City of Yonkers — Landlord Representation

Assignment Overview — What It Is

Cornerstone was engaged to reposition and lease a 12-story, 130,358 SF mixed-use office and retail building with an attached 543-space parking structure in downtown Yonkers. The asset faced multi-year vacancy exceeding 30,000 SF with limited progress from a prior brokerage.

Mandate: Deliver a complete leasing and advisory solution—retail, office, positioning, demand generation, and negotiation—to restore income and eliminate persistent vacancy.

Result: Achieved 100% commercial occupancy within 120 days, increasing annual NOI by $770,000 plus escalations and resolving a multi-year vacancy challenge.

Client Objectives — Why It Mattered

Ownership required an advisor able to:

• Reverse prolonged vacancy trends
• Restore asset performance without significant upfront TI or speculative build-outs
• Generate leasing velocity during COVID-era uncertainty
• Improve NOI, valuation, and refinance positioning
• Reposition market perception after years of stalled activity

The owner needed a partner with a proven track record of execution discipline, strategic repositioning, and the ability to convert dormant assets into income-producing properties.

Market Realities — What We Were Solving For

Asset-Level Constraints

• 30,000+ SF of sustained vacancy
• Mixed-use configuration with varied demand drivers
• Limited tenant awareness due to historic downtime

Market Constraints

• COVID-era slowdown in office and retail expansion
• Competition from assets with stronger transit adjacency
• Fragmented tenant demand and inconsistent broker engagement

Risk Profile

• Continued NOI erosion
• Valuation compression ahead of refinance timelines
• Weakening market perception without decisive leasing activity

Advisory Strategy — How We Solved It

We implemented a data-driven repositioning framework focused on market recalibration and targeted outreach:

• Completed a competitive assessment of office and retail supply, tenant mix, and gaps
• Evaluated trade-area usage patterns, daytime population, and demand drivers
• Repositioned the asset with institutional-grade marketing materials to elevate perception
• Executed a tiered outreach program: first local tenants, then regional operators, followed by targeted expansion users
• Applied structured pipeline governance, financial positioning, and strategic LOI sequencing
• Ensured all recommendations aligned with rent feasibility, TI constraints, and NOI objectives

The strategy was engineered to create immediate demand and compress downtime without requiring additional landlord capital.

Execution & Management — What We Did

Cornerstone drove the full leasing lifecycle:

• Created all marketing collateral and repositioning materials
• Conducted proactive outreach to local, regional, and national office + retail users
• Coordinated tours, managed negotiations, and controlled LOI versioning
• Structured deal terms to optimize economics and minimize TI exposure
• Ensured alignment between rent roll goals, tenant requirements, and valuation impact
• Maintained weekly reporting cadence to sustain momentum and eliminate decision friction

This disciplined process enabled the entire vacancy to be leased within 120 days of launch.

Results — What Happened

• 30,000+ SF of commercial space leased
• Restored building to full occupancy
• Increased annual NOI by ~$770,000 plus escalations
• Delivered immediate cash-flow improvement and long-term valuation uplift
• Elevated asset perception among tenants and brokers
• Reestablished competitive standing in the downtown Yonkers commercial market

Impact — Why It Worked

The leasing program produced measurable asset-level value:

• Strengthened NOI and valuation ahead of refinance
• Stabilized tenancy, reducing operational and income risk
• Enhanced market perception and tenant confidence
• Eliminated multi-year vacancy, replacing it with durable, diversified income
• Demonstrated the effectiveness of institutional leasing discipline applied to a previously stalled asset

Cornerstone converted a distressed leasing situation into a fully stabilized, value-enhanced commercial property, showcasing the direct financial impact of disciplined execution and proactive advisory leadership.