This Week’s N.Y. Deal Sheet

A few multifamily developments that qualified for New York state’s 421-a tax break before it expired last June got construction financing this week, while sales and leasing remained muted.

TOP LEASES

Luxury fashion house Yves Saint Laurent has signed a 13K SF lease with asking prices between $500 per SF and $700 per SF in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, The Real Deal reported. The 15-year lease will see the brand open a new store, with space on the second floor, lower level and ground floor of Aurora Capital Associates and William Gottlieb Real Estate’s 70-74 Gansevoort St. The location sits on a nine-building retail strip redeveloped by Aurora and Gottlieb in 2015, and Aurora reportedly has further plans to redevelop a 50K SF office property at 24 Ninth Ave. with David Ellis Real Estate. Jake Bank and Jared Epstein of Aurora repped the landlords in-house, while Mike O’Neill of Cushman & Wakefield repped the fashion house. Jason Greenstone and Taylor Reynolds of Cushman & Wakefield also represented Yves Saint Laurent, according to Crain's New York Business.

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Schoeman Updike Kaufman & Gerber is renewing its lease at The Feil Organization’s Class-A 551 Fifth Ave. property, Commercial Observer reported. The law firm signed for 11K SF in the 28-story property built in 1927 that spans 430K SF, according to a fact sheet written by the landlord. The asking rents are $58 per SF. Schoeman Updike Kaufman & Gerber first moved to the building in 2012 and was represented by Helmsley Spear’s Rick Marek and Beth Kaufman in renewal negotiations. The law firm’s own Patricia O’Prey and Nancy Connery also represented the tenant in the deal, while Kevin Driscoll repped The Feil Organization in-house.

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Supermarket Met Fresh has signed for 14K SF in the Queens neighborhood of Ridgewood, Commercial Observer reported. Associated Supermarket Group launched its first supermarket under the Met Fresh banner in Bushwick in 2018 and has since expanded to other neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey. It plans to open its Ridgewood store in Q1 2024 in a property at 67-09 Fresh Pond Road and owned by an entity known as YYY Realty, which has the same address as Sang Kung Realty. 

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Grocery store Amish Market has renewed its 15K SF Hell’s Kitchen lease at Aetna Realty’s 731 Ninth Ave., Commercial Observer reported. The grocer opened in 1991 and offers farm-to-table products and internationally imported products. It will remain at its ground-floor spot of the four-story walk-up. The asking rents were $120 per SF, with Meridian Retail Leasing’s James Famularo and Evan Roteman brokering the deal for Aetna Realty and Famularo also working on behalf of the tenant. 

TOP SALES

Bayview Complex, an anonymously owned LLC, has purchased a Coney Island development site for $46.6M, PincusCo reported. The buyer is reportedly a Brooklyn affordable housing developer, while the seller is another LLC, Oceangate Family Holdings. The as of right land, which has an approximate address of 2713 West 33rd St., accounted for $22.6M of the total price tag, with the overall sale price including $22M of air rights. No development plans have yet been filed for the parcel, but the site can accommodate roughly 680K SF of affordable housing with the sold air rights, an unnamed source told PincusCo. Binyomin Fishman signed for Oceangate, while Brooklyn attorney Jeffrey Zwick signed for Bayview. 

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A REIT owned by lender Ladder Capital has acquired a collection of Harlem multifamily units after it foreclosed on their owner, Emerald Equity Group, PincusCo reported. The properties include the 38-unit 120 West 116th St., the 31-unit 1917 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd., the nine-unit 110 St. Nicholas Ave. and 110 West 116th St, which StreetEasy lists as having four residential units. The transfer valued the portfolio at $20.1M, but it follows years of disputes between the lender and borrower. Ladder loaned Emerald Equity $30.6M to purchase the properties in 2019, shelling out $40M in total, The Real Deal previously reported. But Emerald Equity defaulted in October 2020, with Ladder filing to foreclose one month later and alleging that Emerald Equity’s troubles with the buildings were not linked to the pandemic.

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A 23K SF former school building in Borough Park has been sold to hospital system Maimonides Medical for $14.5M, Crain’s New York Business reported. The seller was the religious corporation Yeshivath Toldos Yakov of Papa, which has owned the property since 1992. The five-story property at 4706 10th Ave. and sitting on a 6K SF lot is a block away from the hospital’s 850K SF campus in a neighborhood where a Maimonides spokesperson told Crain's it has otherwise been tricky to find space. The hospital has spent the last few years expanding in the neighborhood, opening a 145K SF medical office complex a block away from the former school at 4813 Ninth Ave. in 2021, in addition to a 15K SF emergency care facility in neighboring Bay Ridge. Maimonides said that the purchase was a strategic acquisition.

TOP FINANCING

Haussmann Development scored a $38.5M construction loan for 827 Sterling Place, a project that will deliver 76 new apartments to Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood, according to a release. The sum comes from Urban Standard Capital, covering part of the project’s total of $55M. The development is one of the final to be delivered using the now-expired 421-a tax break and plans to deliver in summer 2025. The 827 Sterling Place building will eventually span seven stories, with 23 apartments set aside as income-restricted and tenant amenities including a fitness center, a roof deck and a children's room. Kriss Capital is Haussman’s development partner for the project, which is Haussman’s first in Brooklyn and follows four multifamily openings in Central Harlem for the 2018-founded developer.

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The Jay Group nabbed a $92M construction loan from BHI for a multifamily development in Inwood, Manhattan’s northernmost neighborhood, Commercial Observer reported. The project will deliver 270 residential units, a quarter of which will be set aside as income-restricted under NYC’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program. The site, which is located at 401 West 207th St. and will allow the developer to build roughly 302K SF, is the former home of a Speedway gas station that will be remediated under the state’s brownfield program. The Jay Group acquired the site in March last year for $25M. Morris Betesh, Omar Ferreira and Dov Jeremias of Meridian Capital Group arranged the construction loan.

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Carmel Partners notched a $153M construction loan from Northwestern Mutual for an Upper East Side multifamily development at 1487 First Ave., Crain’s New York Business reported. The developer has filed plans for a 35-story, 244K SF project that will deliver 146 residential units, 45 of which will be income-restricted under the state’s expired 421-a program. The project is expected to be completed by June 2026 and will also feature ground-floor retail space, a 40-car garage and tenant amenities including a coworking lounge, an outdoor terrace on the 16th floor and a game room. Carmel Partners first bought the site, along with neighboring properties 1489, 1491 and 1493 First Ave., in January last year for $73.5M.