This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
A handful of larger leases were signed this week in New York as office owners rejiggered their tenant roster amid the ongoing flight-to-quality shake-up, but sales and loans remained slow.
TOP LEASES
Related Cos. signed a trio of leases totaling 77K SF at its Hudson Yards megaproject, the New York Post reported. Financial planner J.F. Lehman & Co. signed for 29K SF at 55 Hudson Yards for 10 years, doubling its New York City footprint from its current 13K SF space at 110 East 59th St., Commercial Observer reported. Matthew Lorberbaum and Brian Goldman of Newmark represented J.F. Lehman, while Related’s Stephen Winter and Elliot Karp brokered the deal in-house for the landlord. Law firm Milbank LLP also signed for 28K SF, taking the entire 29th floor of 55 Hudson Yards for 10 years and expanding its space in the building to 315K SF through an existing option in its lease, in a deal brokered on the tenant’s behalf by Dale Schlather and Greg Herman of Cushman & Wakefield.
Liberty Mutual signed for 20K SF at neighboring 50 Hudson Yards, taking a portion of the 65th floor in the 2.9M SF tower, with Michael McKenna and Maureen Young of Cresa representing the insurance firm. Asking rents were almost $129 per SF in the area in the first quarter of this year, per a report from Colliers, and were reportedly between $175 and $240 per SF at 50 Hudson Yards last year.
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Paramount Group signed law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati to 119K SF at its 31 West 52nd St. property, Commercial Observer reported. The 16.5-year lease will see Wilson Sonsini sharing the building with law firms Holland & Knight and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman when it moves into the space. Wilson Sonsini will backfill part of the space left by outgoing law firm Clifford Chance, which is moving to Brookfield Properties’ 2 Manhattan West. Paramount Group said it plans to partner with Wilson Sonsini to “de-risk” the remaining vacancy in the 29-story, 768K SF building as Clifford Chance gradually vacates its spaces when its lease expires next year.
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Securitas Security Services USA Inc. has signed a 10-year lease for 19K SF at 498 Seventh Ave., according to a release. The 25-story, 960K SF building, jointly owned by George Comfort & Sons Inc., Loeb Partners Realty and JR AMC, is now 96% leased, with other tenants including construction specialists Milrose Consultants, engineering firm Cosentini Associates, design and construction firm The McKissack Group and environmental services company Hazen and Sawyer. The property recently went through an upgrade process to create new entrances on Seventh Avenue and 37th and 36th streets to a through-block lobby with help from architecture firm Gensler. Securitas will take space on the 14th floor, with the only remaining available spaces in the building being a 30K SF spot on the 21st floor and a 6K SF pre-built suite.
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Gym chain VITAL has signed a 45K SF lease at Essex Crossing development with landlord Delancey Street Associates, a joint venture of Taconic Partners, L+M Development Partners, BFC Partners, the Prusik Group and the Urban Investment Group of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, according to a release. The full-service fitness and climbing gym center will be located at 182 Broome St., with three levels of offerings including bouldering, yoga, cycling, fitness classes and workspaces plus an indoor garden. VITAL was represented by CBRE’s Lon Rubackin, Michael Kadosh and Bevin Cohen.
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Educational program for toddlers, preschoolers and prekindergarteners Round The Clock Nursery has signed a 16K SF lease at Jay Group’s 28-story Hamilton Heights development at 620 West 153rd St., Commercial Observer reported. The 238-unit building delivered last year. Round The Clock chose the space, which had asking rents of $55 per SF for the 12K SF ground floor and $45 for the 4K SF lower-level space, for its proximity to three other daycares it operates in Harlem as well as the site’s 3K SF of outdoor space. Eli Yadid and Sholom Kanevsky of Kassin Sabbagh repped both the tenant and the landlord in the deal.
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GFP Real Estate has signed six new tenants totaling 28K SF at its 515 Madison Ave. building. Paris-based fashion house Zadig & Voltaire signed for 12K SF for a 10-year term with representation from Runyon Group’s Michael Leifer. The new location will serve as the luxury brand's New York City headquarters and support its two existing Madison Avenue stores. The brand will relocate its existing SoHo offices, the release said.
Luxury bridal showroom and boutique Mark Ingram Atelier signed a 15-year lease for 8K SF on the second floor of 515 Madison, relocating from 110 East 55th St. with representation from Compass’ Curtis Woodside and Lisa Rosenthal. Private investment bank Fagenson & Co. signed a five-year lease for 2K SF on the third floor, Padell Business Management signed for almost 3K SF on the 19th floor, CNP Staffing Group took nearly 2K SF on the 11th floor, and nonprofit Cleveland H. Dodge Foundation is relocating from 420 Lexington Ave. to almost 2K SF on the 11th floor.
GFP’s Jeffrey Gural and Martin McGrath represented the landlord in the Zadig & Voltaire and the Mark Ingram Atelier deals along with Newmark’s William Grover, with the additional four deals also executed by McGrath and Grover. The 42-story property, built in 1932, was renovated in 2009.
TOP SALES
InterVest Capital Partners has closed on a seven-building portfolio of Bronx multifamily properties, spread across the Belmont, Fordham Manor and Concourse neighborhoods, Commercial Observer reported. Previous owners Taconic Partners and Clarion Partners sold the buildings for a total of $65M, with InterVest taking on a five year, fixed-rate $45M acquisition loan to close the deal. The sale amounts to a loss for Taconic and Clarion, which paid $71M to acquire the properties from Related Cos. and NYC Pension Funds in 2018.
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A Bronx gas storage site has changed hands for $73.5M, Commercial Observer reported. Previously owned by petroleum distributor Buckeye Partners, 1020 and 1040 East 149th St. were purchased by an entity that shares its address with energy supplier Sprague Energy. The deal for the East River waterfront site reportedly closed March 31. Buckeye has further assets in New York, including fuel pipelines to JFK and LaGuardia airports and storage space for up to 18 million barrels of petroleum around the New York Harbor.
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Educational Housing Services, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that provides dormitory-style accommodation to college students and summer interns, has bought The Webster Apartments at 413 West 34th St. for $52.5M, The Real Deal reported. The purchase gives Educational Housing Services 376 units in the Midtown building, which was once a single room occupancy women's apartment building. The sale is the latest expansion by Educational Housing Services, which bought 55 John St. in FiDi for $101M in 2019.
TOP FINANCING
Empire Capital Holdings and Namdar Realty Group scored a $77.4M acquisition loan from Deutsche Bank Wealth Management for a Class-A multifamily asset in Hell’s Kitchen, according to a release. Empire and Namdar teamed up to purchase The Collection at Mercedes House, a 162-unit package consisting of floors 22 to 32 at 540 West 54th St. that features one- to three-bedroom apartments. Residents have access to the 80K SF amenity space the Mercedes Club, which has a day spa, outdoor pool, in-building grocery, resident lounges and workspaces, and a health club. A Cushman & Wakefield equity, debt and structured financing team arranged the loan, with Gideon Gil, Lauren Kaufman and Dale Braverman brokering the deal on behalf of the borrowers with help from Meridian Capita Group’s Rael Gervis and Elliott Kunstlinger.
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Apollo Global Management and Madison Realty Capital provided a $400M loan to the Rabsky Group for its Brooklyn development at 625 Fulton St., The Real Deal reported. The loan replaces a 2021 construction loan of the same value from Madison Realty, fueling the building process for two, 35-story glass towers expected to be delivered in Downtown Brooklyn at some point during 2024, per New York YIMBY. The development will bring 1,046 residential units to the area, with more than 300 earmarked as affordable housing.
