This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
The country's hearts and minds are with Houston and Southwest Texas this week, but in commercial real estate in New York City, deals are still happening. Here were the biggest over the last week.
TOP LEASES
Justworks, a technology-focused benefits management company, has agreed to fill some of Tommy Hilfiger's soon-to-be-vacated space at the historic Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea, owned by RXR. The fashion giant agreed to move its headquarters to 285 Madison Ave. in February, and Justworks will take 59K SF on a portion of the building's fourth floor. The asking rent was about $39/SF in the pre-built space. Justworks was represented by Colliers International’s Connor Sullivan and Rand Pear, and JLL’s Alexander Chudnoff, Mitchell Konsker, Dan Turkewitz and Ben Bass worked for Tommy Hilfiger.
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The New York City Department of Inspection signed the biggest lease of the week, finally consummating its 276K SF lease in the Financial District's 180 Maiden Lane. The deal, with landlords MHP Real Estate Services and Clarion Partners, make the DOI the building's largest tenant when it moves in. It expands the department's overall footprint by 75K SF and consolidates offices from sites around the city.
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Law firm Arent Fox has agreed to lease 76K SF at 1301 Sixth Ave. with Paramount Group, occupying part of the 38th floor and all of the 41st and 42nd floors in the 45-story building. Arent Fox departs Rudin Management's 1675 Broadway for the building with asking rents north of $90/SF. The firm was represented by Colliers International's Howard Grufferman, and Paramount was represented by JLL's Frank Doyle, David Kleiner, Clark Finney and Harlan Webster.
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Fisher Brothers has a new tenant at its 1.1M SF 605 Third Ave., signing Informa to a 60K SF lease covering three full floors. The international publishing and events company will consolidate multiple offices from around the city when it moves in the first quarter. A team led by Cushman & Wakefield's Bruce Mosler, along with in-house agents Marc Packman and Clark Briffel, brokered the deal on behalf of Fisher Brothers, and CBRE's Chris Corrinet, Peter Gamber, Robert Hill and Michael Movshovich represented Informa.
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An Italian confectioner is the latest tenant to sign on to innovate at Forest City Ratner's The Bridge at Cornell Tech building on Roosevelt Island. Ferrero International S.A. has agreed to lease 4,200 SF for its Open Innovation Science division, which it said will "drive discovery, evaluation and integration plans of relevant external science, technology and entrepreneurial innovations." CBRE's Mary Ann Tighe, Evan Haskell, David Caperna, Evan Fiddle, Sacha Zarba and Ross Zimbalist are in charge of leasing The Bridge at Cornell Tech, and they worked with Ferrero's brokers, Jacqueline Klinger and Ian Rice from SCG Retail, on the deal.
TOP SALES
The DoubleTree in Hell's Kitchen was the only property to sell for nine figures last week, trading hands from Magna Hospitality to Singaporean REIT Ascott Residence Trust. The subsidiary of CapitaLand Limited paid $105.6M to acquire the 224-room hotel at 341 West 36th St., five years after Magna paid $82M to acquire it. The hotel was built in 2007.
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The Hotel Wales at 1295 Madison Ave. in Carnegie Hill might not be a hotel for much longer after it sold for $35M to DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners last week. The hotel, opened as the Hotel Chastiagneray almost 100 years ago, was sold by Hotel Wales Partners, a group spearheaded by Neal Peskind. The new owners could convert the property to condominiums and take advantage of almost 7K SF of air rights to build a new penthouse unit.
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Mercantil Commercebank, a subsidiary of Venezuela's national bank, sold the John Pierce Residence at 11 East 51st St. for $30M. The building, a landmark in Midtown East, sold to Soho China, one of China's largest developers and an equity partner in the world's most valuable office building, the General Motors Building.
Sales data courtesy of Reonomy.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
The Moinian Group has secured a $550M loan for a commercial condo at 635 West 42nd St. and a handful of residential and commercial condos at its Sky project at 605 West 42nd St. The loan was provided by the New York State Housing Finance Agency.
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Black Spruce Management locked down the second-biggest financing package of the week for a 13-property apartment portfolio in and around Chelsea. Black Spruce picked up the properties for $80M last year and secured a $75M loan from Cantor Commercial Real Estate Funding to complete the trade.
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Simon Baron Management and its equity partner, Quadrum Global, have refinanced the Arlo NoMad, a 31-story hotel with small rooms and amenity spaces targeting millennials, for $73.5M. The loan from Barings replaces the $34M loan it took out from Cayman Islands-based Cybus Lending Corp. in 2015 and adds $39.5M of additional debt.
Financing data courtesy of Reonomy.
