This Week’s N.Y. Deal Sheet
The office leasing market in the week leading up to Halloween was a treat for New York City commercial real estate, but the sales and debt markets are still firmly in trick territory.
TOP LEASES
Empire State Realty Trust saw two tenants renew and expand at 111 West 33rd St. L’Occitane, a French beauty brand, has extended its 21K SF lease for another five years after previously signing for the entire 20th floor in 2019. L’Occitane subsidiary Elemis also signed a new 9K SF, 11-year lease to relocate from 1140 Broadway. Empire State Realty Trust brokered the deals in-house, while Newmark brokers Scott Klau, Erik Harris and Neil Rubin are the leasing agents for the 728K SF building that also counts Nespresso, consulting firm ClearView Healthcare Partners and insurance firm Healthcare Risk Advisors among its tenants.
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Shopify has signed for 36K SF at Related Cos. and Vornado Realty Trust’s 85 10th Ave., Bloomberg reported. Shopify will take space on the eighth floor for a term of more than five years and will soon be a neighbor to fellow tech firms Google and biometric screening company Clear. Raise Commercial Real Estate repped Shopify, and an in-house team repped the landlords of the 11-story building.
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Navan, a California-based startup that provides online travel and expense management services for corporations, has signed a 41K SF lease at Wasserstein Enterprises’ 115 West 18th St., the New York Business Journal reported. The lease will see Navan depart from its home at 1450 Broadway for space in the Flatiron District, where it will take up two floors of the six-story building and its conjoined eight-story property, 123 West 18th St., Commercial Observer reported. WeWork relocated its headquarters to the building in 2018, then downsized from five floors to two. WeWork remains a tenant on the second and third floors of the building. ABS Partners Real Estate’s Ian Weiss, Andrew Udis and William Carr repped Wasserstein Enterprises, and Raise Commercial Real Estate’s Douglas Regal, Bridget Fahey, Jon Moeller and Jamie Katcher repped Navan.
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Two existing tenants at the Empire State Building are expanding. LinkedIn signed to relocate 119K SF from tower floors to the property’s base and added another 25K SF to its lease, bringing its total space in the iconic 2.6M SF Manhattan building to 527K SF. LinkedIn has been a tenant in the property since 2011 and has occupied more than half a million square feet in the building since 2019. Sacha Zarba, Lauren Crowley Corrinet and Christopher Hogan of CBRE repped LinkedIn. Starbucks also signed a new lease agreement in the building, taking 25K SF for 11 years in a deal that will see the coffee company move its only NYC office from 7 Penn Plaza to the iconic Manhattan skyscraper. The coffee conglomerate already has a 23K SF retail roastery called Starbucks Reserve across three floors at street level. It has been a retail tenant since 2008. Asking rents in the skyscraper range from $69 to $87 per SF.
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BXP’s 360 Park Avenue South has a new tenant: wealth management firm Iconiq Capital. Iconiq has signed for 70K SF in the 470K SF office tower, the New York Post reported. The building has been vacant since last year when Relx’s 20-year master lease expired, Commercial Observer reported. BXP refinanced in 2021, snagging $220M for the 20-story property at the time and investing in upgrades. Iconiq Capital’s lease is the first signed since BXP embarked on the $100M repositioning of the 1913-built property. The agreement will see Iconiq move from 15 East 26th St. to double in size at 360 Park Avenue South. Jeff Fischer and Chris Corrinet of CBRE repped Iconiq, while a CBRE team of Peter Turchin, Gregg Rothkin, Ross Zimbalist, Arkady Smolyansky, Trevor Larkin and Hayden Pascal repped the landlord.
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The Federal Aviation Administration is leaving the five boroughs in favor of a 75K SF office at Carle Place in Nassau County, according to a release. The FAA was looking for a location that provided quality office space close to JFK and LaGuardia airports, and it embarked on a three-year search before signing a long-term lease at 1 Old Country Road. The federal agency is relocating from One Aviation Plaza in Jamaica, Queens, to the 309K SF property in Long Island. Its new digs were renovated to include a new HVAC and building management system, as well as updates to its lobby, common spaces and elevator systems. The property also has the electric vehicle charging capability requirements of the FAA and is undergoing green upgrades that include solar power. The building also features a conference room and a landscaped courtyard. A CBRE team of Vincent LaManna, Richard Freel, Maria Kobe and Ralph Guiffre represented the FAA and building ownership in negotiations.
