This Week's NY Deal Sheet
Tech firms expanding in Manhattan offices propped up an otherwise lackluster week for office leasing in New York City as Q2's first month came to an end. Here is what else we saw this week.
TOP LEASES
Snapchat's parent company, Snap Inc., is growing its office footprint in one of Manhattan's most iconic buildings in the aftermath of its initial public offering. The social media giant signed for 26K SF of new space in the old New York Times building at 229 West 43rd St., bringing its total footprint in the building, where Snap is signed until 2027, to 121K SF. CBRE's Paul Amrich and Neil King represented the landlord, Columbia Property Trust, while JLL's Jim Wenk and Kirill Avotsev repped Snap.
***
In other tech unicorn leasing news, Google is expanding in its Meatpacking offices, growing by 60K SF in Vornado and Related's 85 10th Ave. The search and ad giant now leases 240K SF in the 635K SF building in Manhattan's Silicon Alley. Asking rents in the area are above $130/SF. Vornado CEO Steve Roth announced the deal in an earnings call Tuesday morning, and it is unclear who the leasing brokers involved are.
***
Car dealership tech firm AutomotiveMastermind, fresh off a $45M fundraising round, is moving into offices four times its current digs. The firm has signed for 32K SF at Vornado's 1 Park Ave. It will move to the Midtown office tower from its 8K SF offices at 123 William St. in Lower Manhattan. Asking rents in the deal are in the $70s per SF.
***
Women- and minority-owned investment bank Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co. signed a deal to expand its headquarters at 100 Wall St. to 17K SF. Colliers executive managing director Eric Yarbro repped SCSCO, and the firm also helped secure contractors for the build-out, 98% of which are minority- and women-owned business. Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors owns the building.
***
Interactive marketing firm Ceros is growing fast, and it has signed a full-floor lease to accommodate it. It is moving to 11K SF at Unizo Holding Co.'s 40 West 25th St. this month from 151 West 25th St. It will sublease that office to Captify Technologies. Lee & Associates principals Dennis Someck and Justin Myers repped Ceros, which got build-out concessions from Unizo, which was repped by Paul Kotcher and Jordan Plesser of Brickman Associates. Unizo has focused most of its activity in Washington, DC, recently, where it has become the dominant player in the market.
TOP SALES
The New York City government has closed on its $160M acquisition of four parcels on the banks of the East River to complete Bushwick Inlet Park. The city bought the properties, at 5 North 11th St., 13 North 10th St., 16 North 11th St. and 20 North 12th St., from Elaine Brodsky's CitiStorage. The deal was announced last November, but the deed transfer was filed into New York City property records last week.
***
GFI Capital paid just over $58M to acquire 138-10 135th Ave. near John F. Kennedy Airport. The property is a 330-room Crowne Plaza Hotel and sits in the heart of Jamaica, which is billed at the next hot neighborhood in the city. GFI got a $40.5M acquisition loan from Argentic Real Estate Finance, a subsidiary of Silverpeak Argentic, which is an affiliate of Elliott Management. Elliott appears to be the seller as well as the lender, as the previous owner, the anonymous ERG JFK Hotel LLC, is registered to the same address.
***
Riverdale Manor Home for Adults, a senior care facility at 6355 Broadway in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, traded hands for $15M. The buyer, Preferred Home Care of New York, bought the property from Forestam Associates LLC, registered to Judith Marsel of Orlando, Florida.
Sales data courtesy of Reonomy
TOP FINANCING DEALS
The hospital known, until recently, as New York Methodist Hospital in Park Slope, Brooklyn, has secured a $327M loan from Bank of New York Mellon. The hospital was rebranded after its owner merged with New York Presbyterian in December, and it is now called New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. The building, at 506 6th St., has 651 beds and treats 42,000 patients a year.
***
TF Cornerstone has closed on a $325M loan from MetLife Insurance for Carnegie Hall Tower at 152 West 57th St., on Billionaire's Row. The loan for the 555K SF office tower is for 15 years at 4% interest and was brokered by the Singer & Bassuk Organization.
***
The co-op known as Penn South, at 333 West 23rd St. in Manhattan, has secured a $187.5M mortgage with Wells Fargo. The group is acting as Mutual Redevelopment Houses Inc., and the loan secures six buildings on Eight and Ninth avenues for 35 years, maturing May 1, 2052.
***
Diamondrock Hospitality, after completing a three-phase, $50M renovation on The Lexington New York hotel, has nailed down a $170.4M refinancing arrangement with Regions Bank. The owner of the 725-room Autograph Collection hotel, a Maryland-based REIT, previously restructured a loan of the same amount with Citibank in 2014.
***
Yeshiva University has refinanced mortgages on five New York City buildings for a total of $140M. The loan, provided by Silverpeak Argentic and Citigroup, restructures the debt on 95 and 2520 Amsterdam Ave. and 215, 245 and 253 Lexington Ave. in Murray Hill.
Financing data provided courtesy of Reonomy
