This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
The final week of the second quarter saw a flood of sales, financing and leasing deals close before many in the business take off to their beach houses for the holiday week.
TOP LEASES
Law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe signed for 144K SF at Harbor Group International’s 51 W. 52nd St. office tower. The building, also known as Black Rock, long served as CBS’ headquarters and was acquired by HGI in October 2021. The landlord relocated its New York City headquarters to 51W52 last fall, taking up 25K SF on the 19th floor and completing a $128M revamp of the building. HGI has signed more than 500K SF of renewals and new leases at the 900K SF building since acquiring it. CBRE’s Howard Fiddle, Scott Gottlieb, Andrew Sussman, Evan Haskell, Evan Fiddle and Caroline Merck represented the landlord in the transaction with the law firm, while CBRE's Mary Ann Tighe, Craig Reicher, Ramneek Rikhy and Elliot Bok repped the tenant.
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Management consulting firm Kearney has taken the highest office space at the Empire State Building, the New York Post reported. The Chicago-based company signed an 11-year, 28K SF lease for the 78th and 79th floors in the landmark skyscraper. Kearney has offices in nine other U.S. cities and 40 countries. It’s unclear if the move is a relocation from its current NYC home at 7 Times Square or an expansion, per reporting from Commercial Observer. Asking rents were $88 per SF. JLL’s Matthew Felice, Gil Ohls and Barbara Winter repped the tenant, while Newmark’s Scott Klau, Erik Harris and Neil Rubin negotiated on behalf of landlord Empire State Realty Trust.
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Rooftop Hospitality Group LLC has renewed its 32K SF lease at GFP Real Estate’s 230 Fifth Ave., according to a release. The tenant runs the 230 Fifth Avenue Rooftop Bar and is set to stay put for another 12 years at the top of the 20-story, 110-year-old office building. The Gural family has owned the building, which has more than 140 showrooms for home furnishings, art and architectural product companies, since 1958. The lease was a direct deal, with GFP’s Jane Gural-Senders, David Kaye and Harvey Richer repping the tenant as well as the landlord in-house.
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Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP is moving and growing within Rockefeller Center. Tishman Speyer signed the law firm to 22K SF at 1 Rockefeller Plaza, where it will move from its 16K SF at 600 Fifth Ave., according to a release. Savills’ Zev Holzman and Paul Revson of Emerald Realty repped the tenant, while the landlord was represented in-house by Blythe Kinsler, Samantha Augarten, Joe Simon and Kate Walker.
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Maimonides Medical Center has signed a 54K SF lease for the whole of Royal Builders Development’s 5402 Fort Hamilton Parkway property in Borough Park, The Real Deal reported. The leasehold agreement for space in the newly built office property runs for 30 years and allows the health system to continue its consolidation plans. Maimonides announced last week that it plans to relocate a primary care facility from 26 Court St. to a 25K SF space at 809 Atlantic Ave. Nick Zweig of Locations Commercial Real Estate repped both the tenant and the landlord in the deal, Commercial Observer reported.
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Bram Auto Group has signed Classic Car Club Manhattan to a 60K SF lease at the former West Side Toyota dealership at 645 11th Ave., Commercial Observer reported. The private club allows members to drive classic luxury vehicles, and it will move its flagship location to the 11th Avenue property from its current home at 408 12th Ave. Peter Gross of Avison Young repped the tenant, while Gene Spiegelman, Doug Kleinman, Jeffrey Rosbash, Morgan Singer and Zach Steinberg of Ripco Real Estate repped the landlord.
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Salmar Properties and Madison Capital have signed the NYC Department of Finance to 32K SF at 850 Third Ave. in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, Commercial Observer reported. The agency plans to use the space for storage for 20 years and will also lease 750 SF in a parking lot adjacent to the property. The NYC DOF will also be able to reduce its Brooklyn storage space by 30K SF thanks to high-density shelving at its new location. The city will pay $578K in rent over the first five years of the lease, and the rate will increase during the remaining years. The DOF’s new office will put it close to the city’s Human Resources Administration, which signed a 158K SF lease in the same building last year. Another potential neighbor is the NYC Administration for Child Services, which is currently negotiating a 23K SF space in the building, per CO.
TOP SALES
Affordable housing developer Breaking Ground has acquired a dorm building previously used as a migrant shelter at 1760 Third Ave. for $172.1M, Bisnow first reported. A total of $163M in financing was provided by city and state agencies, including a $128M mortgage from the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, $29.5M from the New York City Acquisition Fund and $6M from the New York State Homeless Housing and Assistance Corp. The property last sold to a partnership of 60 Guilders and RCG Longview in February 2019 for $212.5M, but the most recent deed was signed on the seller's side by RCG Longview successor CenterSquare Investment Management and Principal Real Estate investors. Breaking Ground plans to convert the property, which has served as a family migrant shelter, into a 434-unit low-income residential building.
