This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
Leasing activity has picked up in Manhattan with several relocations and renewals hitting the wire.
TOP LEASES
Tishman Speyer has signed law firm Baker Tilly and Swedish financial services group SEB to 43K SF of combined office space to its Far West Side tower The Spiral, which is now 72% leased, according to a release. Baker Tilly is moving to 28K SF on the 22nd floor from One Penn Plaza later this year, according to Bloomberg, while SEB is moving to 15K SF on the 28th floor from its current office at 245 Park Ave. Tishman Speyer's in-house leasing team repped the landlord on the deals, while Baker Tilly was represented by CBRE’s Geoffrey Euston, David Glassman and Joe Cabrera and SEB had representation from Cushman & Wakefield’s Jonathan Schindler and Aron Schreier. The Bjarke Ingels Group-designed office building offers 2.8M SF and has biopharmaceutical company Pfizer as its anchor tenant, with other major tenants including AllianceBernstein, Turner Construction and the U.S. headquarters for HSBC. The 1,031-foot-high skyscraper has asking rents ranging from $125 to $225 per SF, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
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CBS Broadcasting signed a 186K SF lease renewal with SL Green at 555 West 57th St. for five years. CBS has been in the 20-story building for more than three decades, but it is reducing its space — an analyst on SL Green's earnings call last week pointed out that the deal amounted to a 40% space reduction. Also in the building, the Greater New York Hospital Association renewed its 58K SF lease for 10 years with representation from Cushman & Wakefield’s Josh Kuriloff and Drew Braver. CBS was represented by CBRE’s Scott Gottlieb, Andrew Sussman and Rocco Laginestra. BMW has 227K SF at the property, previously known as the Ford Motors Building, where asking rents were $62 per SF.
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Pharmaceutical company Novartis and investment firm HBK Capital Management signed 32K SF worth of leases at Property & Building Corp.’s 452 Fifth Ave., according to a release. Novartis took all of the nearly 16K SF 12th floor and HBK took the same amount on the 22nd floor in a nearby relocation from its current offices at One Bryant Park. Located near the New York Public Library in Midtown, 452 Fifth's other tenants include law firm Baker McKenzie, Lombard Odier and Varadero Capital. Property & Building Corp. was repped by a JLL team that included Paul Glickman, Ben Bass, Kristen Morgan and Kate Roush. CBRE brokers repped both tenants, with David Stockel and Christopher Menard working on behalf of Novartis and Silvio Petrillo and Tamika Kramer on behalf of HBK.
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The Consulate General of Ireland New York will have a new Manhattan home location at Tishman Speyer’s 200 Park Ave., where it will take 43K SF, per a release. The Consulate General will relocate from its current digs at 345 Park Ave. in 2024 and will take up residence on the 17th floor along with other diplomatic missions from the Irish government, including the Irish Food Board, the Ireland Funds and CIE Tours. A Savills team including David Goldstein, Jim Wenk, Sam Mann and Allison Buck repped the tenant, while the landlord was repped in-house by Megan Sheehan, Gus Field and Sam Brodsky.
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A tenant at SL Green’s 125 Park Ave. has expanded. TD Securities, the investment arm of TD Bank, signed for another 25K SF. That comes in addition to the 52K SF that the firm took on in 2018, and puts the investment firm across the street from its 171K SF main office space in SL Green’s One Vanderbilt. This latest expansion gives TD Securities the entire 23rd floor of 125 Park, and means that TD Bank has more than 247K SF across SL Green’s portfolio, Commercial Observer reported. 125 Park is a 26-story, 655K SF property that will soon mark its 100th birthday. It was designated a historic site in 2016 by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Other tenants include Blink Fitness, Pandora Media and Meister Seelig & Fein.
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The King’s College, a private Christian liberal arts school, has renewed its sublease with the United Federation of Teachers for 52 Broadway but has cut its space by almost half, Commercial Observer reported. The school has signed for 53K SF, downsizing from 81K SF in a deal that covers the lobby, and fifth and sixth floors. Despite the reduction, it scored a tenant improvement package from UFT. King’s College has been in the property since 2012, which UFT rents from Jack Resnick & Sons and Ruben Cos. UFT was repped by a Cushman & Wakefield team in the sublease renewal, while King’s College was repped by Armano Real Estate’s Joe Armano.
