This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
Chinese conglomerate HNA Group closed on the year's biggest office sale so far, a $2.2B deal for a Park Avenue skyscraper. The massive sale did not help the city's leasing market, which continues to trudge through Q2 without a signature deal to speak of.
TOP LEASES
Huron Consulting Group is moving within Midtown, from Boston Properties' 599 Lexington Ave. to Edward J. Minskoff Equities' 1166 Sixth Ave. Huron signed for 33K SF on the 1.6M SF tower's third floor with an asking rent right around $75/SF. Minskoff completed a repositioning, complete with a large sculpture, of the 44-story tower, which has signed more than 300K SF of leases in recent years. A JLL team led by Paul Glickman repped the landlord along with Minskoff's Jeffrey Sussman. CBRE's Bill Sheehy, Ken Rapp, Ramsey Feher and Lisa Konieczka repped Huron.
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Another consulting firm, Charles River Associates, will expand its New York City offices at 1411 Broadway. The firm signed a 25K SF lease in the building in 2015, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, but after acquiring C1 Consulting earlier this year, it has signed an expansion deal for an additional 17K SF in Ivanhoé Cambridge's Midtown office tower a block from Bryant Park. CBRE's Paul Amrich, Emily Jones, Neil King and Patrice Meagher repped Ivanhoé.
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First American Title Insurance has inked a deal to occupy 18K SF in 110 East 42nd St., the 205K SF office building across the street from Grand Central Terminal. First American is bucking the latest trend, moving from its current Downtown HQ at 44 Wall St. to Midtown for an office with asking rents at $65/SF. Newmark Grubb Knight Frank's Robin Fisher and Christie Bennett repped First American, and Howard Tenenbaum and Gary Rosen repped SL Green in-house.
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One of NewsCorp's neighbors is sticking around. Law firm Fenwick & West renewed its 18K SF sublease with Ropes & Gray at in 1211 Sixth Ave., where Ropes has a 300K SF lease. The skyscraper, owned by Ivanhoé Cambridge and Callahan Property Partners, locked down the biggest leasing deals of the first quarter when it signed NewsCorp and 21st Century Fox to 1.2M SF combined. CBRE’s David Kleinhandler and Ken Rapp repped Fenwick, and NGKF's Moshe Sukenik repped Ropes & Gray.
TOP SALES
After going under contract in March, HNA Group's $2.2B acquisition of 245 Park Ave. from Brookfield and the New York State Teachers Retirement System closed last week. The sale is one of the most expensive single-asset commercial real estate transactions in history. HNA secured the purchase with a $1.75B loan, led by JPMorgan Chase and building tenant Societe Generale.
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Clipper Realty closed on its acquisition of one of the properties in Jehovah's Witnesses' Brooklyn Heights portfolio, acquiring 107 Columbia Heights for $87.5M. The building has 161 units over 154K SF, and Clipper plans to convert some of its public spaces to new apartments. Blackstone financed the deal with a $59M acquisition loan and $14M construction loan for the renovations.
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Investor Joseph Weiss bought a 46-unit apartment building at 382 Lefferts Ave. in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens for $20M. The seller, Marcal Group, bought the building for $6M just three years ago.
Sales data courtesy of Reonomy.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
Lightstone Group secured a $120M loan for 365 Bond St., its new mixed-income affordable building in Brooklyn's Gowanus neighborhood, overlooking the canal. The lender was Morgan Hills Group LLC, an anonymous corporation registered in Delaware. The building welcomed residents last April, Lightstone said, and is almost fully leased.
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A Section 8 property in Hell's Kitchen has been refinanced. Fieldstone Group secured a $95M loan for 535 West 51st St., known as Clinton Manor, which has 235 apartments across 251K SF. Capital One provided the loan, which replaces $79M in previous debt from Barclays.
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New Jersey-based Sitex Group, after buying six Red Hook industrial properties once slated for office conversion earlier this month, has secured a major financing package to fund the deal. Sitex paid $110M for the properties and Loancore Capital Credit REIT financed two loans, one for $94.2M and one for $66.8M. Sitex plans to renovate the properties and re-lease them as industrial.
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Cumberland House, a co-op at 681 Madison Ave., has secured two loans worth a total of $135M. The loans, one for $70M and another for $65M, both come from affiliates of AIG.
Financing data courtesy of Reonomy.
