THE DEAL SHEET

Sale Transactions

KABR Real Estate Investment Partners purchased the 235k-SF 85 Challenger Rd. in Ridgefield Park, NJ, from AIG, making it the area’s first post-Lehman large Class A office building investor sale, and only the third in NJ this year over $10M. Cushman & Wakefield Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group’s Andrew Merin, Gary Gabriel, David Bernhaut and Jose Cruz orchestrated the sale.

Massey Knakal sold three properties: a 40’ x 60’residential development site with 5.3k buildable SF at 101-103 Boerum Pl. in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn for $825k cash (broker: Ken Freeman); a 25k-SF warehouse at 585 Wales Ave. in the South Bronx for $1.3M cash (broker: Nick Burns); and, a one-story, 15k-SF garage at 1341 Garrison Ave. in Hunts Point, Bronx for $1.6M cash (broker: Burns).

Investors purchased the 28k-SF 20 Abendroth Ave. in Port Chester, NY from MDL Realty for $2.2M. A CB Richard Ellis’ Westchester/Fairfield private client group team led by Al Mirin and Silvia Pogosyan represented the seller.

The Chinese American Bible Church purchased a 10.4k-SF stand-alone office building at 65 Gibson Pl. in Freehold, NJ. Sitar’s Gregg Nowell, John O'Hearn and Chris Santoro represented seller Onyx Equities, while RE/MAX Champions’ Timothy Kwok represented the buyer.

Lease Transactions

Breeze-Eastern Corp. signed a 10-year, 116k-SF office and industrial lease at 35 Melanie Ln. in Whippany, NJ. The new facility has approximately 45k SF of office space on two floors, with the balance consisting of ground-floor production, manufacturing, and warehouse space. FirstService Williams’ Lori Zuck and Marvin Rosenberg represented the tenant. The building is owned and managed by Harts Mountain Industries.

The Westchester Medical Group inked a 31.6k-SF lease at 2700 Westchester Ave. in Purchase, NY, an expansion to serve as the company’s corporate HQ. CB Richard Ellis’ Frank Tomasulo represented the tenant.

Ideal Properties brokered five Brooklyn leases totaling 9k SF, representing both the landlords and tenants: PrettyProps’ five-year,1k-SF storefront lease at 81 19th St. in Gowanus (broker: Maria Sartori-Spencer); a group of speech therapists’ five-year, 1.5k-SF lease at 540 President St. in Boerum Hill (broker: Sartori-Spencer); a restaurateur’s 10-year, 2.5k-SF lease for Michael & Ping’s Modern Chinese Take-Out at 163 8th St. in Gowanus (broker: Maria Patricia Slee); Punched In The Head Productions’ 10-year, 3k-SF lease at 505 Carroll St. in Gowanus (broker: Karen Christian); and The Brooklyn Philharmonic’s 1k-SF lease at 55 Washington St. in DUMBO (broker: Brad Einhorn).

Robert K. Futterman’s Jonathan Krieger and Brandon Singer brokered two leases: Personal Training Institute’s 2.7k-SF lease at 143 W. 19th St.; and Rehoboth Spa Lounge’s 3k-SF lease at 126 University Place (landlord broker: Winick’s Robert Weber and Michael Gleicher, on behalf of Claremont Group).

ALSO AROUND NEW YORK...

Business

Westminster Communities president Sam Gershwin, former Westminster VP Jason Gershwin, and former RexCorp Realty senior project manager Reuben Twersky have formed Coddington Real Estate Advisors, a family-oriented real estate firm that works with financial institutions, investors, landowners and developers to enhance the value of projects, maximizing value and profitability while minimizing risk. Its advisory services cover all product types, including residential, commercial, retail, and hospitality development.

Prodigy International founder Rodrigo Nino launched the Prodigy Network, which will purchase available residential condos for international investors. The company will initially buy approximately $100M worth of new units in New York and Miami on behalf of Latin American, European, and Asian investors. It currently owns an inventory of more than 400 units in Panama.

Exec Moves

Two brokers joined Sierra Realty Corp. Marianne Thorsen, formerly with Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy and Judson Realty, joined the firm’s commercial leasing and sales division. She has been in the retail arena for 25 years and represented clients like the American Scandinavian Foundation and Chinese Porcelain Co. Blanche Baker Magill, also formerly of CBHK, joined its commercial brokerage division, after recently closing two building sales over $10M and multiple retail and office leases. You may remember her as Molly Ringwald’s sister in Sixteen Candles.

Peter Levitan was promoted to managing director of Sierra Realty Corp. He joined the firm in ’06 and has consummated deals with a rental value of over $35M, and has worked with tenants and landlords like Pacific National Bank, Ed Hardy, Aramark and Regis Corp. He is a graduate of Connecticut College.

Colin Reilly was promoted to SVP in CB Richard Ellis’ Stamford office. He joined CBRE in ’03 as part of the Insignia/ESG merger, and has been involved in approximately 2.4M SF of transactions valued at $650M, including Arch Insurance Group’s 135k lease disposition in NYC and 105k lease acquisition in Jersey City. He holds degrees from Trinity College and Columbia Business School.