This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
Sales prices are finally coming down after a protracted market lull in 2017, and several major properties changed hands last week, including a High Line hotel and a major mixed-use Flushing site.
TOP LEASES
Ann Taylor and Loft's parent company has renewed its Times Square Tower lease with Boston Properties. The renewal is a win for the landlord as many companies based in the Midtown submarket, including fashion companies like Coach, are moving west to Hudson Yards. Ann Inc. has signed a renewal for its 300K SF spread at 7 Times Square, BXP executives said on the company's Q3 earnings call. It is unclear how much of the space Ann renewed.
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Ernst & Young, now EY, has put pen to paper on a new headquarters lease at Brookfield's under-construction One Manhattan West office tower in the Hudson Yards District. EY will take 600K SF from floors six through 22 at the 67-story, 2.1M SF building, bringing it to 82% leased, according to the landlord. Newmark Knight Frank's Neil Goldmacher and Moshe Sukenik represented EY, and Cushman & Wakefield's Bruce Mosler, Josh Kuriloff, Rob Lowe, Ethan Silverstein and Matthias Li represented Brookfield, along with in-house agents Jeremiah Larkin, Duncan McCuaig and Alex Liscio.
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CKR Law is bucking the law firm contraction trend and growing at its Sixth Avenue offices. The law firm already had a 16K SF lease for the 12th floor at 1330 Sixth Ave., and signed a lease of the same size for the floor just above it, scheduling it to end at the same time as the original deal. Newmark Knight Frank's Brian Waterman and Lance Korman represented CKR, and Cushman & Wakefield's Peter Trivelas, Michael Baraldi and Heather Thomas represented the landlord, RXR Realty, in the deal, with an $80/SF asking rent price.
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Boston Properties secured another key Midtown lease last week, signing a 40K SF lease with Peterson Management, the investment firm managing the assets of the family of former Lehman Brothers CEO and Blackstone co-founder Peter Peterson, at 399 Park Ave. The firm will take over the 14th floor with an asking rent starting at $130/SF, according to The Real Deal. Cushman & Wakefield's Seth Hecht and GPX Realty Partners Joseph Conwell represented the tenant in the deal.
TOP SALES
The Standard High Line hotel's sale has closed for $323M, $77M less than it sold for three years ago. Greenfield Capital Partners and Dune Capital Management, which partnered with hotelier Andre Balasz on developing the property, sold their stakes to Balasz's Standard International for $400M in 2014, but Hong Kong-based Gaw Capital has scooped it up at a discount.
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One of Flushing's largest remaining development sites has changed hands for $115M. Triple Star Realty sold the site, at 131-01 39th Ave., where once stood a Korean grocery store, to investor Yuk Ming Yip. The site contains more than 600K SF of development rights and was once planned to include new condos, retail, a hotel and a medical office building in one of Queens' hottest development areas.
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Hang Seng Realty has bought two commercial condos at 511 Ninth Ave., in the building that contains the Cassa Hotel, a 12-story hotel and condo building. The Midtown-based firm bought the properties for a combined $80.5M from a group of investors including Meyer Chetrit, Salim Assa and Robert Wolf. The condos contain six commercial units on the restaurant-dense stretch of Ninth Avenue in Midtown West, close to Hudson Yards.
Sales data courtesy of Reonomy.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
SL Green has secured a $179.2M refinancing package for the five commercial condos it owns at the International Gem Tower from M&T Bank. The office REIT, which owns more Manhattan office space than any other firm, bought the condos from Extell Development for $275M in 2014.
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The Moinian Group has secured a $103M loan from the New York State Housing Finance Agency for its residential condominium project at 572 11th Ave., just down the street from its signature Sky apartment skyscraper. The developer filed plans last year to build 165 units across 125K SF, including 26K SF of retail.
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Thor Equities has secured an $85M refinancing deal on its 18-story New York City headquarters at 25 West 39th St. Joe Sitt's firm had explored selling its building, where it shares office space with Polo Ralph Lauren and Movado, but ultimately refinanced with AIG Investments.
Financing data courtesy of Reonomy.
