News
SHERWOOD EQUITIES; INTRO 623
July 22, 2009
| Long-term investor/developer Sherwood Equities, perhaps best known for anchoring Times Square with 1600 B'way and its bookend One and Two Times Square, has been active outside the Great White Way recently. CEO Jeffrey Katz and SVP Ryan Nelson explained how they're bucking trends, from their Fifth Ave. offices. |
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| We snapped this after learning the firm recently finished a multi-million dollar capital improvements program at 370 Lexington Ave., which it purchased last year in a JV with JPMorgan. Taking a page from two smaller-tenant-friendly buildings in New York—the Seagrams Building and 745 Fifth—it positioned 370 Lex to provide tenants, mostly between 500 and 5k SF, with the type of amenities reserved for larger users. Smaller tenants are usually relegated to the leftovers and brokers aren't incentivized to work with them, Jeff says. It's also against the tide of other owners consolidating space for larger floorplates, with over 100 tenants. |
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| 370's dedicated brokers, Jill Burrowes and Adam Weissleder, show off the new lobby and other improvements, such as: upgraded conference center, new infrastructure, and renovated restrooms and common areas. Many smaller tenants are not geared for space planning, Ryan notes, so management has formed partnerships with an architect, attorney, and furniture manufacturers to help them move-in in as little as two weeks. The result? Eighteen leases in just eight months. In the past 60 days, Sherwood has seen a particular uptick in offshoot financial firms looking for space, as laid-off workers start new ventures. |
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| On the investment side, Sherwood recently purchased a major development site, but mum's the word. (Even though these wallscould talk, all they said was "Sherwood Equities.") Since the firm was fortunate to not have ground-up development during the market crash, Jeff says it’s liquid and looking at opportunities, from stabilized propertiesto non-cash flowing ones to hold for years. Cases in longevity: a portion of Sherwood’s portfolio includes its two sites in Hudson Yards, purchased 25 years ago, and Two Times Square, bought in '86, developed in the early '90s and still under ownership. |
