N.Y. Deal Sheet: Brookfield Stays Hot With 222K SF Lease At One Liberty Plaza
Two more New York City agencies have signed major leases in Lower Manhattan, giving Brookfield another leasing win in a stellar 2017 for the Canadian giant so far.
TOP LEASES
The New York City Economic Development Corp. and the Department of Small Business Solutions signed a 20-year lease to occupy 222K SF at Brookfield's One Liberty Plaza. The deal covers the 10th through 14th floors and adds public sector tenants to the building's rent roll, alongside recent deals with Business Insider for 88K SF, Aon Insurance for 240K SF and New Avon cosmetics for 91K SF. The 2.3M SF skyscraper is now almost 95% leased.
The lease is another six-figure success for Brookfield, which also has signed landmark deals with Amazon, Accenture, JPMorgan Chase, Whole Foods and law firm McKool Smith in 2017. It signed a ground lease for 1100 Sixth Ave. in the spring along with The Swig Co. to redevelop the office tower when HBO decamps for Hudson Yard.
It also was part of the JV that cashed out on the city's biggest building sale of the year, selling 245 Park Ave. to HNA Group for $2.2B.
Brookfield's Mikael Nahmias represented the landlord in-house in the EDC and SBS deal, alongside Newmark Knight Frank's David Falk, Pete Shimkin and Hal Stein. NKF also represented the city agencies in the lease, with a team of Neil L. Goldmacher, Christopher Mongeluzo and Howard Kesseler.
***
BDG Media, the parent company of millennial-focused publishers Bustle, Romper and Elite Daily, is expanding its Midtown South headquarters. BDG signed a 17K SF expansion deal at 315 Park Ave. South last week, bringing its total footprint in the Columbia Property Trust-owned building to 51K SF. It will now span the entire 10th, 11th and 12th floors in the 20-story, 331K SF office building. It moved into the 10th and 11th floors last year. Andrew Wiener and David Berkey of L&L Holding Co., which manages the building for CPT, brokered the deal for the landlord, and Transwestern’s Rory Murphy, Lindsay Orenstein and Jonathan Tootell represented BDG.
***
GameChanger Media, a Dick's Sporting Goods subsidiary that makes a baseball and softball scorekeeper app, is moving to the Financial District. The company has signed a 17K SF lease at 44 Wall St., the office tower owned by Equity Office. Asking rent was in the high $50s/SF, and the company will take up the entire 11th floor in the building. GameChanger will move from 86 Chambers St. Cushman & Wakefield's Haley Fisher and Mitch Arkin represented GameChanger, and CBRE's Adam Foster, Michael Rizzo, Zachary Price and Caroline Merck, alongside in-house brokers Zachary Freeman and Scott Silverstein, represented Equity Office.
***
The New York School of the Arts has a new, Upper East Side home. The not-for-profit school signed a 9K SF lease for the second floor at Olmstead Properties' 315 East 62nd St., with an option to take another 9K SF on the sixth floor. The school will move from 1083 Fifth Ave., where it has occupied space in the National Academy Museum and School. Lee & Associates' Kenneth Salzman and Seth Rosen represented the school, while Olmstead's Steve Marvin represented the landlord in-house. Asking rent was $62/SF, according to Lee & Associates.
TOP SALES
CIM Group has closed on its sale of the skinny apartment tower at 47 East 34th St. in Murray Hill. The Los Angeles-based developer and investor got $80M from a joint venture of H.I.G. Realty Partners and Morgenstern Capital for what is known as Madison Park Tower. The new owners secured a $50M acquisition loan for the property, which has a checkered past, including CIM settling with the New York Attorney General for a $4.4M fine after it was accused of illegally operating the apartment building as a hotel.
***
Cayuga Capital Management has sold its new apartment building at 626 Bushwick Ave., a 99-unit development on which it wrapped up construction earlier this year. Cayuga, led by Jacob Sacks, bought the 27K SF development site for $4.1M in 2011, and sold the completed building for $51M. Wildenstein & Co. bought the property, which is partly a converted red-brick church, for more than $1,100/SF.
***
A JV of ASB and 60 Guilders acquired a Sunset Park industrial portfolio for $47M. The properties, at 5110-5112 Second Ave. and 15 Garnet St., comprise a 202K SF warehouse, which includes an office component, and a 7K SF annex. The New York City Board of Elections occupies the warehouse, which figures to grow in value as more industrial users — and, potentially, Amazon — gravitate toward the Brooklyn waterfront neighborhood.
Sales data courtesy of Reonomy.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
The Chetrit Group and Stellar Management have locked down a $400M refinancing deal on two Upper East Side apartment buildings. At 160 East 88th St. and 305 East 86th St., the two properties combined hold about 800 units. Chetrit and Stellar combined to pay $500M to acquire them in 2014 from the estate of Irving Schneider, the longtime business partner of Harry Helmsley. Natixis Real Estate Capital originated the loan.
***
Fetner Properties has refinanced its 59-story apartment building at 125 West 31st St. in Midtown Manhattan for $202M. The building, which includes a parking garage, is known as the Epic and contains 458 units. Two loans, a $176.8M senior loan to replace the existing loan and a new, $25M debt package, were provided by the New York State Housing Finance Agency, according to The Real Deal.
***
Jack Resnick & Sons has refinanced its office condo at Symphony House at 1755 Broadway for $125M. The eight-story commercial component was refinanced through a loan with Prudential Insurance, and it sits below 33 stories of rental apartments.
Financing data provided courtesy of Reonomy.
