This Week's NY Deal Sheet
Avison Young’s bringing on JLL super broker Mitti Liebersohn as president of its New York City office. Mitti’s a 30-year industry vet with national accounts like New York Life, Deloitte and Playboy in deals across the country.
We spoke to Mitti just hours into his first day at Avison Young's Midtown office. Prior to JLL, he notes, he worked at Cushman with Arthur Mirante, now Avison Young's tri-state president. So when Arthur approached him, he loved the opportunity even more because they'd be working together again. Avison Young’s making moves to expand in NY, signing a deal for 40k SF at 1166 Sixth Ave last December that roughly tripled its office space here. Mitti says the firm’s quadrupled its tri-state area staff since first opening here in April 2011.
EXECS
Speaking of Avison Young, David Burton’s joining the firm as a director. He’d previously been with DTZ. He specializes in office subleasing and has done some big deals, including a 125k SF sublease from Zurich Insurance to NYU in 2012.
Wendy Silverstein (above) left Vornado as its co-head of acquisitions. The departure went into effect April 1. No news has been announced on Wendy’s future plans.
SALES
A 13k SF retail condo at 85 Fifth Ave fetched $86M in a sale by RFR Realty. The Real Deal reported that Jeff Sutton's Wharton Properties was the buyer. Cushman & Wakefield chairman of New York investment sales Bob Knakal and vice chairman John Ciraulo brokered the deal. The sale price works out to $6,643/SF. Anthropologie is the current tenant, with a lease that goes until April 2021.
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The International Center of Photography paid $23.5M for an 11k SF space at 250 Bowery. Atria Properties’ Jane McVerry repped ICP. RKF’s Beth Rosen, Andrew Stern and Benjamin Zack repped the seller, Bowery Star LLC.
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Walter & Samuels chairman David Berley bought the 1,900 SF ground-floor retail condo at 40 East 20th St for $4.7M. The space includes a 1,600 SF basement. Eastern Consolidated’s Adelaide Polsinelli repped the buyer. Eastern Consolidated chairman and CEO Peter Hauspurg repped the seller, Diamond Properties, alongside principal and executive managing director David Schechtman, director Abie Kassin and director Evan Papanastasiou.
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Barrett Design sold a 4,800 SF retail condo at 440 Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn to an undisclosed medical user for 3.25M, or $1,142/SF. CPEX's Andre Sigourney and Harrison Balisky repped Barrett.
LEASES
WeWork is leasing the entire 180k SF of office space at Himmel + Merginoff’s 1460 Broadway. It’ll be the company's first space in Times Square. CBRE’s Derrick Ades and Barry Finkelman repped WeWork. Himmel + Merginoff’s Farrell Virga and Jason Vacker repped the landlord in-house.
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Bayern LB, one of Germany’s biggest banks, signed a 15-year, 53k SF lease at the Rudin Family’s 560 Lexington Ave. Asking rent was $70/SF. A Cushman & Wakefield team of vice chairmen Donald DiRenzo and Fred Smith and associate director Omar Farooq repped the tenant. Rudin’s director of leasing, Thomas Keating, repped the landlord in-house.
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Workday signed a lease for 21k SF in the Empire State Building. Cushman & Wakefield’s Robert Lowe and David Berke repped Workday. Ryan Kass and Fred Posniak repped Empire State Realty Trust in-house, alongside Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s William Cohen, Jonathan Tootell and Shanae Ursini.
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Bateleur Captial and GCT Constructors each took a full 6,400 SF floor at Thor’s 597 Fifth Ave. Colliers’ Christel Engel repped the landlord on both deals.
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Barry’s Bootcamp signed a 6k SF lease for a retail space at RFR’s 300 East 64th St. Neal Cabot Ohm’s Neal Ohm repped the tenant. RFR’s Jordan Claffey repped the landlord in-house.
FINANCING
L&L Holding Co took out a $100M loan from Aareal Capital Corp for the refi on the Metropolitan Tower at 146 West 57th St (above). The deal closed on March 26.
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Meridian Capital brokered a $48M permanent refi loan for APF Properties’ 1156 Sixth Ave. The seven-year loan carries a fixed rate in the 3% range. Meridian managing director Tal Bar-Or arranged the deal.
