This Week's NY Deal Sheet

New York City's leasing market had a roaring week with several deals of more than 100k SF, but the capital markets sector remains sluggish.

TOP LEASES

The biggest deals of the past week were signed in the same building by two sister companies. Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox and NewsCorp signed deals for a combined 1.2M SF at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, a property jointly owned by Callahan Capital Properties and Ivanhoé Cambridge. Cushman & Wakefield's Josh Kuriloff, Mitch Arkin and Ethan Silverstein repped the landlord, and CBRE's Mary Ann Tighe, Tim Dempsey, Ken Rapp, Christopher Mansfield and Ariel Ball repped the tenant.

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In a deal announced on Friday afternoon, while the eyes of the world were on Washington, DC, for Donald Trump's inauguration, the New York Attorney General's Office inked a deal for 345k SF over 15 years at Fosun Property Group's 28 Liberty in the Financial District. It will move from 120 Broadway. CBRE's Scott Gottlieb, Bruce Surry and Leonard DiMicelli repped the AG's office, while JLL's Peter Riguardi, Mitchell Konsker and John Wheeler repped Fosun.

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On the same block as Murdoch's big deals, Endurance, an online insurance company, signed a lease for 143k SF at 1221 Avenue of the Americas. The Rockefeller Group, which owns the controlling stake in the property, repped itself. Endurance, which will occupy the 17th, 18th and 19th floors, was repped by George Comfort & Sons’ Dana Pike.

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Bed Bath & Beyond and its design affiliate signed two leases in Hudson Square for a combined 79k SF. One Kings Lane will occupy 52k SF of offices at 315 Hudson St, and the retailer will open a 28k SF store at 250 Hudson St. Douglas Elliman Commercial’s Peter Gross and Jim Gross repped the tenant on both deals, while Jack Resnick & Sons’ Brett Greenberg and Dennis Brady repped the landlord at 250 Hudson St, and teamed up with Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s David Falk, Jason Greenstein, Danny Levine and Peter Shimkin at 315 Hudson.

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365 by Whole Foods, the grocer's smaller, more affordable offering, signed its first deal in the Tri-State area last week, inking a deal for 43k SF at Two Trees Management's 300 Ashland Place in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Whole Foods is one of the most sought-after retail tenants in the market, behind Apple, which Two Trees also signed at the building. SCG Retail’s Jacqueline Klinger repped Whole Foods, while Two Trees CEO Jed Walentas repped his firm, along with colleague Bonnie Campbell.

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Law firm Walden Macht & Haran is moving and growing downtown. It signed a sublease deal to take 28k SF at Rudin Management's One Battery Park Plaza, growing from its 18k SF digs at One Broadway. It's taking over a full floor from leaseholder Morgan, Lewis and Bockius. Savills Studley's Greg Taubin repped Walden, while Barbara Winter and John Moxley of JLL repped Morgan, Lewis and Bockius.

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Hudson Housing Capital signed a 10-year, 18k SF lease at Tishman Speyer's 630 Fifth Ave. CBRE’s Greg Maurer-Hollaender, Lewis Miller and Brad Needleman repped Hudson, while Tishman Speyer's Samantha Augarten, Blythe Kinsler and Joshua McGuire repped the landlord in-house.

TOP SALES

The New School paid $153M to expand its foothold in Greenwich Village. It bought a five-story office building at 34-42 West 14th St, complete with 25k SF of ground-floor retail from Samson Associates, which had owned the building for 32 years. 

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Sam Chang, the CEO of McSam Hotel Group, has bought his third Club Quarters hotel in the last six months. Last week, he picked up the Club Quarters at 52 William St Downtown for $93.6M from Rockwood Capital Group, the same seller when Chang bought CQ hotels at 25 West 51st St and 40 West 45th St. The hotel is 20 stories and 119k SF and was built 116 years ago.

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Developer Abraham Brach bought a 30k SF development site with a 32k SF warehouse and 120k SF of buildable SF in Williamsburg from Pfizer. The pharmaceutical giant has been shedding its properties, and this deal was its last piece, according to The Real Deal. Brach is planning a rental and community facility for Orthodox Jews, one that would necessitate the demolition of the warehouse. Brach paid $26.9M for the site, at 191 Harrison St. 

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Mack-Cali Realty sold 460 Broome St, a five-story office building in SoHo, to designer Albert Malekan for $17.3M. The building is leased to Sunbury Textile Mills. It was built in 1920 and last renovated in 1986, according to Reonomy data. Sunbury sold the building to Mack-Cali for $4.4M in 2004, and Mack-Cali almost quadrupled its return.

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A four-bedroom condo in Park Laurel, on West 63rd Street, sold for $16M, about $900k below asking price. The sellers were Charles and Doris Michaels, who bought the condo, unit 34A, for $6M in 2001, according to the Wall Street Journal. An Israeli businessman paid cash for the condo without seeing it, his broker said, and is listing it for rent at $23k/month. 

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The Luthien Group paid $13.8M to acquire a 28-unit rental building in the East Village from Domek Associates. The building, at 114 East 7th St, is five stories tall, and half of the units are rent-regulated.

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A single-family home at 311 West 90th St on the Upper West Side traded hands for $12.2M. Suzanne Devine is listed as the buyer for the 4,100 SF house, acquiring it from Rockridge Development CEO Robert Arzanipour, who bought it in 2012 for $3.5M.

TOP FINANCING DEALS

Albert Kalimian secured the biggest financing deal of the past week, nailing down a $42.1M loan from Citibank to refinance 305 East 63rd St, a 17-story, mixed-use elevator building with 110 market-rate apartments and 35k SF of offices.

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Simon Baron Development secured a $40M loan from Signature Bank for 393 West End Ave. Simon Baron and Quadrum Global have converted the landmarked, pre-war building into luxury apartments.

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Signature Bank also provided Saul Tawil, the co-founder of Angel Group Holdings, three loans for 29 West 36th St worth a combined $31M. Tawil bought the building, which has 61k SF of offices and 12k SF of retail, in 2008 for $29M.

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New York City provided a $10.6M loan to the New York Historical Society for its HQ at 170 Central Park West.