This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
Leasing activity in New York City picked up last week, with several office spaces announcing tenant expansions and renewals, while lenders focused more on industrial and residential properties.
TOP LEASES
Marx Realty signed four tenants totaling 34K SF of new and expanded leases at its 10 Grand Central office tower in Midtown, according to a release. Health innovation conference organizer HLTH renewed its original 7K SF and added another 12K SF to its lease, taking space on the sixth and seventh floors of the building at 155 East 44th St. Golf investing company LIV Golf Inc. and investment advisor Family Management Corp. both took around 5K SF on the 32nd and 21st floors, respectively, while technology company Kasa Living signed for 2K SF on the 21st floor and Mediterranean fast-casual chain Cava took 2,600 SF on the ground floor.
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Park Tower Group has brought its 535 Madison Ave. office tower to 100% leased after signing 39K SF of new leases. Bain Capital NY LLC doubled its space in the building, adding 15K SF on the 30th floor to its existing 14K SF space on the 29th floor in an 11-year deal, according to a release. FTV Management Co. also expanded its footprint in the building, tacking on the entire 33rd floor to its 12K SF renewal for the 32nd floor. Garda Capital Partners has relocated and expanded in the building as well, moving from 3,800 SF on the 21st floor to the entire 12K SF 34th floor. Cushman & Wakefield Boston’s Bryan Boisi and Connor Barnes represented Bain Capital, Colliers’ Howard Grufferman and Reid Longley represented FTV and Newmark’s Brent Ozarowski and Kevin Sullivan represented Garda Capital Partners. CBRE’s Brian Gell and Laurence Briody handled the deals for Park Tower Group.
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Blackstone tripled its 100K SF footprint at 601 Lexington Ave to 300K SF, where its current lease will expire in 2028, Bloomberg reports. The global investment business is still reportedly seeking 1.5M SF in NYC for its global headquarters as its workforce grows. Blackstone was represented by Newmark in the transaction. Landlord Boston Properties secured $1B in refinancing for the 59-story Midtown East tower in December, which valued it at approximately $2B, Commercial Observer reported at the time.
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L&L Holding Co.’s landmarked Class-A lower Manhattan tower, 195 Broadway, has a new occupant across almost 42K SF, Commercial Observer reports. Human resources firm Lattice subleased the space from HR outsourcing firm Namely for three and a half years. Asking rents were $45 per SF. Lattice was represented by Brooks Hauf, Peter Johnson and Leah Zafra of Avison Young and Namely was repped by JLL’s Kyle Riker, Justin Haber, Brett Harvey and Steve Rotter.
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The New York State Office of General Services renewed its 41K SF lease at 123 William St., Commercial Observer reported. CBRE’s Stephen Siegel and Bruce Surry brokering the deal for the government agency. Landlord New York City REIT also renewed two other tenants: executive search firm LHi Group expanded from 8K SF on the 14th floor to take up the entire 12K SF 26th floor, while law firm Pro Counsel renewed its almost 5K SF lease for space on the 15th floor. The Instant Group’s Gethan Davies represented LHi, while Todd Korren of Avison Young represented the landlord.
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Cedar Holdings' South Bronx property 830 Barry St. has two new tenants, Commercial Observer reported. Jerusalem Furniture took 15K of ground-floor industrial space and a 5K SF parking lot with an asking rent of $18 per SF. Juice and health product maker Amenazel Organic took 7K SF on the second floor, with an asking rent of $22 per SF. Both tenants have pre-established retail operations in other South Bronx neighborhoods and signed on to the Mott Haven space for 10 years, with the option of a 5-year extension. Brokerage Tri-State represented all three parties, with Dov Bleich handling the deal for Jerusalem Furniture, Zack Setton representing Amenazel Organic, and Avi Avika representing the landlord alongside Bleich.
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The former Alhambra Ballroom, famed for its past as a Harlem vaudeville theater with celebrity guests including Duke Ellington, will be partially occupied by the New York French American Charter School, Commercial Observer reports. The charter school will occupy 13K SF of the building, taking up the whole third floor. Brett Zelner and Dawn Chartoff of Helmsley Spear represented the tenant at the 2108-2118 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. space. Paul Walker of CBRE represented landlord, Jem Realty Management, which acquired the space for $21.5M in 2014.
TOP LOANS
Seagis Property Group scored $60.8M in financing from Chase for a series of seven light industrial buildings totaling almost 200K SF in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, JLL Capital Markets, which brokered the deal, announced. Alex Staikos, Michael Lachs, Jim Cadranell and Gregory Nalbandian of JLL Capital Markets Debt Placement represented Seagis in the deal, a 10-year, fixed-rate, interest-only, nonrecourse loan. The Class-B properties are fully leased, according to the press release.
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Nuveen Real Estate and Taconic Partners secured $79M in bridge financing from Ares Management to refinance their joint venture project at 309 East 94th St. and 324 East 95th St., Commercial Observer reports. The property, which was originally a manufacturing building in 1927 when it was first built, was later converted to a loft-style office building in the 1980s. Taconic and Nuveen have not yet decided its end use, although the firms have previously partnered on a life sciences conversion project at 125 West End Ave. Manhattan.
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Kriss Capital will loan Xin Development Group $45M to refinance the Chinese developer's Brooklyn waterfront development The Oosten, Commercial Observer reported. The developer purchased the 216-unit building, which sits at 429 Kent Ave., in 2012 for $54M. Stephen Muller of Vanadium Realty handled the deal.
TOP SALES
A&E Real Estate has bought a 14-building multifamily portfolio with 1,217 units from LeFrak for $250M. The buildings are located in Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay and Gravesend neighborhoods, and the vast majority of the units are rent-stabilized. Adam Spies, Adam Doneger and Daniel O'Brien of Cushman & Wakefield handled the sale.
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An international all-girls yeshiva has purchased a 42K SF space at 760 DeKalb Ave., according to a release. The school, Be’Er Miriam, bought the property from owner Shlomi Avdoo for $13.1M. B6 Real Estate Investors’ DJ Johnston, William Cheng, Michael Murphy and Ben Rechler brokered the sale.
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A&E Real Estate has bought a third property from SL Green within the space of a year, according to a release. A 20-story apartment building at 1080 Amsterdam Ave. featuring 96 units and a ground-floor storefront sold to A&E for $42.5M, making it A&E’s fourth major multifamily acquisition in 2022. A&E also bought 400 East 57th St. and 400 East 58th St. from SL Green in October and April 2021, respectively.
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A joint venture between ZG Capital and Rialto Capital Management has signed a deal to purchase the building housing former Santander’s headquarters from MEK Management Services for $105M, the New York Post reports. ZG and Rialto plan to spend between $60M and $80M on capital upgrades and add new tenant amenities to the 45 East 53rd St. building.
CORRECTION, APRIL 21, 5:15 P.M. ET: A previous version of this article misstated how much of the 535 Madison Ave. office tower had been leased. This article has been updated.
