This Week’s N.Y. Deal Sheet
A handful of smaller office leases closed this week in New York City, but the two largest were for warehouse spaces in Queens. Meanwhile, deal volume stayed low and largely residential for both sales and financing transactions.
TOP LEASES
Legal services nonprofit Access Justice Brooklyn has signed a 9K SF lease at AmTrust RE’s 203 Jay St., according to a release. The nonprofit will move into the eight-story mixed-use property in December, joining a tenant roster that includes Paycom and Morgan & Morgan. Cresa’s Bert Rosenblatt repped the tenant, while the landlord was repped in-house by Anne Holker and by a CBRE team of Brad Gerla, Michael Rizzo and Alex Benisatto.
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Jack Resnick & Sons has signed Midtown Orthopedics to a 15K SF lease at 485 Madison Ave., Commercial Observer reported. Asking rents in the deal at the 25-story, 306K SF building were $69 per SF. Other tenants include Pembrook Capital Management and law firm Zuckerman Spaeder. Savills’ James Wenk, Alex Redlus and Kirill Azovtsev negotiated on behalf of the tenant, while Adam Rappaport represented the landlord in-house.
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Piece of Cake Moving & Storage has signed a lease-to-buy deal at First Pioneer Properties’ 33-02 Skillman Ave., Crain’s New York Business reported. The 69K SF lease lasts for two years, after which point Piece of Cake will have the option to purchase the 104K SF building for around $200 per SF. Asking rents in the Long Island City building were $24 per SF for the moving and storage company. The building was converted from industrial into office around five years ago but has struggled to attract tenants. Piece of Cake plans to take over the entire property once the existing tenants’ leases expire and plans to use the building for both office and storage. Randy Modell and Steven Hornstock of ABS Real Estate Partners represented First Pioneer Properties with help from Victor Sozio and Remi Mandell of Ariel Property Advisors. Vincent Lopez of Knickerbocker Realty Group represented Piece of Cake.
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Elion Partners has signed electrical supplier Wholesale Electric Caribe to 26K SF at 182-20 Liberty Ave., Commercial Observer reported. The owner snatched up the one-story, 180K SF warehouse in 2021 for $58M. The property has 17 loading docks and high ceilings. Paul Bralower, David Junik, George Margaronis and Brendan Burke of Pinnacle Realty repped the landlord in the lease, while William Jordan of CBRE repped the tenant.
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ZG Capital Partners has signed GlossGenuis, a tech company that provides spa and salon software, to 14K SF at 838 Broadway, according to a release. The company, whose software serves more than 75,000 salons and spas nationwide, is relocating from SoHo to the third floor of the Union Square property. Asking rents for the GlossGenius deal were not disclosed, but rents in the building range from $98 to $125 per SF. GlossGenius is the first tenant to sign in the building since ZG Capital Partners finished a full renovation of the property, which was originally designed in 1876. A JLL team led by Mitchell Konsker, Benjamin Bass, Greg Wang and Thomas Swartz represented ZG Capital Partners. JLL’s Joseph Sipala, Hannah Bernstein and Stefanie Rock represented GlossGenius.
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E.E. Cruz, a construction firm specializing in infrastructure that is a subsidiary of Flatiron Construction, has signed for 22K SF at Circle Realty Group’s 14 Penn Plaza, Commercial Observer reported. Asking rent in the 10-year lease was $60 per SF. The deal expands E.E. Cruz’s footprint from its main offices at 16-16 Whitestone Expressway in Queens to part of the seventh floor of the Manhattan building. Other tenants in the property include law firm Capell Barnett Matalon & Schoenfeld and coworking company IWG. Lee & Associates NYC’s Dennis Someck and Justin Myers repped E.E. Cruz in the negotiations.
TOP SALES
The El-Ad Group has acquired 419 Park Ave. S. for $72M with plans for a potential office-to-residential condo conversion, according to a release. The seller was Walter & Samuels, per Commercial Observer. The building is 60% vacant following WeWork’s Chapter 11 filing last year and its decision to leave its 68K SF in the building, as well as Knotel’s 2021 departure from the 9K SF space it previously occupied. KSR’s Albert Sultan and Marc Sitt repped both the buyer and seller in the deal.
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A group of investors, including Damien Smith, Peter Zuccarello and Gary Romaniello — two of whom are founders of real estate investment companies — have acquired 57 Willoughby St. from Meadow Partners for $48M, Commercial Observer reported. The sale price is 11% under the $54M that Meadow Partners shelled out in 2016 before spending $10M renovating the property. Argentic Investment Management provided a $31.2M acquisition loan to the new owners, which split interest in the 96K SF property between four separate LLCs. JLL’s Aaron Niedermayer arranged the financing. David Giancola and Ethan Stanton, also of JLL, arranged the sale.
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A 43-unit Coney Island rental property has sold for $13.1M, property records show. Sam Sprei, who also goes by Yechiel Sprei or Shimon Sprei, was the buyer, PincusCo reported. Sprei originally developed the property with Chaim Miller, who is also known as Harry Miller. But lender Madison Realty Capital foreclosed on the property earlier this year following Miller’s bankruptcy, the New York Business Journal previously reported. This week’s sale is Sprei taking the property back from Madison Realty Capital.
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Howard Hughes Corp. has spent $40M acquiring the air rights for 250 Water St. from the City of New York for its planned Financial District skyscraper, PincusCo reported. The developer filed plans for a 399-unit, 545K SF residential property in 2021.
TOP FINANCING
Citibank has agreed to lend $24M to Han’s Holding Group to refinance a hotel property at 121 W. 28th St., PincusCo reported. The loan replaces a $31.7M loan from the same lender. The hotel property spans 71K SF and has been in its China-based owner’s possession since 2016, when Han’s Holding Group spent $53.8M to acquire the hotel property.
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The Zucker Organization scored a $24M refi loan for the retail condo portion of 30 E. 85th St., Commercial Observer reported. The 10-year loan comes from J.P. Morgan’s CMBS platform. The refinancing loan covers a 35K SF luxury condo on the Upper East Side, which sits at the base of a 75-unit, 30-story condo building developed in 1987 close to Madison Avenue. The two-story retail part of the building has tenants including Starbucks and James Perse on the ground floor, and the second floor houses an E by Equinox location. Scott Singer, Kevin Swartz, Jeffrey Moroch and Andrew McNulty of Avison Young arranged the deal.
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Citibank has agreed to lend $30M to Son Dinh Tran to refinance eight properties, spanning 56 residential units in Manhattan and the Bronx, PincusCo reported. The properties include the Fordham Heights retail property at 151-165 E. Burnside Ave., as well as 425 E. 6th St. and 73 2nd Ave. in Manhattan’s East
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Ka-No Realty, LLC, an entity linked to Sabah Shemel, David Shemel, and Danny Mashal, has notched a $29M refinancing loan for a 49-unit residential property in Chelsea, PincusCo reported. The financing for 232 7th Ave., a 52K SF elevator building, comes from JPMorgan Chase and replaces a $30.2M sum from Bank Hapoalim.
