This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
A slew of some of the year's largest leases closed this week, including Vanderbilt University's expansion in the city and LVMH adding more office space close to its Madison Avenue headquarters.
TOP LEASES
Finance automation platform Ramp has expanded its headquarters by 66K SF at Williams Equities’ 28-40 W. 23rd St., according to a release. The deal doubles Ramp’s space in the building, bringing its footprint in the property up to 132K SF. Ramp subleased its first 66K SF in the building last year, but the deal now brings the fintech company into a direct deal with the landlord. Ramp has already begun its move into the 561K SF, two-tower property. Colliers’ Mac Roos, Andrew Roos, Michael Cohen and Jessica Verdi repped the landlord, and Cushman & Wakefield’s Michael Mathias and R.J. Johns repped the tenant. Cohen is also managing principal of Williams Equities.
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Luxury fashion house LVMH has signed for 150K SF of “swing space” at 590 Madison Ave., a block north of its U.S. headquarters at 550 Madison, The Real Deal reports. The deal gives LVMH four floors of the 41-story building, which is owned by the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio. LVMH plans to keep space at both 550 and 590 Madison as it redevelops its properties at 1 E. 57th St. and 19 E. 58th St. Savills’ Jeffrey Peck and Daniel Horowitz repped LVMH, while Commercial Observer reported that CBRE’s James Ackerson, Evan Haskell, Liz Lash, Brett Shannon and Stephen Siegel repped the landlord.
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Vanderbilt University is opening up a New York City campus in Chelsea, signing a 99-year lease for 150K SF across 13 buildings owned by the General Theological Seminary, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Tennessee university needs sign-off from New York state to complete the deal for the property at 440 W. 21st St. Kate Hrobsky, Paul Wolf and Christopher Turner of Denham Wolf Real Estate Services repped General Theological Seminary.
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Yogurt-maker Chobani leased the entire 22-story, 121K SF office building at 360 Bowery, The Real Deal reported. Chobani’s test kitchens and office space have been at 200 Lafayette St. since 2015. Its new building, where asking rents start at $120 per SF and reach as high as $200 per SF, is owned by a partnership called CBSK Ironstate that includes institutional investor Aecom-Canyon Partners, Charles Blaichman, SK Development’s Abe and Scott Shnay, and Ironstate Properties’ Michael and David Barry. A JLL team led by Peter Michailidis and including Dan Posy negotiated for Chobani.
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Tribeca Investment Group, PGIM Real Estate and Meadow Partners signed hedge fund Bridgewater Associates to 60K SF at 295 Fifth Ave., the New York Post reported. The newly renovated, 17-story office tower spans 700K SF. It signed law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to 132K SF in November, having refinanced to the tune of $150M with Deutsche Pfandbriefbank a year prior, Commercial Observer reported. CBRE repped the landlord, and Matthew Astrachan, Simon Landmann, Andrew Lutzer and Lance Yasinsky of JLL repped the tenant.
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H.J. Kalikow & Co. signed two deals at 101 Park Ave. totaling 111K SF, according to a release. Corient signed a 25K SF expansion, bringing its footprint to 74K SF. Customers Bank also expanded by 25K SF, bringing its footprint to 37K SF in the building. The 1.3M SF property has been owned by H.J. Kalikow since it was built in 1982, with recent renovations introducing a Convene-run auditorium and a Five Iron Golf. Avison Young’s Mark Robbins and Evan Foley repped Corient, Customers Bank had in-house representation, and John Cefaly and Nicholas Dysenchuk of Cushman & Wakefield repped the landlord.
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Accounting firm Weaver and Tidwell signed for 36K SF at Vornado Realty Trust’s Penn 1, Commercial Observer reported. The deal is a more than fourfold expansion for the tenant, which previously had 8K SF. Asking rents were $105 per SF, with Newmark’s Neil Goldmacher and Michael Horn repping the accounting firm. Josh Glick, Jared Silverman and Anthony Cugini of Vornado brokered the deal in-house.
