began as an importer of the Mionetto family of wines from Italy, where the family winery was started in 1887. Its sparkling wines made from the Prosecco grape have grown especially popular in America over the last 10 years, driving the company”™s expansion.
Led by CEO Enore Ceola, Mionetto USA in 2011 received Wine Enthusiast magazine”™s Importer of the Year award.
“We identified White Plains as a viable option in our headquarters search due to its proximity to the New York City market and regional access to a talented workforce,” Mionetto USA Chief Financial Officer Simone Gentilini said in a press release.
The wine importer was represented in the lease deal by a CB Richard Ellis team of Budd Wiesenberg, vice president in CBRE”™s Stamford, Conn. office, and Bruce Surry, executive vice president in CBRE”™s Manhattan office. Patricia Valenti, principal at the Newmark Knight Frank office in Greenwich, Conn., represented The Winter Organization, owner of 81 Main St., a six-story, 125,000-square-foot office building.
Retail brokerage merges
Northwest Atlantic Real Estate Services L.L.C., a retail brokerage firm based in White Plains, has merged with The Shopping Center Group, a retail property leasing, management and advisory firm headquartered in Atlanta.
The deal, which closed at the end of 2011, adds 14 Northwest Atlantic employees and the company”™s 711 Westchester Ave. office to The Shopping Center Group”™s approximately 20 locations and more than 200 employees in the southeast and mid-Atlantic regions. A name change for Northwest Atlantic will be announced later this year.
Established in 1989, Northwest Atlantic specializes in exclusive tenant representation in urban and suburban retail markets. Its clients include Starbucks Coffee Co., Whole Foods Market, Staples, Costco, Guitar Center and Bobby Flay Restaurants.
With the merger, David Firestein, president of Northwest Atlantic, joined the Atlanta company”™s board of directors and will serve as operating partner for its New York region.
Firestein said he has worked closely with Shopping Center Group executives on previous deals involving retail tenants such as Whole Foods Markets and Costco Wholesale. The larger Shopping Center Group can represent those major tenants “over a much larger geographical area” at a time when the retail real estate business “continues to change to more of a national focus,” Firestein said.
As retailers disposed of properties in the recession, they have turned to real estate companies that could represent them nationally, Firestein said. Northwest Atlantic largely represents tenants such as Starbucks and Whole Foods on leases in the metropolitan New York area.
“The Shopping Center Group does more parts of the business than what we do,” he said. “We”™re very good at what we do, but we”™ve been sort of a one-trick pony.”
David Birnbrey, co-CEO of The Shopping Center Group, said the deal took only 10 months to complete. “Now, our proven approach to third-party leasing and management and investment sales is available in the northeast and delivered by a team with integrity and capability ”¦ one of the truly best firms in the country,” he said in a press release.
In 2011, the White Plains firm completed transactions totaling more than 500,000 square feet of retail space throughout the New York metropolitan region, including several Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) stores in Westchester County and New Jersey. The company last year represented Starbucks in its new Times Square lease, the 253rd Starbucks transaction for Northwest Atlantic.
Mack-Cali tenants renew
Mack-Cali Realty Corp. closed two deals with renewing tenants at its Westchester County properties in the fourth quarter of 2011.
In Elmsford, HYPRES, Inc., a superconducting microelectronics manufacturer, signed a 19,200-square-foot lease renewal at 175 Clearbrook Road. The 98,900-square-foot office/flex building in Cross Westchester Executive Park is fully leased.
Mack-Cali was represented in-house by Louis Amalfitano, senior director of leasing.
In Hawthorne, Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co., an insurance carrier specializing in employee benefits solutions, signed two lease transactions totaling 25,860 square feet at 7 Skyline Drive. The expanding company renewed for 19,401 square feet and took an additional 6,459 square feet of office space in the Mid-Westchester Executive Park building.
Mack-Cali was represented by senior leasing director Carol McGuire.
