News
STONEHENGE; SCOLLAR ON DEVELOPMENT
July 9, 2009
| Stonehenge Partners, which owns 17 apartment buildings, attached retail, and one office, is hardly seeing a blip on its radar. We recently met with the firm’s Jonathan Fishman, Andrew Hoffman, and Michael Stern in its Seventh Ave. office, and they tell us that both rental and retail products are strong, with over 1k monthly prospects touring the building and 70 monthly lease signings. |
 |
| Manhattan is 70% renters versus owners, which allows a firm like theirs to better adapt to market dips. They say contrary to employment numbers, many signers are young professionals who are just moving to NYC to start a new position. Its office asset, 1619 Broadway’s Brill Building, also boasts 100% occupancy, thanks to a healthy entertainment industry. (We read that The King of Pop frequented retailer Colony Music when he visited NYC.) |
 |
| The firm buys existing buildings and repositions them, renovating corridors, lobbies, facades and improving amenity spaces (including relocating Stonehenge to the NYC skyline, above). It's well capitalized to do so because its most recent fund, Stonehenge Fund III, raised $500M, half of which was deployed last year. Its ‘08 acquisitions ranged in size from $10M to $125M, and the firm continues to seek value-add and mismanaged assets for long-term investment. Unlike many residential owners, it also maintains its own properties, with a staff of 60 dealing with the building hands-on. |
 |
| One initiative to keep Stonehenge’s portfolio bustling is lifestyle components and events; Michael arranges tenant get-togethers, ballroom dancing, concerts, and other activities. August 17, it will be holding a Woodstock 40th anniversary celebration at 235 W. 48th’s Ritz Plaza. It's also working with City Arts for a “trees for peace” project, where children from 96th and 97th streets’ Stonehenge Village paint motifs on planters for a Manhattan art installation tour. As you see above, last month it held a beautification in front of its 10 Downing St. building, planting 5k flowers with SoHo Partnership, which hires homeless people to help clean the street. |