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Columbia Property Trust has sold a 202K SF office building in Tribeca to TPG Real Estate Partners for $96.5M, PincusCo reported. The 17-story property at 101 Franklin St. spans a full block front between Church and Leonard streets. The seller has been marketing the property as a potential office-to-residential conversion since October and was seeking around $115M, The Real Deal previously reported.
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Two interconnected, rent-stabilized buildings in the Manhattan Valley neighborhood have changed hands for $43M, Commercial Observer reported. The overall price is approximately 35% lower than the $66M that seller Dalan Management paid for the properties in June 2018. The buyer was NJB Management, the firm of 33-year-old Nathan Benelyahou, a broker who has since switched to real estate investing. Hall Oster of JLL arranged the deal. Roughly two dozen of the 65 units at 226 W. 97th St. and 2568 Broadway are rent-stabilized. NJB scored a $30.3M CMBS loan from Bank of America to make the acquisition, although Benelyahou said he plans to refinance the buildings as soon as interest rates drop to 5%.
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Fetner Properties has acquired a 20-story multifamily property from the Ohebshalom family for $63M, The Real Deal reported. The building, at 501 E. 74th St., has 82 apartments, all of which are market rate and rent from between $3,500 a month to $18K. The building was developed by Ben and Jonathan Ohebshalom’s Sky Management in 2015. The acquisition is the second to close in as many weeks for Fetner Properties, which last week partnered up with Farallon Capital Management to buy 85 East End Ave. from BlackRock for $75M, TRD previously reported.
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Tredway and ELH Mgmt teamed up to buy four Fort Greene rentals for a combined $90M, according to a release. The deal for 53 St. Felix St., 33 St. Felix St., 221 Ashland Place and 80 Greene Ave. was split across two transactions, PincusCo reported. Together, the buildings — sold by AMS Realty — span 193 units. The two St. Felix Street properties and the Ashland Place building sold for $55M, while the Greene Avenue property sold for $35M. The buyer will focus on improving energy efficiency and safety measurements required by Local Law 11, as well as upgrades to bathrooms, kitchens, lighting and flooring in apartments, the lobbies and common areas.
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China-based developer Fantasia Holdings Group has sold a hotel near the Empire State Building for $30M, PincusCo reported. The 70-room boutique hotel at 373 Fifth Ave. was acquired by a shell company in the care of Hogwarts Capital, a U.S.-based private equity real estate investing firm.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
Quinlan Development Group scored a $56M refinancing for 230 Classon Ave., according to a release. The fixed-rate loan for the newly constructed Clinton Hill multifamily property came from QuadReal Property Group. The building has 138 units and spans 111K SF. A Cushman & Wakefield team of Gideon Gil, Zach Kraft and Sebastian Sanchez repped the borrower in the deal.
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Bank Hapoalim and its U.S. arm, BHI, provided a $95M loan for a 226-unit multifamily project at 2359 Bedford Ave., The Real Deal reported. The site is owned by Clipper Equity and local developer Anshel Friedman and is the site of the formerly landmarked Sears Building in Flatbush. The building will span 148K SF when completed, with 30% of units earmarked as affordable housing. It will also feature 23K SF of commercial space and 10K SF of retail space.
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Fouerti Realty nabbed a $97M construction loan from Goldman Sachs for a 209-unit multifamily property at 205 E. 110th St. in East Harlem, Commercial Observer reported. The sum was split into a $78.9M senior loan and an $18M subordinate loan. The property is expected to span 181K SF once complete. Fouerti Realty acquired the property in late 2021 for $4.1M from AK Property Group.
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The estate of developer Stanley Stahl chipped in $250M in equity to score a $750M refinancing loan from Deutsche Bank at 277 Park Ave., Crain’s New York Business reported. The Stahl Organization added five more years onto the maturity date of the property’s mortgage, as well as lowering the debt burden on the building and boosting its reserves. The new loan replaces a mortgage written in 2014 and would last just half the length of the previous loan. Bond rating firm KBRA, which noted the transaction in a report, valued the property at $1B.
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LodgeWorks Partners scored a $60M refinancing from Capitol Federal Savings Bank for its 180-key hotel at 45 W. 38th St., PincusCo reported. LodgeWorks Partners bought the 76K SF building, known as the Archer Hotel, in August 2011 for $15.6M. The new loan replaces a $57.4M sum from Aareal Capital.