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Law firm Hawkins Delafield & Wood has signed for 26K SF at Union Investment’s 140 Broadway, Commercial Observer reported. The law firm will move from 7 World Trade Center to join a tenant roster including investment firm Alpine Global Management and law firm Labaton Sucharow in the 50-story, 1.1M SF building. Cushman & Wakefield brokered the deal.
TOP SALES
The Vanbarton Group is under contract to buy 77 Water St. for $95M, Bloomberg reported. Sage is the seller of the 26-story office tower in Manhattan’s Financial District, which Vanbarton is planning on converting to housing. The building could provide up to 600 residential units to the neighborhood, with the deal expected to close by the end of the year.
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Sam Chang’s hotel sell-off continued this week, with LeTap Group acquiring the 88K SF hotel at 38-21 Ninth St. in Long Island City for $55.6M, PincusCo reported. Chang’s McSam Hotel Group bought the property in 2018 for $6.5M with plans to build a 16-story, 248-key DoubleTree by Hilton hotel on the site, Crain’s New York Business reported. Chang has sold nine properties in the last two years, Commercial Observer reported, netting $758.8M. This transaction is the second acquisition of a McSam Hotel property by LeTap Group in the neighborhood, following a $40M deal in March for another hotel at 38-01 11th St., Commercial Observer reported.
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Brookfield Properties has sold five West Village retail properties to Acadia Realty Trust for a total of $20.3M, PincusCo reported. The largest deal was for 350 Bleecker St., which sold for $8.1M, a third less than the $12M Brookfield paid in 2018. The other properties are 382 Bleecker St., 92 Perry St., 367-369 Bleecker St. and 387 Bleecker St., which were broken down into three transactions worth $5.7M, $4.8M and $1.7M. Brookfield acquired the properties to turn into experimental retail concepts, a plan that was dealt a blow by the pandemic.
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KPG Funds sold a 27K SF, five-story luxury office building at 446 Broadway to Spear Street Capital for $52M, PincusCo reported. The property joins Spear Street’s Manhattan portfolio, which includes 635-641 Sixth Ave. and 2 Crosby St., Crain’s New York Business reported. Tenants in the building include Rumi Life and Cabin Editing Co., Commercial Observer reported.
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Friedland Properties acquired a five-story residential-over-retail building in Lenox Hill for $36M, Commercial Observer reported. The Duell family, which owns properties in the West Village and on the Upper East Side, sold the property at 673 Madison Ave. The deal was brokered by Daniel Kaplan and Justin Arzi of CBRE and by Darcy Stacom, who left the brokerage earlier this year to start her own firm.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
The Durst Organization nabbed a $105M equity recapitalization from Affinius Capital for its 71-story luxury rental property at 29-59 Northern Blvd. in Long Island City, Commercial Observer reported. Sven, a 958-unit building, was valued at approximately $700M. The landlord had been exploring a sale of the property until June, when it landed a $450M refinancing from Wells Fargo and Affinius came on board as an equity partner, Bloomberg previously reported. Newmark’s Adam Spies, Doug Harmon, Adam Doneger, Josh King, Marcella Fasulo and Chris Kramer arranged the recapitalization.
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A nursing home in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood netted a $74.4M refinancing deal from NewPoint Real Estate Capital, PincusCo reported. CareRite Centers acquired the building at 140 St. Edwards St. for $25.2M in 2015. The financing retires a $75M loan from Popular Bank.
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Simone Development landed an $85M loan from Union Labor Life Insurance Co. to refinance a fully leased Bronx medical tower in the Hutchinson Metro Center campus, Commercial Observer reported. The loan covers Montefiore Tower Two, an 11-story, 280K SF building in the same medical complex as Montefiore Tower One at 1250 Waters Place. Tower One got a $77M refi from Ullico two years ago. The deal, which brought in Washington Capital Management as a participant, allowed Simone Development to retire previous CMBS debt on the property. Kevin Smith and Herbert Kolben repped the lender in-house, while Simone Development Chief Financial Officer Mark Rubin repped the borrower.
