This Week's NY Deal Sheet
The last full week of February brought warm temperatures but a cool leasing and sales market. A couple of huge loans in Manhattan made sure the week was not without some real estate heat.
TOP LEASES
Law firm Robins Kaplan is moving within Midtown, taking sublease space in Boston Properties' 399 Park Ave. The firm is taking 38k SF from Arnold & Porter, which is consolidating following a merger. CBRE’s Ken Rapp, Sam Seiler and Chris Corrinet repped the tenant, while their colleagues Craig Reicher, Tim Dempsey and Greg Maurer-Hollaender repped the sublandlord. The deal represents positive absorption in the market as Minnesota-based Robins is growing its NYC footprint.
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Speaking of positive absorption, WeWork is continuing its growth near Bryant Park, committing to taking 64k SF at 130 West 42nd St. Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s Lance Korman repped WeWork, while JLL’s Mitch Konsker, Frank Doyle, Clark Finney, Betsy Buckley and Harlan Webster repped the building's ownership, Tribeca Associates and China Vanke, which hold a ground lease. Asking rent in the building is in the mid-$70s/SF.
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Marshalls is coming to Brooklyn. The discount retailer, owned by the surging TJX parent company, has signed for 22k SF in the same building, Kingswood Center II at 1715 East 13th St., where Target is signed to open an urban format store. It is the second Marshalls deal of the year, after the 68k SF lease TJX signed at 140 West St. in Lower Manhattan in January. JLL's Erin Grace and Patrick Smith repped the landlord, Infinity Real Estate, and Ripco Real Estate's Esther Bukai repped TJX.
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Streaming provider Roku is relocating offices, taking a 15k SF spread in Equity Office's 114 West 41st St. The California-based company is quintupling its footprint from its office at 45 West 34th St. NGKF's Erik Harris, Scott Klau, Ben Shapiro and Zach Weil of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank repped Equity, and their colleague, Brent Ozarowski, repped the tenant.
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Publisher Pace Editions has renewed its 33k SF lease at 44 West 18th St. The asking rent in the building, owned by Forty Four Eighteen Associates, was $62/SF. Adams & Co. repped both sides in the deal.
TOP SALES
1765 Townsend Ave., a 99-unit apartment building in the Bronx, has been sold for $26M. Black Spruce Management bought the building from Gigi Porcelli, acquiring it with $6.6M of debt attached.
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Eugene Fata has acquired a single-story retail building on 125th Street for $17.8M. Fata acquired the property, a 5k SF Children’s Place store at 248 West 125th St., from LargaVista.
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Moshe Altmark and Eli Tabak have sold 470 East 161st St. in the Bronx for $16M. The former detention center and current homeless shelter is owned by Liberty One Group, which wouldn’t comment to The Real Deal about whether it plans to keep the property as a shelter.
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Rosewood Realty Group repped the buyer and the seller of a four-building Bed-Stuy portfolio deal. The four buildings, from 242 to 248 Bainbridge St., are contiguous and combine for 29k SF and 32 units, eight in each. The properties sold for $10.2M, more than 15 times the current rent roll, according to Rosewood's Michael Guttman. The buyer and seller were anonymous LLCs.
Sales data provided courtesy of Reonomy
TOP FINANCING DEALS
One of the biggest construction loans of the year closed this week, with the Victor Group and Lendlease landing a $245M senior from a triumvirate of Singapore-based lenders led by United Overseas Bank Limited. Victor and Lendlease also gave the lenders $100M in preferred equity along with a smaller loan to complete a $369M financing. The 55-story condo tower at 281 Fifth Ave. can now start construction, and will test the theory that the luxury condo market is oversaturated.
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Column Financial, a Credit Suisse affiliate, lent Hudson New York $225M for multiple office condos in 353 West 57th St. The borrowers refinanced a previous loan, for about $233M, from Citigroup.
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JDS Development has landed three loans worth a combined $569M from AIG for its American Copper Buildings development at 626 First Ave. The two-tower, skybridge-connected project will have 761 rental units, 20% of which will be designated affordable. The project was designed by SHoP Architects and is set to open early this year.
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SL Green has nailed down a $170M refinancing of its 10 East 53rd St. office tower. The loan comes from Wells Fargo, which answered the call SL Green put out in the fall for a $165M floating rate loan. The REIT, NYC's largest office landlord, owns 55% of the building, and Canada Pension Plan owns the other 45%.
Financing data provided courtesy of Reonomy