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AI platform EliseAI has signed a 25K SF lease, expanding from its previous 21K SF at 33 East 33rd St., a 156K SF office building between Park and Madison avenues owned by Kalimian Equities, according to a release. The 12-story, Midtown South office building was renovated to modernize its lobby and add pre-built spaces for small and midsized firms. The tenant had representation from a JLL team that included Val Stobetsky, Will McGarry, Calum Waddell and Hale King. A Newmark team that included Erik Harris and Zach Weil repped building ownership.
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Investment management firm Holocene Advisors has expanded and renewed its space at Rockrose Development’s 11 East 26th St., Commercial Observer reported. Holocene Advisors signed for 31K SF, adding 12K SF onto its previous 19K SF lease. Rockrose invested $70M in 11 East 26th St., which was combined with the adjacent 15 East 26th St. as part of the renovation. Holocene’s lease is for 11 years and five months. Among its neighbors in the 21-story, 218K SF building are Activate and the National Museum of Mathematics. Ben Friedland, Taylor Scheinman and Gary Davies of CBRE repped Holocene Advisors, while Newmark brokers repped Rockrose.
TOP FINANCING
Apollo Global Management and Newbond Holdings notched a $78M acquisition loan from Blackstone for the Renaissance New York Times Square Hotel, Commercial Observer reported. The joint venture paid $165M earlier this month to former owner Sherwood Equities, which had owned the 2 Times Square hotel for 38 years. The hotel has 317 keys and spans 200K SF featuring Olive Garden, Van Leeuwen’s and Max Brenner Chocolate as retail tenants. A Newmark team led by Jordan Roeschlaub, Dustin Stolly, Nick Scribani, Tyler Dumon and Marshall Dickson arranged the loan.
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Citibank will provide a $31M loan to refinance two assets owned by private investor Guy Roberts, according to a release. The properties are a 64K SF industrial property at 656 East 133rd St. in the Bronx and the current home of the Paula Cooper Gallery, 521 West 21st St. in Chelsea. Marcus & Millichap's Institutional Property Advisors’ Matt Polci, Justin Natalizio and Eric Anton brokered the deal between Citibank on behalf of Roberts.
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JDS Development scored a $30M refinancing for a residential condo unit in its Billionaires’ Row residential supertall, 111 West 57th St., Commercial Observer reported. The loan came from M&T Bank. The $1B building, which features 60 luxury condo units across 84 stories, fully opened last year, five years after JDS and its joint venture partner, Property Markets Group, nabbed $725M in construction financing from Apollo Global Management and AIG to build the tower. The owner has plans to turn the former Steinway & Sons piano showroom on the ground floor, which has a landmarked interior, into new retail space.
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The Moinian Group nabbed a $135.6M refinancing from Newmark for four commercial condo units at 890 Eighth Ave., replacing a loan from the New York State Housing Finance Agency, PincusCo reported. The loan covers condo units that span 432K SF at the 394-unit Midtown West building. Newmark provided the financing, which also includes a $46M gap loan, according to PincusCo.
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Tishman Speyer snagged a $92.7M loan from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. to refinance a mixed-use Midtown building just south of Central Park, PincusCo reported. The property, located at 150 West 56th St., has office condo units as well as 337 residential condo units. The loan replaces a previous sum of $113.3M that also came from MassMutual.
TOP SALES
The Chick-fil-A building in Manhattan’s Financial District has changed hands, PincusCo reported. Crown Acquisitions has purchased 144 Fulton St. from an LLC owned by an affiliate of the billionaire Niarchos shipping family for $38M. The property was listed for sale in June, The Real Deal previously reported, with the sale closing late last month. This is the second property that the Niarchos family has sold in recent months following its sale of 39 East 51st St. to Vornado for $40M earlier this year.
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Astral Weeks Development acquired 12 Franklin St., a 30K SF building in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood, for $23M, according to a release. The buyer plans to turn the property into a retail hub, following the trend of industrial spaces in the neighborhood being converted into leisure locations such as breweries, restaurants and galleries. The seller was Simon Baron Development, which was repped by Ripco’s Stephen Preuss Sr. and Kevin Schmitz.
