REBNY Announces Winners Of 2026 Ingenious Deal Of The Year Awards

• REBNY honored top commercial real estate deals completed in New York City during 2025
• Savills won first place for a long-running Gramercy Park assemblage transaction
• CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield earned second- and third-place awards for major office leasing deals

What The REBNY Awards Recognize

The Real Estate Board of New York announced the winners of its 82nd Annual Commercial Sales Most Ingenious Deal of the Year Awards during an event held at Lever House in Midtown Manhattan. The annual awards recognize commercial brokerage professionals involved in some of New York City’s most complex and creative real estate transactions. Since 1944, the competition has highlighted deals requiring exceptional negotiation strategy, persistence, and problem-solving across the city’s commercial property market.

What Deal Won First Place

The top Henry Hart Rice Achievement Award went to Geoffrey Newman of Savills for a major Gramercy Park assemblage involving multiple properties along Third Avenue and Gramercy Park. The transaction took more than 13 years to complete and involved assembling one of the last major developable corners surrounding Gramercy Park. According to REBNY, the deal required negotiating with dozens of stakeholders, including unanimous participation from all owners within a 34-unit cooperative building central to the assemblage. Legal complications, Brownfield issues, tax concerns, and development-right negotiations also had to be resolved throughout the process. The completed assemblage is now considered one of Manhattan’s most significant long-term development opportunities in the Gramercy neighborhood.

What Deals Took Second And Third Place

The second-place Robert T. Lawrence Memorial Award went to Scott Gottlieb, Brendan Herlihy, and Michael Wellen of CBRE  for Universal Music Group’s 336,000-square-foot headquarters lease at PENN 2. The 20-year lease consolidated Universal Music Group’s Manhattan footprint into a single headquarters adjacent to Madison Square Garden while incorporating creative production capabilities and artist-focused infrastructure. Third place went to Mark Weiss and Jared Thal of Cushman & Wakefield for Goodwin’s 300,000-square-foot lease at 200 Fifth Avenue. The brokerage team reportedly focused heavily on workplace culture, employee engagement, and long-term office strategy rather than pursuing a more traditional law firm leasing approach.

What This Says About New York Commercial Real Estate

This year’s winning deals reflect several broader trends shaping New York City commercial real estate. Complex assemblages, headquarters consolidations, and workplace repositioning strategies continue playing major roles as companies rethink office usage, branding, and long-term location strategy. The awards also highlight how relationship-building and long negotiation timelines remain critical in New York’s highly competitive and fragmented real estate environment. Despite broader market uncertainty surrounding office demand, large-scale leasing activity and development assemblages continue moving forward in premier Manhattan locations.