This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
Queens was the center of activity in New York City commercial real estate over the past week, with developers in the borough landing significant loans and sizable leases, including a life sciences relocation from Manhattan.
TOP LEASES
The Innolabs life sciences property in Long Island City has bagged a major tenant, Commercial Observer reports. NYU Langone signed a 105K SF lease for two stories of the 267K SF building, which was developed by King Street Properties and GFP Real Estate. The health system is moving four of its research programs to the building and is launching a new biomedical engineering program for NYU's Tandon School of Engineering. The programs will be relocated from a handful of properties in Manhattan, per CO. They join Opentrons, which occupies more than 90K SF at Innolabs, which was King Street's first NYC project.
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The National Museum of Mathematics is expanding into a larger, short-term space in Manhattan's NoMad neighborhood as it embarks on a search for an even bigger permanent space. The museum, which is also called MoMath, is moving from 19K SF at 11 E. 26th St. to a 27K SF former 24-Hour Fitness space on the ground floor and lower level of 225 Fifth Ave. MoMath expects to stay at the location for about a year while its brokers, Open Impact Real Estate's Lindsay Ornstein, Stephen Powers, Jake Cinti and Julia Fish, search for a 35K SF permanent home. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, nor was the landlord, which was represented by Newmark's Peter Whitenack. The building at 225 Fifth, known as The Grand Madison, was converted into luxury condominiums by the El-Ad Group.
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Central Queens Academy has signed a 48K SF, 32-year lease to open a new charter school at 86-55 Queens Blvd. in Elmhurst, The Real Deal reported. The deal is functionally an expansion of its existing facility at Justice Avenue Tower next door, where it also tacked on an additional 7K SF for a gymnasium. Central Queens Academy's broker, Open Impact's Ornstein, told TRD that the lease gives the school a two-building campus over 2 acres. The new deal, which covers an entire building and parking lot, was struck with United Construction & Development Group.
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In even more Queens news, an e-bike manufacturer has agreed to lease 52K SF at a warehouse in Maspeth, Crain's New York Business reported. Fly E-Bike signed the five-year deal with landlord The Davis Cos. in a deal brokered by Pinnacle on the tenant side and Cushman & Wakefield on the landlord side.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
Slate Property Group has secured a $97M loan to refinance a recently completed apartment building in Forest Hills, Queens, according to a release. The developer, led by David Schwartz and Martin Nussbaum, partnered with Grobman Gross Properties to build The Yellowstone, a 166-unit rental building at the corner of Queens and Yellowstone boulevards with 49K SF of ground-floor retail anchored by a Trader Joe's. Apollo Global Real Estate Management provided the five-year, fixed-rate loan, which will go toward closing costs, building up an interest reserve and retiring the previous $65M loan from Security Benefit Life Insurance Co. Newmark's Daniel Fromm arranged the deal.
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Slate was on both sides of Queens multifamily debt deals in the past week. It originated a $60.3M bridge loan to fund the remaining construction and sellout of the in-progress condo building at 26-01 Fourth St. in Astoria. Developer Ming's Garden Realty landed the two-year, floating-rate loan from a partnership of Slate and LibreMax Capital. Ming's Garden will use the debt, arranged by New Land Capital founder Sam Zhang, to complete the 13-story, 143-unit building, which also will include a 40K SF community facility and 167 parking spaces.
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Madison Realty Capital originated a $133M loan to Marx Development Group for its under-development hotel on the west side of Manhattan, according to a press release. The debt will help the Queens-based developer wrap up construction on a 51-story, 379-room luxury hotel at 450 11th Ave. near Hudson Yards.
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An affordable-housing project in Jamaica, Queens, from a Black-owned and woman-led developer has landed $24.7M in construction financing, according to a release. LISC NY and the New York City Acquisition Fund combined to provide the funding to Mural Real Estate Partners, a firm founded by former Cedar Realty Trust executive Robin Zeigler. Mural is planning to develop more than 230 affordable units across two projects on Hillside Avenue between 161st and 162nd streets with a combined 20K SF of retail. The deal is the largest in the history of LISC, a community development financing group founded in 1980.
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Trinity Place Holdings restructured its debt on the condo project at 77 Greenwich St. in the Financial District, The Real Deal reported. The developer reached a deal with its lender, Macquarie Asset Management, to push back the maturity on senior and mezzanine loans until 2025 and a corporate loan until 2026. Macquarie provided a $167M inventory loan in 2021 to help the developer with unsold units, but the pace of sales at the 90-unit tower has still been slow, with only 40 units sold, per TRD. The extension, disclosed in a regulatory filing, gave Macquarie a 5% equity stake in the project and control over major decisions going forward.
TOP SALES
The owner of luxury watch dealer Avi & Co. closed on the purchase of 5 E. 59th St. last week after winning a foreclosure auction. Avi Hiaeve paid $26.7M to the building's former lender, United Overseas Bank, which foreclosed on previous owners BentallGreenOak and Capstone Equities. BGO and Capstone paid $85M in 2015 for the nine-story, 57K SF building that was formerly the home of the Playboy Club.
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Quaker private school Brooklyn Friends School is expanding its Downtown Brooklyn campus after acquiring 383-393 Pearl St. next door to its current operation at 375 Pearl St., the school announced. The 156-year-old school paid $19.3M to Alex Shchegol for the five-story building on the corner of Pearl and Willoughby streets. Shchegol was the president of Asa College, which operated out of 383 Pearl until the private college lost its accreditation and closed last year. BFS plans to consolidate all of its operations into the Pearl Street buildings in the future.
