KNF to manage Chambers St. properties.

Chambers Street Holdings, LLC has named Newmark Knight Frank to full asset management and limited property management responsibilities at two additional properties in its Manhattan portfolio: 63 Green Street and 25-27 Mercer Street.

Joseph Bellina, Newmark Knight Frank's executive vice president and head of the Property Management Division, will oversee the new assignments.

"We started working with Chambers Street Holdings last summer, at 86 Chambers Street," Bellina explains. "Chambers Street Holdings acquired the building, and retained us to streamline the management of the commercial condo portion. Our mission was to make the property more cost-efficient and operate it in a first-class manner."

At 86 Chambers Street, where Newmark Knight Frank was responsible for managing floors one through seven of a 28-story, 116,000 s/f building, Bellina's team began by examining all major vendor service agreements. The team also examined the various leases for charge-back opportunities that might not previously have been enforced, and looked for inefficiencies and redundancies in existing contracts and in the building's operation. The agreements were modified to reflect the specific needs of the building, and each vendor was required to sign Newmark Knight Frank's Standard Services Agreement.

"The building was costing its owners far more than necessary," Bellina says. "Within the first year, Newmark Knight Frank Property and Asset Management saved ownership tens of thousands of dollars--which essentially made our services free. We've now moved on to evaluating the building's use requirements for utilities such as electricity, and we hope to create further efficiencies."