This Week’s N.Y. Deal Sheet
A nearly $400M office loan made waves this week for not just the size of the debt but also its origin.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
Property & Building Corp. has paid off a $385M JPMorgan Chase-issued mortgage on a Bryant Park office building, securing bonds from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange to do so, according to a release. Israeli bond financing was once a popular financing instrument in Manhattan, but these deals have become a rarity since the pandemic, The Real Deal reported. PBC's parent company, Discount Investment Corp., is based in Israel and raised the debt after prior deals to sell the property collapsed.
The 30-story building at 452 Fifth Ave. is now known as 10 Bryant after rebranding from the HSBC Tower in advance of its anchor tenant's pending exit. It is fully leased, having recently signed green infrastructure investor and operator Generate Capital to 32K SF and renewed 16K SF with alternative asset manager Tilden Park Capital. But HSBC's 570K SF lease expires next year, and the bank moved its U.S. headquarters to The Spiral in Hudson Yards last month. A JLL team of Paul Glickman, Ben Bass, Kristen Morgan and Kate Roush are 10 Bryant’s leasing brokers, who will seek to fill the HSBC hole during a planned repositioning of the building.
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Affinius Capital snagged a $217M loan from Deutsche Bank and Société Générale for a mixed-use building in Long Island City, PincusCo reported. The building, at 29-22 Northern Blvd., is split into three condos: one with 467 residential units and two retail units. The property previously had a $240M loan from the French lender colloquially known as SocGen and has a 421-a exemption that is valid until 2035.
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The Jay Group scored a $160M refinancing deal from Affinius Capital for its 101 Fleet Place development, a 294-unit residential property under construction in Downtown Brooklyn, Commercial Observer reported. The loan will go toward the remaining construction on the 21-story building and its lease-up process. Brooklyn-based developer The Jay Group acquired the lot from the Leser Group in 2021 and is expected to complete construction in late 2025.
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Developer Steel Equities secured $71.4M in two loans from JPMorgan Chase for three industrial properties in Greenpoint, PincusCo reported. The first loan, refinancing the developer’s interests at 59 Paidge Ave. and 215 Paidge Ave., was worth $52.9M. The second covered Steel Equities’ interests at 99 Paidge Ave. and was worth $18.4M. The properties all sit along the Newtown Creek waterfront.
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The Research Foundation of The City University of New York signed a $70M refinancing agreement with BankUnited for a Garment District office building, PincusCo reported. The loan replaces $70M in debt from Voya Financial. The property at 230 W. 41st St. spans 268K SF, and the CUNY affiliate first acquired it in 2004 for $60M.
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Watermark Capital Group notched a $50.6M loan from BridgeCity Capital for a Dumbo office property that it plans to convert into a residential property, Commercial Observer reported. Watermark has secured agreements from the remaining tenants to vacate the eight-story 175 Pearl St. in the immediate future. The firm recently acquired the building from Cannon Hill Capital Partners for $66.5M and plans to create a 238-unit, 14-story multifamily building in its place.
TOP LEASES
Jack Resnick & Sons’ 250 Hudson St. saw a couple of tenant changes this week. Labor union Writers Guild of America East signed a deal renewing its 17K SF for 16 years, Commercial Observer reported. Meanwhile, claims guidance platform for disability and workers compensation insurance carriers EvolutionIQ signed a sublease agreement with tenant TMRW Life Sciences for 28K SF, according to a release. The deal means EvolutionIQ is more than doubling its footprint, moving out of 27 W. 24th St. where it had just shy of 11K SF, to move into 250 Hudson St. Savills’ Zev Holzman, Christopher Foerch and Will Joumas repped EvolutionIQ in the deal, while TMRW Life Sciences was repped by Gabe Marans, Mitti Liebersohn and Maxine Rosen. Adam Rappaport and Brett Greenberg repped the landlord in-house in both deals.
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Industry City has signed a 42K SF lease with woman-owned tech manufacturing company Adafruit Industries. The 16-building complex spanning 35 acres in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood is owned by Belvedere Capital, Jamestown and Angelo Gordon & Co. Adafruit has grown to more than 100 employees in NYC and joins the more than 550 businesses housed on the 8,500-person campus. Normon Bobrow’s Steve Kaplan repped Adafruit in the deal, while Industry City’s Jeff Fein and Brad Blum represented the joint venture-owned complex. The 10-year lease includes office, manufacturing and product storage space in Building 19.
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Hines is expanding in a Hudson Square property it owns a stake in through a joint venture, Commercial Observer reported. The Houston-based property giant signed for 15K SF at 345 Hudson St. The property is owned by Hines, Trinity Church Wall Street and Norges Bank Investment Management. Hines’ new 12-year lease will connect to a 17K SF office it occupies at 555 Greenwich St., which was also developed and is owned by the joint venture. Paul Amrich, Howard Fiddle, Neil King, Zac Price and Ben Joseph of CBRE arranged both sides of the deal.
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K9 Resorts Luxury Pet Hotel has signed a 16K SF lease at Eliezer Breco’s 295 Front St., Commercial Observer reported. Asking rents in the property, located in Brooklyn’s Vinegar Hill neighborhood, were $42 per SF. The property was a factory until 2018 when it was converted for office and retail use. It was empty until 2022 but has since signed leases with events and catering company Marlow Events and Ember Charter Schools. Frederick Betesh, Chandler Slate and Eddie Keda of Tri State Commercial Realty represented Breco in the deal, while Global Realty Services’ Raj Whadwa and Frank Dasaro represented K9 Resorts.
TOP SALES
Flushing-based Sunlight Development has acquired a landmarked NoMad property from the Sklar family, PincusCo reported. The 16-story office building at 95 Madison Ave. sold for $65M. Sunlight plans to convert the building into a mixed-use property featuring 70 residential units as well as retail and office space. The building has been in bankruptcy since 2021 and originally had a purchase price of $62.8M. Two Bins Capital acted as the broker for Sunlight, and there were no brokers acting on behalf of the Sklar family, Commercial Observer reported.
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Chris Xu acquired for $21.4M a Sunset Park property previously home to now-shuttered restaurant Golden Imperial Palace, Crain’s New York Business reported. Frank Wong sold the 74K SF banquet hall at 6201 Sixth Ave. after selling an adjacent parcel to Queens-based real estate developer Ki Tai Yeung in 2022, also for $21.4M. Wong purchased the site for $6M. The transaction appears to be related to another transaction, PincusCo reported: Wong Bros. Realty paid $21.4M to Xu’s United Construction & Development Group for 13 unsold condos in United’s Skyline Tower, a residential condo building Xu developed at 23-15 44th Drive in Long Island City.
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The Archdiocese of New York has sold a 1.4-acre Alphabet City lot to nonprofit developer Community Access and Brooklyn’s Spatial Equity Co., PincusCo reported. The property, at 181 Avenue D, spans two tax lots and is slated to become a 570-unit affordable housing development pending rezoning. No brokers were used in the sale, but Denham Wolf Real Estate Services acted as a consultant to the seller.
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A six-story residential building in Williamsburg has changed hands for $15M, PincusCo reported. The seller of the 18-unit building, which has an address of 347 Lorimer St., was Morgenstern Capital. The buyer was Yong Hong Guan.
