This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
The buildings owned by New York City's largest office landlord captured a large share of the leasing activity announced over the past week, while a handful of midsized commercial buildings in Manhattan changed hands.
TOP LEASES
Antares Capital signed a lease for 76K SF at Vornado and SL Green’s 280 Park Ave., Commercial Observer reported. The private equity firm is renewing and expanding its 55K SF in the building and will be on the 20th through 23rd floors until 2034 when the lease expires. Asking rents at the 1.2M SF building were $110 per SF following a $150M renovation. Cushman & Wakefield’s Michael Sessa and Michael Movshovich repped Antares, while Vornado's Ed Riguardi and SL Green’s David Kaufman arranged the deal for building ownership.
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Insurance and reinsurance firm Everest is moving into The Durst Organization’s 1155 Sixth Ave., CO reported. Everest is taking 66K SF at $85 per SF, giving the firm the seventh through ninth floors of the 42-story building for the next 15 years, according to CO. The insurer will also have access to a 6K SF outdoor terrace on the building’s seventh floor. The landlord renovated the property to the tune of $130M, adding a new lobby and windows, and has signed tenants including IMA Financial Group and Springbone Kitchen. Durst had in-house representation from Thomas Bow, Rocco Romeo and Nora Caliban, while Everest was repped by CBRE’s Eric Deutsch and Jared Freede. Everest is moving from 461 Fifth Ave. — more on that in the next item.
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SL Green declared 461 Fifth Ave. fully leased after signing three new tenants to a total of 29K SF, CO reported. Investment management company Lingotto and commercial logistics firm Certified Moving & Storage each signed for 11K SF, taking the sixth and ninth floors for 10- and 15-year terms, respectively, and independent fund administrator Centaur Fund Services U.S. signed for 7K SF on the 23rd floor for six years. Asking rents in the building were $85 per SF, with Newmark’s Brian Waterman, Scott Klau, David Waterman and Kevin Sullivan representing ownership in all of the deals. Cushman & Wakefield’s Ron Lo Russo, Harley Dalton and Samantha Perlman repped Lingotto, Colliers' Robert Tunis and Sam Einhorn repped Certified, and CBRE’s David Katz and Hugh McDonald repped Centuar. Other tenants in the building include Hewlett Packard Enterprises and Prologis.
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PEI Architects has renewed its 13K SF lease at The Feil Organization’s 257 Park Ave. S., according to a release. The architecture firm signed a 10-year lease to stay put on the 19th floor at the 226K SF, 20-story office building near Madison Square Park. The architectural firm’s portfolio includes the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the Bank of China Headquarters in Beijing. PEI was represented by Helmsley Spear’s Peter Goldich, and The Feil Organization was represented in-house by Andrew Wiener and Rob Fisher.
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Social media consultant Puff Media is growing at Industry City in Brooklyn's Sunset Park. The company is growing into a 15K SF spec suite in Building 6 after occupying less than 2K SF for the past three years, according to a release. The new five-year lease was arranged by Katie Wu and Lynn Huynh of Kate-Lynn Realty on behalf of the tenant. Three other tenants at the mixed-use complex expanded their space: B Live, which is growing its office by more than 3K SF; Gurri Design New York, which expanded its showroom by 4K SF; and Factioned, which is adding nearly 7K SF of offices and makerspace. Industry City's Jeff Fein represented the complex's owners, Jamestown, Belvedere Capital and Angelo Gordon & Co.
TOP SALES
Universal Communications Network, a New Jersey-based affiliate of conservative media company Epoch Media Group that also does business as Epoch’s television arm, New Tang Dynasty, has purchased a 12-story Chelsea office building for $31M, Crain’s New York Business reported. The sale price for the property at 129 W. 29th St. is almost 50% less than the $54M seller Samson Management paid for the building in 2012. The International Bank of Chicago also provided an acquisition loan for the deal.
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The New York City Housing Development Corp. has purchased the space where it has had its offices since 2022 in a $52.7M deal with Silverstein Properties, CO reported. NYC HDC, a semi-public agency responsible for providing affordable housing development funding in the form of tax-exempt bond financing, has occupied the second and third floors of the 109K SF, 40-story 120 Broadway for the past two years. The deal turns those floors into a commercial condo that NYC HDC will own for the duration of its agreement with Silverstein. Keith Cody, Joseph Artusa and Harlan Strader repped Silverstein in-house, and Lance Korman and Kevin Sullivan of Newmark repped NYC HDC.
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Nonprofit organization Visiting Nurse Service of New York has sold an 18K SF property in Manhattan’s Lenox Hill neighborhood for $34.5M, PincusCo reported. The buyer, The Altneu synagogue, is a modern Orthodox synagogue and was founded in 2021 when a younger rabbi split from the Park East Synagogue a few blocks away, The New York Times reported at the time. The 107 E. 70th St. property was put on the market in March 2023, and this deal has been in the works since at least the beginning of this month, according to Curbed. Access Industries provided a $10M mortgage for the acquisition.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
Grid Group has signed a $66.8M loan with Deutsche Bank for a 22-unit project in Chelsea, PincusCo first reported. The loan covers a two-story parking garage at 142 W. 21st St., where New York YIMBY reported in 2022 permits had been filed for a 13-story mixed-use building. Grid Group paid $31M for the property a year prior to filing the plans, which PincusCo reports haven't been permitted. YIMBY previously reported the development would yield 22 units totaling 60K SF and 610 SF of commercial space.
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Vaya Development signed a $65.6M construction loan with the New York State Housing Finance Agency and NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, PincusCo reported. The loan covers a 114-unit affordable housing development at 1940-1942 Jerome Ave. in the Bronx’s Mount Hope neighborhood. Vaya Development filed plans for the property in August 2022, when it also received a $7.8M loan from Enterprise Community Partners.
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L&L Holding Co. signed a $911M refinancing deal for 425 Park Ave., the 670K SF office tower it completed in 2022, where it signed hedge fund Citadel as an anchor tenant. The financing came from Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank. L&L, which co-owns the tower with Tokyu Land U.S. Corp. and BGO, plans to use the funding to pay off its 2021 construction loan on the property, which was also around the same size as the new sum. The property is 90% leased, mostly to financial and investing firms, with Citadel taking up 440K SF across 22 floors.
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The state HFA and the city's HPD signed another financing deal this week, agreeing to lend $68.9M to Azimuth Development Group, PincusCo reported. The loan will cover two properties in the Bronx’s Melrose neighborhood at 450 E. 158th St. and 407-409 E. 158th St. The two developments will yield 129 units in total, split into an 84-unit building and a 45-unit building. Azimuth, a firm founded in 2009, is focused on affordable and market-rate housing and has built more than 1M SF across Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens in the past 15 years, according to its website.
