This Week’s N.Y. Deal Sheet
The past week showed there is still life in Manhattan's office market, with major relocation and expansion deals getting signed on Madison and Park avenues.
TOP LEASES
The Olayan Group’s 550 Madison Ave. has signed two deals totaling more than 200K SF for the former Sony Building. Private investment firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice has signed for 144K SF in the landmarked office building and will occupy the 18th through 22nd and 26th floors, more than doubling its footprint in the property, according to a release. Meanwhile, merchant bank BDT and MSD Partners, which merged this year, signed a 70K SF lease to relocate to the building, Bloomberg reported. BDT has been located at 450 Park Ave., while MSD’s team is at One Vanderbilt. The 41-story, 800K SF office property was redeveloped after Sony vacated, and Olayan has landed tenants like luxury fashion brand Hermès, insurer Chubb, investment advisory firm Junto Capital and specialized investment firm Corsair Capital.
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U.K.-based creative agency M&C Saatchi Group has signed a 13K SF lease at GFP Real Estate’s 16 West 22nd St., according to a release. M&C Saatchi is relocating its general and executive offices from 88 Pine St. in the Financial District to the 1910-built, 22-story building in the Flatiron District. The agency plans to move into the 165K SF office building, which is also home to Michelin-starred Korean steakhouse Cote, in early 2024. Colliers International repped the tenant, while GFP’s Barbara Yagoda repped the landlord in-house.
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The Woolworth Building, a historic 28-story Manhattan tower at 233 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, has a new tenant. Hawthorne Country Day School signed for a 34K SF office in the building, which is owned by the Witkoff Group and Cammeby’s International. The Hawthorne Country Day School is relocating from 156 William St., will occupy the building’s entire fourth floor and will have its own dedicated ground-floor entrance and lobby on Barclay Street. Howard Kesseler, Todd Hershman and Alex Kesseler of Newmark repped the tenant. Other tenants in the landmarked, 836K SF building include NYU’s Center for Global Affairs & American Language Institute, T-Mobile and Shop Architects. Witkoff and Cammeby’s sold the top half of the property to Alchemy Properties in 2012, which converted its portion of the building into high-end condos, according to previous reporting from The Real Deal. The owners also refinanced in 2015 with a $256M sum from Blackstone.
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SL Green announced on Monday the signing of a pair of major leases on Park Avenue. Investment bank PJT Partners signed a renewal and expansion for 270K SF at 280 Park Ave., a 1.25M SF office tower that SL Green co-owns with Vornado Realty Trust, the New York Post reported. CBRE’s Mary Ann Tighe, Ken Meyerson, Brendan Herlihy, Eric Thomas and Marlee Teplitzky, alongside JLL’s Evan Margolin, brokered the deal on behalf of PJT, while SL Green’s Steven Durels, Vornado’s Glen Weiss and a CBRE team of Peter Turchin, Greg Rothkin and Jason Pollen repped the landlord.
Down the street, Stonepeak Partners signed a 77K SF lease at 245 Park Ave., where it will occupy the 31st and 32nd floors. CBRE’s Silvio Petriello, Ben Friedland and Tamika Kramer repped Stonepeak in the lease, while Cushman & Wakefield’s Patrick Murphy, Bruce Mosler, Tara Stacom, Harry Blair, Ron LoRusso, Justin Royce and Will Yeatman repped the landlord. Stonepeak is moving from 55 Hudson Yards, where it leased 30K SF.
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Three new tenants are joining the roster at 600 Lexington Ave., taking around 15K SF in total, according to a release. Global secondary private equity funds manager Hollyport Capital took 7K SF, spanning the entire 27th floor, while specialty finance firm Wingspire Capital took 4K SF on the 14th floor, and consulting firm Meridian Compensation Partners also took a little over 4K SF on the fourth floor. Other tenants in the 305K SF, 36-story office building include Iron Hound Management and coffee chain Devoción. Landlord Lex NY Equities LLC was repped by Cushman & Wakefield’s Harry Blair, Connor Daugstrup and Bianca DiMauro, while Newmark’s Tim Gibson and Harry Singer repped Hollyport Capital. Savills’ Gabe Marans and Maxine Rosen repped Wingspire Capital, and Cresa’s Gregg Cohen and Nicholas Markel repped Meridian Compensation Partners.
TOP SALES
Two developers have purchased a 1920s-built coworking building in Crown Heights for $32.5M, PincusCo reported. Isaac Hager and Shiya Labin teamed up to buy the office portion of 1000 Dean St. from Meadow Partners and Livwrk in a deal brokered by Meridian Capital Group’s David Schechtman and Lipa Lieberman. The building is split into three condos, with two retail and one office. The sale price is well below the $56M that Meadow Partners and Livwrk paid in 2019 for the building, which is roughly 50% occupied, according to The Real Deal. The property's tenants include coworking company Industrious and film studio and production company Be Electric, and it features pre-built office units, a soundstage, a food hall and conference rooms, according to its website. The recently renovated building is four stories and spans 150K SF, according to LoopNet.
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The sale of a five-story office building in Downtown Brooklyn has closed for $38M, a little over a month after reports that the property’s now-owner had filed plans to convert it into multifamily. Jacob Schwimmer of JCS Realty paid $38M to seller Gus Papadimitriou for 540 Atlantic Ave., Crain’s New York Business reports. Schwimmer plans to build a 154-unit residential property in place of the office building, Crain’s previously reported. Although the firm is Brooklyn-based, JCS Realty has most recently been heavily involved in the redevelopment of the South Bronx’s Mott Haven neighborhood, where it has built more than 700 residential units in three buildings.
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Jacob Chetrit has acquired a prewar rental building with 28 units for $32.8M, according to city property records. The 14-story property at 1009 Park Ave. is two blocks away from Central Park and a stone’s throw from the Upper East Side’s Museum Mile. It was first built in 1924, according to StreetEasy. The seller was Parkton Associates LLC, registered to Rita Kwait and Gaby Ferman Lehrer, while the buyer was an affiliate of The Chetrit Organization.
TOP FINANCING
Pinnacle Group scored a $65M refinancing from Starwood Mortgage Capital for its 172-unit Upper West Side residential property at 323 West 96th St., PincusCo reported. The property, known as Hudson Park, is a luxury rental building with tenant amenities including a fitness center, movie theater and children’s play area, according to the building’s website. The sum replaces a prior loan from Tel Aviv Stock Exchange bondholders valued at $66.1M, working out to a price tag of $486 per SF. Pinnacle first acquired the property in 2016 for $27M.
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Bank OZK provided a joint venture of MAG Partners and Safanad with a $95M loan for a Turtle Bay residential development, according to a release. The joint venture, which MAG and Safanad formed with Eyal Ofer’s Global Holdings, plans to build a 194-unit, 23-story mixed-use development at 300 East 50th St., with Bank OZK’s sum functioning as a construction loan. A JLL team secured both the equity and construction financing for the project, with a debt advisory team led by Geoff Goldstein, Jillian Mariutti and Stephen Van Leer, plus a sales and equity placement team including Rob Hinckley, Jeff Julien and Nicco Lupo. The deal was led by MAG Partners’ Jeff Rosen and Adam Freindlich.
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Alembic Community Development notched a $30M construction loan for three development parcels in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville, which has been attracting a smattering of development deals for affordable, senior and supportive housing in recent years. The developer is planning a six-story mixed-use development at 47 New Lots Ave., New York YIMBY reports. The other two parcels involved in the loan, which came from Citizens Bank, are 120-122 Liberty Ave. and a vacant lot at 609 Osborn St.
