N.Y. Deal Sheet: Office Leasing Goes Into Overdrive
Manhattan's sluggish office leasing market turned around in a big way last week. There were several major leases inked over the last week, with WeWork taking 100K SF in Chelsea and magazine publisher Meredith finding a tenant for a massive chunk of its sublease space at 805 Third Ave.
TOP LEASES
Rockefeller Group inked a lease for Blank Rome to take 138K SF at 1271 Sixth Ave. The law firm is taking floors 15 through 17, along with part of the 14th floor. The lease will start in the last quarter, when the firm moves from the Chrysler Building.
Asking rents were not made public, and Blank Rome will be joining law firm Latham & Watkins, which signed up for 407K SF there last month.
Blank Rome’s leasing team was led by Martin Luskin, Michael Mullman, Stuart Kaplan, Norman Heller and Henri Chalouh, along with CBRE’s Ken Rapp, David Kleinhandler, Tim Dempsey and Zachary Weil. Rockefeller was represented by CBRE brokers Mary Ann Tighe, Howard Fiddle, John Maher, Dave Caperna, Evan Haskell and Sarah Pontius, along with an in-house leasing team including Ed Guiltinan and Jennifer Stein.
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Consumer-debt resolution company National Debt Relief is taking around 95K SF at 180 Maiden Lane, which is owned by MHP Real Estate Services and Clarion Partners. National Debt Relief will be moving from 11 Broadway, and will take space at floors 29, 30 and 31 at 180 Maiden by the end of the year. Cushman & Wakefield’s Tara Stacom is leading the team leasing at the building. The rents were not made public.
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Kroll Bond Rating Agency will take 95K SF at Charles Cohen’s 805 Third Ave., on floors 26 through 29. The space is being subleased by magazine publisher Meredith, which is moving to Time Inc.'s space at 255 Liberty St. Meredith completed a $2.8B acquisition of Time earlier this year.
Savills Studley’s David Carlos represented KBRA and will handle the sublease of KBRA’s existing offices at 845 Third Ave. JLL’s Frank Doyle, Randy Abend and Cooper Weisman represented Meredith.
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WeWork is leasing 100K SF Walter & Samuels’ 215 West 29th St. Rents were not made available, but the coworking giant is taking space on floors two through eight, The Real Deal reports. Chelsea, where the company is currently headquartered, has a heavy concentration of WeWorks, and this deal just adds to its impressive foothold in the trendy submarket.
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Rockpoint Group and Highgate Holdings scored Live Nation as a tenant at 412 West 15th St. in a lease for nearly 21K SF. Rents were not public, Commercial Observer reports, but prices in the building range from $125 per SF to $200 per SF. Live Nation will take the second and third floors.
CBRE's James Ackerson, Paul Amrich and Neil King represented the landlords. Newmark Knight Frank’s Chris Mongeluzo and Eric Zemachson represented Live Nation.
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SL Green signed on Syska Hennessy, an engineering and consulting firm, as a tenant at 1185 Sixth Ave. It will take 55K SF and pay an asking rent of $75 per SF, the New York Post reports. The lease is for all of the fourth and fifth floors.
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McKinsey & Co. inked a lease for 186K SF at Silverstein Properties' Three World Trade Center, the New York Post reports. The global consulting giant will move from 55 East 52nd St. Rents in the deal were not made public, but prices in the building are around $80 per SF. CBRE brokered the deal for the landlord, and CBRE’s Paul Myers, John Nugent, Jason Gorman and Munish Viralam represented McKinsey.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
Delta Air Lines locked down a $1.4B construction financing package from Empire State Development and Bank of New York Mellon for the renovation of its LaGuardia Airport terminal, Commercial Observer reports. The loan includes a $1.38B building loan, along with a $4M project loan leasehold mortgage. Delta is part of a $8B plan to remake the entire airport and bring all the terminals together.
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MCR and MORSE Development scored a $230M construction loan for its redevelopment of the TWA Flight Center and construction of the TWA Hotel at John F. Kennedy International Airport. M&T Bank provided the funding.
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Vornado scored a $250M loan provided by Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley to refinance its Crowne Plaza Times Square Hotel at 1601 Broadway. The loan provides a $84.7M gap mortgage, Commercial Observer reports, and replaces and consolidates a previous debt from 2014.
TOP SALES
The sale of Starrett City, the affordable housing complex in East New York, closed for $905M last week, Bloomberg reports. Brooksville Co. and Rockpoint Group are buying the 5,881-unit complex in a joint venture. Starrett City Associates, a company in which President Donald Trump owns a 4% stake, has owned the property since 1974.
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Madison Development paid $25.3M for two industrial sites in East New York, The Real Deal reports. The seller was an investor called Lewis Gantman. Madison is planning make use of the booming e-commerce industry and keep the sites for last-mile distribution.
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Cheskie Weisz, through his CW Realty development company, paid Standard Tinsmith Supply $11.5M for two lots at 333-353 Irving Ave. in Bushwick. The lots feature a 12,500 SF warehouse and a total of 44K buildable SF. C&W’s DJ Johnston represented the seller and Michael Wittow of CW Realty handled the deal in-house on the buy side.
CORRECTION, MAY 15 5:05 P.M. ET: CBRE’s Paul Myers, John Nugent, Jason Gorman and Munish Viralam represented McKinsey in its lease at Three World Trade Center. A previous version of this story misidentified the consulting firm's brokers. This story has been updated.
