Biography
Chase Welles is one of New York’s preeminent commercial real estate brokers. He’s helped tenants and landlords succeed here since 1984, shaping the city’s retail landscape with game-changing lease transactions for such tenants as Whole Foods, Costco, Staples, LA Fitness, and Williams-Sonoma. A six-time Commercial Observer Elite Power 100 member, and ten-time Real Estate Board of New York’s Retail Deal of the Year nominee, three-time winner—he is often quoted in the Wall Street Journal and other press on a variety of commercial real estate topics. He is a former chair of the REBNY retail committee.Chase joined Northwest Atlantic (now TSCG) in 1997 to work on the Costco account. He arranged three land purchases in Manhattan and subsequently sold all three for over a million square feet of FAR. Additionally, he was a part of the team that finally arranged the Costco lease at 116th Street and The FDR drive and on the BQE in Brooklyn.
Other notable lease transactions include twelve Whole Foods in Manhattan, and three in Brooklyn, eight in New Jersey. Chase was responsible for 19 Staples Manhattan leases and over 20 Rite Aids. He completed a 150,000 square feet deal for Williams Sonoma in DUMBO Brooklyn. From 2004-2007, Chase closed over 100 Washington Mutual leases in New York City.
In addition to his award-winning tenant representation, Chase represents several major NYC developments including the largest redevelopment project in North America, Brooklyn’s ground-breaking Industry City, 6 million SF. Active in the commercial real estate community, Chase has served as Chairperson of the Real Estate Board’s Retail Committee and now serves on the Real Estate Board of New York’s general meeting committee.
A graduate of Columbia University, he is fluent in French, conversational Russian, and has brought several European retailers to the United States.
What To Know
Chase is the owner of the historic 1931 130’ Fire Department of New York Fireboat “John J. Harvey,” berthed at 26th Street on the Hudson River. Each year Chase skippers a SCG Retail cruise around New York Harbor for clients.