Story 1 — Bond Street Revival

In the mid 90s, when the New York real estate market was suffering, Mr. Chan was instrumental in transforming a quiet block in the middle of the then no one even heard of the name street, Bond St., a small block basically between Broadway and Bowery, into a fashionable and trendy block.

How did that happen? It all happened when Mr. Chan sold the entire strip of condo stores, then vacant for years, of 1 — 9 Bond St., where upstairs condo units and upper façade of the building were used as the movie backdrop — The First Wive’s Club.

Mr. Chan then got hired as the exclusive agent to handle the entire leasing of this strip of stores. He first leased 15,000/sf store, namely 1 — 5 Bond St., to a multi-state arts supplies store, then assisted the fashionable Selima Optique opened up their boutique store here by artfully negotiated a lease-with-option-to-buy transaction to overcome the last minute breakup of a lease negotiation, then proceeded by helping Creed, a Paris based and prestigious perfumery, to launch their first corporate store on Bond St.

The whole street was beginning to shape up and now turning into one of the most chic shopping street of the exciting New York City, a City that Never Sleeps, a fashionable mecca from clothing to exclusive scent, and now adding a trendy Sushi Supper Club rivaling the famed Nobu Restaurant owned by Robert De Niro. Mr. Chan has made millions for the property owner whom he sold the units to and this owner has since then refinanced these units to more than quadrupled on the value, and bought another even bigger piece of property. Is there a more easy way to make money than that?

 
Story 2 — Cabana Restaurant, South Street Seaport

Back in the 90s when the South Street Seaport, while an interesting place to stop by, could hardly maintain a vibrant tenancy mix. Mr. Chan was instrumental in making one of the signatures deals for Cabana Restaurant Chain (a vibrant New York turned Florida restaurant chain) which occupied the entire Liberty Statute wing of the Pier at the Seaport on the 3rd floor, normally would have been a hard-sell for a restaurant location.

Well, the rest is a success story of its own. The restaurant is doing fantastic, survived the 911, and not only surviving but now a full bloom into a multi-cultural exchange and cool place to wine and dine which has made both the landlord and the tenant very happy — a deal created by Mr. Chan as if a marriage was made in heaven. All that was started by Mr. Chan’s intuition of bringing in the right tenant to the right location, paired up with the right concept.

 
Story 3 — Estée Lauder ORigins

When the powerful American cosmetics mogul Mr. Lauder of Estée Lauder Company wanted an all herbal based and organically engineered skin care line, he spared no expense by creating one of the most successful all natural skin care line called Origins, form inception to packaging and to launching the line.

When Origins wanted to break into the European market in the late 90s, Paris to name an example, Mr. Chan was retained as market entry and retained as the store site analysis consultant and was flown to Paris and London to study the various possible sites and recommended the best launching platform. Today, Origins is famous all over the world and rivaling Clarins and The Body Shop, its European counterparts that for a long time have dominated the world markets on natural skin care products line.

 
Story 4 — Swissotel La Defense

There is no real estate requirement that is too big or too difficult when there is a will, says Mr. Chan. When Swissotel was contemplating to build a 5-star businessmen hotel to accommodate the 5 flights a day it has of moving visitors and travelers from all its major hub cities in Switzerland into Paris, looking for a suitable site for a 250-key newly built hotel can be a headache due to Paris’ moratorium in building skyscrapers in the town center. Mr. Chan did not give up, after some intensive search and analysis he found the solution by taking Swissotel to La Defense, a designated area that is zoned for high rise just minutes by metro subway from the city center and the heart of Paris to build its hotel. Not only the site was procured, Mr. Chan even went further by making the introduction and forming an ally of Swissotel with a locally prominent organization S.A.R.I. who dominates high-rise buildings in La Defense. It would have been a perfect match again if not of sudden turn of international route restructuring. When there is a will, there is a way is Mr. Chan’s motto.

 
Story 5 — China Buffet, Cross Road Tower

Back home in the States, and even before people heard of buffet restaurant as an everyday household eatery, Mr. Chan was instrumental in bringing China Buffet, a 14,000/sf requirement, to lease up the entire formerly Red Robin Site that was vacant for 3 years in the Cross Road Tower over the Kew Gardens Subway station in Queens. Mr. Chan pride himself in making difficult space a success by matching up with the right concept and structuring the right deal.

 
Story 6 — East BUFFET, Motel & Mall, Elmhurst

Riding on the wave of success of bringing Asian tenants into the mainstream American society and locations, Mr. Chan has helped East Buffet to launch its several signature locations like the one on Elmhurst, a 30-year triple net lease of over 100,000/sf combining the restaurant and warehouse operations. Mr. Chan structured a lease with an option for expansion by phases. Not only was the tenant that he represented happy but the landlord was even happier when the lease turned into a 49-year deal. Now the tenant will build a motel and shopping mall on this site on the warehouse portion. This is one big happy ending!

 
Story 7 — Seafood Restaurant operationS group, Flushing

When the oldest and the most popular Seafood Restaurant operation group in Flushing wanted to find an alternative site so that the site they owned can be used for future development, Mr. Chan was retained as the tenant’s rep to search for the right deal.

Mr. Chan spotted an old warehouse type of building with a store front, which clearly is not doing what it is supposed to be doing for the ownership, and approached the landlord and structured a 30-year triple net lease deal, with over 100,000/sf, with a G.L.V. reaching over $60 millions and was and still is by far the largest leasing transaction occurred in the crowding downtown Flushing where a storefront 5 years ago already reached over $100.00/sf based on a deal Mr. Chan had done at the corner of 39th Ave and Main St. in the area.

Mr. Chan then, as the exclusive marketing agent, assisted the sub-landlord in negotiated the entire 4th floor to a rated tenant for a 15-year deal, assisted and pioneered structuring the 3rd floor to an Asian Spa, the 2nd floor is being used as a catering hall by sub-landlord and the ground floor and basement farmed out to a mall operator. Another successful project that has become the talk of the town.

 
Story 8 — East Lake Plaza, FLUSHING

Banking on the success of the largest NNN lease deal just completed in downtown Flushing, Mr. Chan won the exclusive marketing rights of a 250,000/sf brand new luxury mix-use project, the first ever in downtown Flushing, to be built on the former East Lake Restaurant site, over a little over an acre. Facing with fierce competitions by other major brokerage houses, locally and nationally, Harvest International won the final round in exclusive marketing rights selection due to one difference in the presentation Mr. Chan made, i.e. Mr. Chan was able to devise a sensible and viable tenancy-mix leasing plan with a theme and thus winning the confidence of the entire board of directors of this project. How well this project will do remains to be seen but with dedication, commitment and a keen eye on the art and science of landlord and tenant matching, Mr. Chan is fired up and moving with full steam ahead to make another success story yet to be told…...

STORY 9 — 380 Nothern Blvd, Great Neck

Another recent closed of the sale by Mr. Chan for 380 Northrn Blvd, Great Neck NY, is in the most sought after Gold Coast section of the affluent North Shore of Long Island on 02/27/07.  The building was the formerly Bombay Restaurant consisted of  16,500/sf approx on just slightly over 30,000/SF plus of land.  The buyer, being represented exclusively by Harvest International in this transaction, is the long time customer of Mr. Chan, and once again another milestone of fufilling the dreams and wishes of Harvest International’s customers who desire to expand and grow. 

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