This Week’s N.Y. Deal Sheet
This week saw a handful of law firms and financial services companies, the tenant groups that were behind most of last quarter's leases, sign deals while the majority of the city's sales and financing deals took place in the outer boroughs.
TOP LEASES
Tishman Speyer is getting a new tenant at 45 Rockefeller Plaza, according to a release. Puig, the home of Love Brands, is moving into 25K SF, the entire 32nd floor of the property, this fall in a relocation and expansion from its 13K SF space at 183 Madison Ave. Tishman Speyer didn’t disclose the brokers used, lease length or asking rents, but asking rents in Midtown Manhattan were approximately $79.85 per SF in the second quarter, according to Newmark.
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Law firm Goulston & Storrs is expanding its Manhattan office footprint with a relocation to Nuveen Real Estate's 730 Third Ave. The law firm is expanding from its current 25K SF at 885 Third Ave. with a 10-year lease that comes with renewal options. Nuveen recently finished a redevelopment of the property, adding tenant amenities including 5K SF of conference facilities, a 7K SF landscaped terrace, a golf simulator lounge, a fitness center and what Nuveen bills as a "first-in-market" amenity of corporate lactation suites from Work & Mother. As part of the new lease, Goulston & Storrs will occupy a single, larger floor rather than being spread across two floors. CBRE’s John Nugent and Emily Chabrier repped the tenant, while Paul Amrich and Neil King, also of CBRE, repped the landlord.
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Landlords Atlas Capital Group, Partners Group and Invesco have signed a 23K SF lease renewal with Transel Elevator & Electric, or TEI Group, extending its time on the property’s sixth floor by another 10 years. Vacancy in the property, located at 30-30 47th Ave., is now just 5%, compared to the 18.1% average in the surrounding area. The Factory was built in 1926 and was previously a furniture warehouse for Macy’s. Current ownership renovated the space to upgrade its lobby, create a lounge and add a food marketplace and fitness facility, among other amenities. Brian Waterman, Howard Kesseler, Jordan Gosin and Alex Rosenblum of Newmark represented ownership in the negotiations.
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Capital markets company GTS is staying put at Marx Realty’s 545 Madison Ave., Commercial Observer reported. GTS signed a two-year lease extension for its 30K SF office across four floors of the 17-story property, where the company has had offices for roughly 10 years. Marx Realty has been completing upgrades since partway through the pandemic, which have ushered in lobby renovations, a library and a doorman, in addition to a two-story penthouse due to be completed in January.
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Vornado Realty Trust signed investment adviser and wealth manager Canaccord Genuity Group to 75K SF at Penn 1, the New York Post first reported. The developer transformed the Seventh Avenue office tower, spanning 2.5M SF, with its recent $450M redesign and has been able to increase asking rents from the mid-$60s two years ago to $103 per SF. Other tenants include Dell, Empire Health and Cisco, and 370K SF is still available. Vornado was repped in-house, while Commercial Observer reported that Cushman & Wakefield’s Robert Lowe and Paige Engeldrum repped Canaccord.
TOP SALES
A five-parcel, 8.6-acre site at 2784 Linden Blvd. in Brooklyn has sold for $40M, according to a release. The property is currently home to Showcase Cinemas, which has been in the location since 1998 and currently operates a 69K SF freestanding cinema. National Amusements sold the property to Bogopa Enterprises with representation from Atlantic Capital Partners' David Smookler, Joe Mastromonaco, Peter Considine, Ted Gildea, Justin Smith, Chris Peterson and Danielle Donovan. It’s unclear who brokered the deal on behalf of the buyer.
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A new medical facility may be coming to Jamaica, Queens, following the sale of a 21K SF property at 143-02 Jamaica Ave., according to a release. Buyer Jamaica Hospital/Medisys Health Network plans to put the property to an unspecified medical use after purchasing the building, which includes a working basement, from Top Rock Holdings for $10.5M. Ripco's Michelle Abramov, Greg Batista, Stephen Preuss and Kevin Schmitz are among the team that executed the sale, which closed in the final days of June.
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A commercial property in Flushing has changed hands for $37.5M, Crain’s New York Business reported. The new owner, New Age Developers, purchased the 136-29 38th Ave. property from Gelfarb Properties. The one-story, corner property spans 12K SF, according to PropertyShark, and is listed as a location for the National Bank of New York City.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
North Carolina-based firm Grubb Properties has scored a $48M pre-development financing loan from Naftali Credit Partners for its planned development at 8 Carlisle St., according to a release. Grubb Properties is planning a 64-story affordable housing tower at the Financial District location, bringing 462 apartments to the neighborhood in addition to 7K SF of retail space, New York YIMBY previously reported. The loan proceeds were used to refinance an existing land loan, with the remainder going toward the project’s carrying cost.
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The developer behind a new 275K SF production studio coming to Sunnyside, Queens, nabbed a $193M construction loan for the project’s ground-up development, according to a release. Lenders Canyon Partners Real Estate and JPMorgan teamed up on the loan to East End Studios for the Sunnyside Campus, which will contain three 75K SF soundstages as well as a 15K SF flex stage on the rooftop, 125K SF of production, office and mill space and 225 below-grade parking spots. The project also benefits from a tax incentive provided to East End Studios by the New York City Industrial Development Agency, which was negotiated by Think Forward Financial’s Sunil Aggarwal. The development is expected to complete in Q1 2025.
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Apple Bank will lend $30M to Brause Realty to upgrade its 700K SF Brewster LIC office property, according to a release. The Class-A office asset at 27-01 Queens Plaza North is currently 72% leased, with airline JetBlue and Aramis, an Estée Lauder company, among its tenants. It is also partway through a capital improvement project, which is bringing a new 13K SF food and beverage facility to the property in addition to a 10K SF conference area, a tenant lounge, a fitness center and a bike room. A debt and structured finance team from Cushman & Wakefield that included Gideon Gil, Lauren Kaufman and Dale Braverman represented the borrower in the deal.
