This Week’s N.Y. Deal Sheet

After a busy August, New York City commercial real estate dealmaking fell off around the Labor Day holiday, but a few notable deals did close, including a long-awaited takeover of a Park Avenue tower.

TOP SALES

SL Green has acquired 245 Park Ave. from distressed former owner PWM Property Management, which is an affiliate of China’s HNA Group, in a deal that closed Friday, the New York Post reported. HNA placed the 48-story, 1.8M SF office tower into bankruptcy late last year despite a positive cash flow and removed SL Green as the property manager, resulting in an arbitrator's decision in May that HNA should pay SL Green $185M — a ruling upheld by a court in July. Lenders on the tower agreed to keep in place a $1.2B fixed-rate loan for SL Green on terms mostly identical to the original agreement with HNA, according to the Post. The arrangement gives SL Green total control of the property, which retains mortgage and mezzanine loans maturing in June 2027 that reach a total sum of $1.76B.

***

Developer Marcal Group has sold its 160K SF Calko Medical Center, located at 6010 Bay Parkway in Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst neighborhood for $81.5M, The Real Deal reports. Tenants include an urgent care center, a pathology lab, a pharmacy, the Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn Surgery Center and Genesis Fertility & Reproductive Medicine. The buyer was a joint venture of Dallas-based private equity firm MedProperties Realty Advisors and Wisconsin-based Physicians Realty Trust. Commercial real estate adviser Maarten Deschaumes, a managing partner at LEC Advisors, brokered the deal. 

***

RAL Cos. and residential real estate developer China Vanke have entered into contract to sell a Brooklyn Heights multifamily building to Goldman Sachs’ real estate fund for $90M, The Real Deal reported. The 15-story building at 15 Bridge Park Drive has 140 units — 70% of which are income-restricted — and was developed as part of Brooklyn Bridge Park and received a 35-year tax break under a PILOT abatement program. A Cushman & Wakefield team led by Adam Spies and Adam Doneger brokered the sale.

TOP LEASES

Asana, a workplace software company founded by former Facebook executives, has expanded its footprint at 3 World Trade Center, growing from 17K SF to 61K SF at the building. The San Francisco-based tech company gives developer and owner Silverstein Properties another win at the building after law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer agreed to relocate there from Midtown in a 180K SF lease. Asana signed its initial lease in 2019. The building, New York's fifth-tallest, is now 90% leased, a spokesperson said.

***

Global specialist investment firm Corsair Capital LP has signed a 24K SF lease at the Olayan Group’s recently landmarked 550 Madison Ave. office building, according to a release. The investment firm is taking the entire 22nd floor for 15 years at the Madison Avenue property in a relocation from 717 Fifth Ave. The 41-story office building opened in 1984 and long served as the headquarters for Sony. The Olayan Group acquired the building in 2016, and has since signed insurer Chubb and luxury fashion house Hermès to the property. CBRE’s Mary Ann Tighe, Howard Fiddle and Scott Gottlieb represented the landlord in the transaction, while CBRE’s Silvio Petriello and Chris Corrinet represented the tenant.

***

Westbrook Partners signed full-service law firm Schwartz Sladkus Reich Greenberg Atlas LLP for 45K SF at its 444 Madison Ave. office tower, according to a release. The lease agreement renewed the firm’s existing 33K SF space for 10 years and added another 12K SF, making SSRGA the anchor tenant at the 42-story tower. SSRGA will have access to the entire sixth floor as well as portions of the fifth and seventh floors, all of which will be interconnected by internal stairwells. JLL’s Mitchell Konsker represented the law firm in the deal, while CBRE’s Paul Amrich and Meghan Allen represented Westbrook.

***

Columbia Property Trust has agreed to lease 9K SF at 799 Broadway to venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, according to a release. The newly completed 12-story office building between Manhattan’s Greenwich Village and Union Square is now 85% leased, with tenants including investment management firms Wellington Management and Bain Capital Ventures, as well as national mortgage lending and servicing organization Rithm Capital. Asking rents in the Lightspeed deal were $175 per SF, sources told Bisnow. JLL’s Mitchell Konsker, Benjamin Bass and Sam Seiler represented Columbia Property Trust. Steven Rotter, Brett Harvey, Hugh Scott and Derek Johnson, also of JLL, represented Lightspeed.

***

GFP Real Estate has signed four tenants totaling 9K SF to its 20-story Chelsea office tower at 80 Eighth Ave., according to a release. Political strategy firm Whitman Insight Strategies has signed a 10-year lease extension for almost 4K SF on the 12th floor with representation from Jeffrey Nissani of JSN Properties. Policy think tank Center for an Urban Future signed a seven-year lease for more than 2K SF on the seventh floor and was represented by Debra Wollens of Cushman & Wakefield. Psychiatrist Justin C. James signed a three-year lease extension for 2K SF, also on the seventh floor, with representation from Matthew Mandell and Sam Mohabir of GFP Real Estate. Residential construction and remodeling company Rockline Corp signed a three-year lease on the third floor for 820 SF of retail space, with representation from Brickhouse Group LLC’s Katarina Sundqvist. GFP’s Matthew Mandell also repped the landlord in all the transactions.

TOP FINANCING DEALS

Domain Cos., along with partners Vorea Group and Mega Development, has scored a $142M construction loan for its 540 DeGraw St. mixed-use development, according to a release. The eventual 12-story property in the rezoned Gowanus neighborhood will feature 255 apartments, a quarter of which will be affordable, along with 18K SF of commercial space. It is scheduled for completion in 2025. The loan comes from U.S. Bank, and Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group is a limited partner investor. This is the second loan for Domain in recent weeks following a $176M construction package for 420 Carroll St., a 350-unit building in the same neighborhood. A JLL debt and equity advisory team including Christopher Peck, Nicco Lupo, Jeff Julien, Rob Hinckley and Jonathan Faxon secured the financing for the borrower.

***

A&E Real Estate secured a $188M mortgage in the last week of August for its late April purchase of 140 Riverside Blvd., The Real Deal reports. Over the summer months, A&E reportedly filed permits for renovations to the building’s lobby, as well as to bathroom fixtures and appliances in a dozen apartments in the 345-unit multifamily building. Los Angeles-based Mesa West Capital supplied the mortgage for 140 Riverside, one of two Upper West Side multifamily properties acquired by A&E from Equity Residential this year.