TOP SALES
MetLife has purchased a pair of multifamily properties in Williamsburg from Clarion Partners for $68.1M in one of this year’s first big multifamily sales to close, The Real Deal reported. The 42-unit 44 Berry St. building has a J-51 tax abatement that expires this summer, while the 36-unit building at 139 North 10th St., also known as the Print House Lofts, is entirely market rate. Clarion Partners purchased the two properties for almost $58M in 2011 and 2014.
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InterVest Capital Partners, formerly known as Wafra Capital Partners, has snagged a 503-unit, seven-building multifamily in the Bronx for $65M, per a release. The 498K SF portfolio is made up of properties constructed between 1900 and 1930, with four in the Concourse neighborhood, two in Fordham Manor and one in Belmont, Commercial Observer reported. Taconic and Clarion acquired the portfolio, known as the Quality Communities portfolio, in 2018 and have invested approximately $16M. The sale of the properties, located at 1098-1114 Gerard Ave., 1197 Grand Concourse, 1065 Jerome Ave., 1534 Selwyn Ave., 2543-2567 Decatur Ave., 2608 Creston Ave. and 2353-3257 Crotona Ave., was brokered by Cushman & Wakefield’s Adam Spies, Adam Doneger and Eric Roth.
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Menswear retailer Portabella Stores has purchased a retail store at 58-66 East Fordham Road in the Bronx for $20.1M, Crain’s New York Business reports. The sale gives Portabella a location for its seventh Bronx-based store, per the store locator on its website. The seller, Roberts Equities, is a privately held real estate firm focused on retail in New York and Florida. Roberts Equities acquired the property in 2002, according to public records.
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Car dealership BRAM Auto Group bought a Queens outpost this week for $17.4M, Crain’s New York Business reported. Jongsera Realty Corp, which owned the property for nearly 24 years, according to public records, was the seller for the industrial-zoned Woodside property at 56-08 37th Ave.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
L+M Development Partners, along with Bluestone Organization and Triangle Equities, scored a $44.66M loan from the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s Housing Infrastructure Fund for their Edgemere Avenue redevelopment. The development is slated to bring 1,650 units via Arverne East, an 80% affordable housing complex, and will feature a community space and a 35-acre nature preserve between Beach 44th Street and Beach 56th Place managed by the NYC Parks Department. Edgemere will also create a retail corridor connecting the 36th Street subway station to the beach, anchored by a brewery and restaurant operated by the Rockaway Brewery Co., plus a beachfront hotel. The funding injection will go specifically toward the infrastructure component of the project. Crain's New York Business was first to report the loan.
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Wharton Properties snagged a $260M refinancing deal for its 724 Fifth Ave. office tower, where luxe fashion retailer Prada has a long-term lease, The Real Deal reported. German lender Aareal Capital Corp. provided the loan for the 12-story building, replacing its previous $235M loan from 2021. Aareal also provided a $235M loan for the property in 2017. Wharton has owned 724 Fifth since 2012, when it purchased the building for $223M in a joint venture with SL Green and Stonehenge Partners. Another building Sutton co-owns with SL Green, 1552 Broadway, failed to pay off its $193M loan by its December maturity, the REIT disclosed in its fourth-quarter earnings report.
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Charter school network KIPP NYC scored a $209M permanent loan for a new high school in the South Bronx’s Mott Haven neighborhood. The Bank of New York Mellon provided the financing for the school, which will be located near the waterfront at 75 Canal St. West, Crain’s reported. KIPP, short for Knowledge Is Power Program, bought the site for $21.7M in May 2021 and last year filed its plans for the 150K SF school with the Department of Buildings. KIPP expects to build a seven-story, 121-foot-tall building designed by firm Perkins Eastman for approximately $117M. The school is expected to serve approximately 1,400 students and plans to open in August 2025.
