This Week’s N.Y. Deal Sheet
This week saw an uptick in leases signed in New York City — although no huge deals — but sales and financing activity slowed to a near halt as the summer doldrums hit their peak.
TOP LEASES
Gaedeke Group’s 44 Wall St. signed leases totaling 19K SF this week, according to a release. The Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, which tests financial strategies with municipalities, took 12K SF in the property. The fund originally took just shy of 6K SF in 2015, so the new 10-year lease represents an expansion. Software company Street Smarts VR signed for 3K SF on the seventh floor, transitioning from its previous status as subtenant to a direct lease. Sales and marketing intelligence company GovExec also signed for 3K SF in the building, relocating from 61 Broadway. Handler Real Estate Organization’s Darell Handler represented the CFEF, while The Square Foot’s Edward Kent repped Smart Streets VR and Cushman & Wakefield’s Edward Mombello represented GovExec. George Comfort & Sons, which operates the building on behalf of Dallas-based Gaedeke, was represented in-house by Peter Duncan, Matt Coudert and Alexander Bermingham. Asking rents in the property were between $54 and $60 per SF, Commercial Observer reported.
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Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has signed a renewal and expansion deal for 151K SF for its Pfizer Global Supply division at the Hudson Valley iCampus in Rockland County's Pearl River, according to a release. The 2M SF mixed-use campus, which sits 24 miles away from Manhattan, is home to other pharmaceutical and biotech firms including Sanofi, Momentive Performance Materials, Auro Vaccines LLC and Strides Pharma. Pfizer also owns a 23-acre parcel contiguous to the iCampus, and announced last year that it plans to spend $470M developing a laboratory and office building on part of the land. Landlord Industrial Realty Group owns more than 100M SF of real estate across 31 states, with subsidiary IRG Realty Advisors managing the Hudson Valley iCampus. Cushman & Wakefield repped Pfizer, while Hudson Valley iCampus’ Jamie Schwartz repped the landlord in-house.
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CommonWealth Partners has signed a new tenant to 24K SF at 441 Ninth Ave., the building for which it paid $1.3B in December 2021. Sprinklr, which describes itself as a unified customer experience management platform, will move into the 12th floor of the 700K SF Hudson Commons building, joining existing tenants Peloton, Lyft and global financial services firm FNZ Group. Savills’ Nick Farmakis and David Goldstein represented Sprinklr, while CBRE’s Evan Haskell, Ben Joseph, James Ackerson and Howard Fiddle worked with CommonWealth Partners’ Ian Gaffney and Taber Brown on behalf of the landlord. Asking rents for Sprinklr’s lease were not provided, but Commercial Observer reports that asking rents are $120 per SF in the building.
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Luxury fashion house Vera Wang has signed for 27K SF of office space at Morgan Stanley Prime Property Fund’s 500 Park Ave., where luxury interiors brand Frato has also taken 5K SF of ground-floor retail for its flagship New York City store, according to a release. Vera Wang will relocate its offices from 15 East 26th St. to the entire fifth floor and part of the seventh floor of 500 Park, which is made up of the 11-story, former Pepsi-Cola Building built in 1960 and the 40-story, 500 Park Tower built in 1984. JLL’s Cynthia Wasserberger, Frank Doyle and Michael Pallas represented building ownership in the deal, while Savills’ Jeff Peck, Daniel Horowitz and Christopher Foerch repped Vera Wang and Sinvin Real Estate’s Peter Weisman repped Frato.
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Insurance broker NFP is moving into the MetLife Building, taking 30K SF, Commercial Observer reported. The insurance broker is moving from 340 Madison Ave., where it has been for 15 years, to 200 Park Ave. above Grand Central Terminal next month. Asking rents were not disclosed, although a recent CBRE report puts rents in the area at roughly $81 per SF. The 59-story property’s co-owners are Tishman Speyer and The Irvine Co., which were represented by an in-house team led by Megan Sheehan and Sam Brodsky. NFP was represented by Mark Ravesloot, Mike Monahan, Mike Wellen and Zach Weil of CBRE.
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Digital advertising company Clinch has signed for 9K SF at Two Trees Management’s 50 West 23rd St., Commercial Observer reported. Clinch’s deal represents an expansion from 37 West 20th St., which is currently its headquarters. The company plans to move into its new space in the 13-story property as early as next month. It joins existing tenants Foursquare, Kaiyo and Trustpilot in the property and will have access to an 11K SF landscaped roof deck. Colliers’ Michael Thomas and Aidan Campbell repped Clinch, while Alyssa Zahler and Jarad Winter worked in-house on behalf of Two Trees.
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The New York City Human Resources Administration has renewed its Downtown Brooklyn lease for the Michael J. Handy Veterans’ Service Center, Commercial Observer reported. The agency has leased the sixth floor of the 12-story 25 Chapel St. property since 2001, with the new lease taking it through September 2027. The center provides veterans in NYC with connections to federal benefits, jobs, training, housing assistance and food stamps. Asking rents were $43 per SF, adding up to just over $393K per year with a $9K rent credit from October 2022 until the new lease begins. The landlord is 40 Flatbush Realty Associates, which Commercial Observer reported as linked to Joseph Jemal of Icer Properties.
TOP FINANCING
A hotel development site in Long Island City, Queens, has scored a $60M loan, PincusCo reported. Hafeez Choudhary, through the entity Queens Plaza South, signed as the borrower for the loan on 52-09 31st Place with a subsidiary of GreenLake Asset Management. The price works out to roughly $309 per buildable SF of the 105K SF site. Little activity has taken place since Choudhary purchased the site in 2013 for $2.2M.
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Eagle Rock Properties scored a total of $200M in refinancing loans from Capital One for four multifamily properties in the Tri-State area, Commercial Observer reported. The sum covers 1,300 apartments in total. Two full-term, interest-only loans covered 1190 South Church St. in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, and 35 Penataquit Ave. in Bay Shore, Long Island. A seven-year, fixed-rate Freddie Mac loan with full-term, interest-only payments for Eagle Rock Apartments also covers 100 Lambert Way in Freehold, New Jersey, and a supplemental Freddie Mac loan covers 1 Town View Drive in Wappingers Falls in upstate New York. A Meridian Capital Group team led by Abe Hirsch and Zev Karpel arranged the transactions. Capital One’s Todd Phillips and Michael Maidhof also worked on the deals.
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BD Hotels has refinanced the loan backing the Hotel Elysée between Lexington and Madison avenues on East 54th Street. The hotelier, which is run by Richard Born and Ira Drukier, secured a $34M loan from Metropolitan Commercial Bank for the property at 56 East 54th St., replacing a previous loan of $38M with Citizens Bank, PincusCo reports. BD Hotels paid $55M for the hotel, which includes the famed Monkey Bar, in 2016.
TOP SALES
A property currently housing a swimming pool in Flushing, Queens, has changed hands for $16M, PincusCo reported. United Construction & Development Group purchased 141-01 32nd Ave. from the North Flushing Pool Club. The property has 20K SF of buildable SF and 34K SF of air rights, according to PincusCo.
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A 66-unit prewar apartment complex located at 252 74th St. in Bay Ridge has sold for $13.5M, PincusCo reported. An LLC registered to Albert Srour purchased the buildings from Bronstein Properties. Barry Rudofsky signed the deed on behalf of Bronstein, city records show. PincusCo reported that Bronstein Properties and Bay Ridge 74 LLC paid $13M to buy the property in October 2019. The most recent loan on the property was roughly $12M and came from Signature Bank.
