Latest news with #DanKaplan
New York Post
26-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Soho retail-leasing boom bolstering investment sales
Soho's retail-leasing boom has spilled over to the investment-sale market. As ground-floor rents rose to an average $1,000 per square foot — and up to $1,800 as Ferrari is said to be paying to launch its 'lifestyle boutique' at 92 Prince Street – sale values for retail properties in the landmarked, cast-iron district have also skyrocketed. Blackstone recently paid $197 million for the four locations totaled 131,000 square feet – Manhattan's largest retail play purchase since 2021. 4 Rendering of 115 Spring Street. SL Green Realty Advertisement Now, SL Green hopes to cash in on the frenzy by offering for sale its retail condominium at 115 Spring St. – a building that's home to condo apartments upstairs, but with 5,100 square feet of precious, two-level storefront space. SLG, the city's largest commercial landlord, has owned it since 2014, when it bought the property in tandem with 121 Greene St. for a combined $110 million. Dan Kaplan, an executive vice president in CBRE's investment properties group who is marketing the offering, declined to say how much it might fetch. Some similar-size recent neighborhood retail sites have traded for upwards of $70 million, sources said. 'There's very little availability,' Kaplan said. 'Everybody wants to be in Soho – high-end brands, middle-ground brands, tech brands.' Advertisement Kaplan said current tenant Adidas's lease is up at the end of next March, when the vacancy will make the two-level storefront condo even more valuable thanks to ever-rising rents. He said the property could appeal either to a retailer that would use the space for a store of its own, or to an investor. 4 Soho's shopping district on Black Friday last year. Getty Images Vacancies are scarce and demand for space is insatiable. Los Angeles Apparel chose 480 Broadway for its first Big Apple location. Prada at 575 Broadway covets the space that's home to popular Lure Fishbar on the building's Mercer Street side. Soho's remarkable, post-pandemic resurgence as one of the world's premier shopping districts reflects the city's extraordinary regenerative powers. The concentration of stores and galleries in the cast-iron district bounded by Houston and Canal streets and Sixth Avenue and Crosby Street rivals that in any part of Midtown. Advertisement 4 Most streets – especially Broadway, West Broadway, and Prince and Spring streets – boast luxury lines. Getty Images 4 People walk through a shopping district in the SoHo neighborhood in Manhattan on April 11, 2022 in New York City. Getty Images Most streets – especially Broadway, West Broadway, and Prince and Spring streets – boast luxury lines such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Brunello Cucinelli as well as mass-market names like TJ Maxx and Victoria's Secret. There might be more art and antiques galleries today than ever — although they're public-oriented retail galleries, not showplaces for esoteric art as they were in the 1970s and '80s. Sidewalks are near-impassable with shoppers and sightseers. At the gateway corner of West Broadway and Houston, Corner Store restaurant draws scenemakers at all hours. Thriving brasserie Balthazar at 80 Spring Street has witnessed the neighborhood's evolution since 1997 – including the COVID years, when the New York Times in October 2021 reported Soho was the city's commercial district hardest hit by the pandemic's financial devastation which caused more than 40 stores to close.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Favoritism Plays A Role In Return-To-Office Mandates, Especially For High Performers
Favoritism in the workplace is taking on a new meaning as return-to-office policies hit many companies. With a lesser emphasis on the dangers of COVID-19, big-name companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and JPMorgan Chase want their employees back in the building. However, not everyone has to reckon with such changes. Given the viability of a remote or hybrid work schedule, top employees are leaving companies that have reinstated in-office policies that existed before the pandemic. To prevent this, high performers are getting preferential treatment. With such status, they can afford to skip out on the commute to the office. 'You can say it's favoritism, you could say it's preferential treatment. You could call it a host of different things, and they're all probably right,' shared Dan Kaplan, senior client partner at Korn Ferry's CHRO practice, to Fortune. 'While there's no one-size-fits-all approach, employers are 'creating more exceptions, which looks floppy. It looks like favoritism.' While favoritism in the office is not a new concept, its visibility has grown with the rise of RTO policies. Top performers, higher-ranked employees, and executives can loosely follow the three—or even five-day office expectations, which other workers can notice. 'When you're setting a new policy, you need to emphasize that it will be enforced. But also companies don't want to have to fire everybody who violates the policy, especially if it's a minor violation,' he says. 'Top performers or more senior employees often get more leeway because they have more leverage. That's not just about return to office, but in general in the workplace.' Naturally, this preference in who can show up can cause discord within the work environment. While companies want to prioritize their best and senior workers' feelings toward achieving more, the 'inconsistent' policy enforcement jeopardizes company culture. 'If there's a perception that you're willing to play favorites, that can be really damaging for your culture,' Zhao said. 'It's important to have a clear set of standards because otherwise, you just open yourself up to a whole can of worms.' Although companies' leniency to higher-classified employees also bleeds into the perks of having more senior roles, given the popularity of remote work, they must contend with how this impacts all employees and their dedication to their responsibilities. RELATED CONTENT:
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
High performers are the notable exception to strict return-to-office rules. Their colleagues aren't happy about it
Favoritism has long existed in the workplace, and now it's dictating who has to abide by widely despised RTO rules. Experts say top performers get preferential treatment because they have unique leverage—but it's fueling a toxic work environment. Companies are bringing down the return-to-office hammer—but the rules don't apply to everyone. Some bosses are turning a blind eye to their golden children slipping out early, or not showing up at all. Millions of workers have been forced back into the office since pandemic-era restrictions lifted. Amazon, Microsoft, JP Morgan, and Dell are just a few on the list of employers who are returning to in-person, despite outrage from their staffers. In return, many staffers are fleeing for hybrid and remote options elsewhere—especially top performers. To avoid losing their favorite employees, some are letting RTO defiance slide with high-achieving workers. Chris Pelesky, a former lead channel manager at AT&T, told The Wall Street Journal he found inconsistencies with enforcing the company's five-day RTO mandate. He noted 'many cases of favoritism,' and that some employees were allowed to be more lax with the policy than others. 'Some people were correctly protected by classification, that's understandable, but there were a lot of 'teachers' pets' situations as well,' he said. Experts told Fortune there have been instances of preferential treatment toward some employees; but also that favoritism long existed before the normalcy of hybrid work. They say top performers and senior staffers are often not held to the same rules as others, because they have more leverage and different responsibilities. But when others notice the bias, disdain can spread and create a toxic work culture. 'You can say it's favoritism, you could say it's preferential treatment. You could call it a host of different things, and they're all probably right,' Dan Kaplan, senior client partner at Korn Ferry's CHRO practice, told Fortune. While there's no one-size-fits all approach, employers are 'creating more exceptions, which looks floppy. It looks like favoritism.' Put simply, top performers are treated differently because they know they're harder to replace. Daniel Zhao, lead economist at Glassdoor, told Fortune businesses generally don't want to lay off all RTO violators—especially their star players. 'When you're setting a new policy, you need to emphasize that it will be enforced. But also companies don't want to have to fire everybody who violates the policy, especially if it's a minor violation,' he says. 'Top performers or more senior employees often get more leeway because they have more leverage. That's not just about return to office, but in general in the workplace.' Korn Ferry's Kaplan has also seen instances of favoritism and loose RTO enforcement—especially among those who don't track in-office attendance. Many in-person policies are still quite squishy, with specific rules for different teams, changes between three and five days in-office, and discretion coming from middle-managers. As companies test out the best ways to move forward, they often lack a coordinated effort. And when it comes to top-performers, some bosses don't want to step on their toes. 'If you know your top performers are going to perform, you want to get out of their way and let them perform,' Kaplan said. 'You want to spend time and energy enabling them to become even better performers.' This likely stems from the fact high-achieving workers are the first out the door when in-person work is mandated. Intent to stay among top performers dropped 16% after receiving a five-day RTO mandate, the highest out of all groups, according to a 2024 study from Gartner. Experts say this is likely because they know they have options—and can find a good remote gig elsewhere. 'Even though the job market is not as hot as it used to be a couple of years ago, for top people, they will always have choices,' Gord Frost, global rewards solution leader at workplace consulting company Mercer, told Fortune. 'Top performers will always have other opportunities, and I think organizations are sensitive to that. So there's certainly a balancing act that you need to strike.' Favoritism goes beyond top performers—company executives also have more leeway when it comes to RTO. 'Some companies delegated the policy down to the manager. There are inconsistencies, and some of those inconsistencies could be executives or leaders having the privilege of working in a flexible or non-mandated RTO environment,' Mike Small, president of North America at IT service management company Akkodis, told Fortune. 'That sends a very inconsistent message to the overall workforce.' Preferential treatment toward the higher-ups has always existed though, Kaplan said. It's a tale as old as time—leadership slipping out a few hours early or showing up late to the office, yet getting no flack for it. Their seniority has always been a buffer. 'Everyone looked the other way when on Friday, senior folks and anyone who had the freedom to afford it would leave. They take the shuttle bus out to the Hamptons, Lake Tahoe, Lake Michigan,' Kaplan said. 'There always have been special situations.' But experts say there might be a more profound reason why executives get a free pass. Their jobs often carry greater responsibility, which requires traveling for interviews, client dinners, or attending meetings. Flexibility has always been core to their in-person attendance. 'With executives, that's more the nature of those jobs,' Frost said. 'They require that you be more flexible in general, because your scope of responsibility is larger.' Turning a blind eye to anyone who disobeys RTO policies while others are following suit will invariably sow a seed of disdain at the office, experts say. 'If there's a perception that you're willing to play favorites, that can be really damaging for your culture,' Zhao said. 'It's important to have a clear set of standards, because otherwise you just open yourself up to a whole can of worms.' An overwhelming number of employees already hate RTO. About 99% of companies that enforced in-person mandates saw a drop in their workers' overall job satisfaction, and reaped no financial improvement, according to a 2024 study from the University of Pittsburgh. Witnessing that the rules don't apply to everyone only makes it worse. 'Every survey is showing that people are feeling disenfranchised and disconnected to their employer. So if you're feeling uninspired, now you feel like there's a gun to your head forcing you to go to the office five days a week,' Kaplan said. 'It's just throwing salt on an open wound because it has been so mismanaged.' This story was originally featured on
