This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
This week, Bank OZK made two major loans in Manhattan, WeWork subleased out a big chunk of space to a bank and an office building in Long Island City traded hands.
TOP LEASES
Santander Bank is moving into a WeWork space, taking 160K SF in a sublease deal with the coworking company at 437 Madison Ave. in Midtown, The Real Deal reports. WeWork will manage the space for the U.S. arm of the Spanish financial giant. Building owners William Kaufman Organization and Travelers Cos. signed WeWork to a 362K SF lease there in 2019, around the time former CEO Adam Neumann was ousted. JLL’s Clark Finney represented WeWork, and Santander was represented by Avison Young’s Arthur Mirante and Mitti Liebersohn. Rents were $90 per SF, according to TRD.
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Arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby is opening its first New York City store with a 43K SF space in The Crossing, a strip mall next to the enclosed Staten Island Mall. The landlord is Brookfield Properties, which was represented in-house by Alex Varon. Katz & Associates’ Brain Katz and Daniel DePasquale represented the tenant. The store is expected to open next year.
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Property manager FirstService Residential leased 48K SF at 575 Fifth Ave., the 40-story, 500K SF building owned by Beacon Capital Partners. The space is across the ninth and 10th floors of the building, which underwent a $25M renovation in 2016. Colliers’ Mark Friedman represented the tenant, while the landlord was represented in-house.
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Nonprofit Cicatelli Associates signed a 34K SF renewal and expansion at 505 Eighth Ave. It grew by nearly 5K SF at the GFP Real Estate-owned property, where its new lease runs for 10 years. Rents were not made public, but prices in the building are in the mid-to-low $40 per SF. GFP was represented in-house by Allen Gurevich and Savills’ Mark Shapes represented the tenant.
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Fashion app Vestiaire Collective leased 21K SF at Liberty Bklyn, a 1.3M SF industrial complex located at 850 Third Ave. along the waterfront of the Gowanus Bay. The property is owned by Madison Capital and Salmar Properties. Vestiaire Collective is making use of the building’s loading and shipping capabilities, per a release. The tenant was represented by Marilynn Joyner and Eric Deutsch of CBRE. Liberty Bklyn was represented by David Junik, Nechama Liberow, Steve Nadel and Mark Caso of Pinnacle Realty.
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Performing arts nonprofit The Barrow Group leased 13K SF at GFP’s 520 Eighth Ave. The ninth-floor space in the 860K SF building was previously occupied by the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. OPEN Impact Real Estate founders Stephen Powers and Lindsay Ornstein, along with Transwestern’s Jake Cinti, represented the tenant in the deal. The landlord was represented in-house by Matthew Mandell.
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UsTwo, a digital product studio, leased 11,500 at Two Trees' 20 Jay St. in Brooklyn, the landlord told Bisnow. The company is moving from 26 Broadway in Manhattan to Brooklyn. The location will house UsTwo’s 40 U.S. employees.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
Bank OZK led a round of $967M in construction financing to Extell Development for a new condo project on the Upper West Side, Commercial Observer reports. Bank OZK provided $800M as the senior lender, while JVP Management provided Extell $167M in mezzanine financing. Extell, led by Gary Barnett, is planning a 69-story luxury project at 50 West 66th St.
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Bank OZK provided $200M in financing to Flag Luxury Group for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Residences in NoMad at 25 West 28th St., The Real Deal reports. The money will go to refinance a $199.6M construction loan provided by Atalaya Capital in 2018. The developer, which also secured EB-5 financing for the luxury hotel and condo project, wrapped up construction and is expected to open sometime this spring, New York YIMBY reports.
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Capital One loaned $23.3M to GFP Real Estate to refinance 71 Thomas St. in TriBeCa, also known as 151 West Broadway, the landlord told Bisnow. The seven-story, 133K SF building is leased to the Supreme Court of the State of New York.
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Starwood Property Trust loaned $49M to Turnbridge Equities and Dune Real Estate Partners LP for the acquisition and construction of a logistics facility at 807 Bank St. and 300 DeWitt Ave. in Brooklyn, according to JLL. When built, the property will feature 80K SF of warehouse space, per the release, as well as 92K SF of parking — a fast-growing niche of the industrial sector. JLL Director Christopher Peck and Managing Director Peter Rotchford arranged the financing on behalf of the borrower.
TOP SALES
Columbia Property Trust sold an office building at 25-11 49th Ave. in Long Island City for $82.5M, PincusCo reports. The buyer of the building, which spans 194K SF, appears to be a Sotheby’s affiliate, with the signature for the buyer listed as Steven Wrightson, the director of operations at Sotheby’s, per the outlet. CXP is in the midst of being acquired by PIMCO in a $2.2B deal.
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Alchemy Ventures paid Willowick Properties $32M for a pair of Greenwich Village walk-up apartment buildings, Crain’s New York Business reports. 140 and 142 West Fourth St. are each six stories tall and together have 24 apartments, per StreetEasy.
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Brookfield Properties is acquiring a Bronx self-storage property from Cayre Equities, Crain's New York Business reports. The Canadian asset management giant paid $48.2M for 2325 Hollers Ave. in the Eastchester neighborhood, a 100K SF Treasure Island Storage facility built in 2018, according to a LoopNet listing.
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United Construction, led by Chris Xu, paid $40.1M for two industrial buildings in Long Island City, PincusCo reported. Avrohom Becker sold the properties at 42-61 24th St. United scored $23M in acquisition financing for the two buildings from Bank of China, according to property records.
