This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
With the weather warming up in New York this week, the deals are heating up as well, including a potentially record-breaking office lease and a handful of development site deals in the long-stalled land sales market.
TOP LEASES
The Rockpoint Group scored a major victory when it signed a French asset management firm to a lease worth as much as $195/SF at 412 West 15th St., The Real Deal reports. The deal could be the new record price per SF in the Meatpacking District, and Tikehau Capital paid the price for a roof deck with a direct look into Google's headquarters, a half-block away.
The firm signed for the 3,700 SF top floor and the 6K SF 17th floor in the boutique tower, which CBRE Vice Chairman Paul Amrich told Bisnow in 2016 he hoped to lease for up to $130/SF at the tower's higher floors. Google and other high-profile tech and financial firms have pushed deeper into the neighborhood in the intervening years, and it is now joining Midtown and Hudson Yards in the upper echelon of office rent pricing.
The Meilman family owns the land underneath the building, and Highgate is co-developing it with Rockpoint. James Emden and Peter Simel of Colliers International brokered the deal for Tikehau, according to TRD.
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Omnicom has signed a relocation deal in FiDi, moving from upper floors at L&L Holding Co.'s 195 Broadway to the fourth through eighth floors of that same building, while retaining space on the 17th and 18th floors. The shuffle gives Omnicom's media division 297K SF. Omnicom is moving to the former AT&T auditorium, which L&L is renovating. Asking rent in the deal was $65/SF. L&L's David Berkey and Andrew Wiener brokered the deal in-house, while Feld Realty represented Omnicom.
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Charter school Brooklyn Lab has signed an 81K SF lease for a new location at 77 Sands St. in Kushner Cos., LIVWRK and RFR's joint venture Dumbo Heights. Asking rent in the deal, which spans the second through fifth floors, along with the 12th, was $50/SF. Newmark Knight Frank represented both sides of the transaction.
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Co-working, even in its more traditional forms, is still growing in Manhattan. Shared office space provider Virgo Business Centers has signed a 42K SF expansion deal into AllianceBernstein's 1M SF lease at 1345 Sixth Ave., Commercial Observer reports. The expansion deal, for the 2M SF tower's 33rd floor, adds to the 41K SF second-floor sublease it already has with the building's anchor tenant. CBRE’s Anthony Dattoma represented Virgo in the deal, with asking rents at $79/SF.
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Bank of America is continuing its real estate deal spree, signing an early renewal deal for its 190K SF spread with Brookfield at 225 Liberty St. in Brookfield Place, according to The Real Deal. The banking giant firmed up its campus around Bryant Park earlier in 2018, but it decided to keep its space on the 37th to 40th floors of the Downtown building, which was set to expire in 2020. CBRE’s Ryan Alexander, Emily Jones, Ramneek Rikhy, Christopher Hogan and Robert Alexander represented BoA.
TOP SALES
The Domain Cos. is one of the handful of buyers that have closed on a land deal in the five boroughs in the past week. The developer acquired 420 and 430 Carroll St. in Brooklyn, not far from the Gowanus Canal, for a combined $47.5M. The site, which has low-rise industrial buildings, was sold by Property Markets Group, which bought it for $9M back in 2012. Domain is planning a mixed-use, mixed-income development project, whose residents will be able to walk to the new Whole Foods in the neighborhood.
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Stellar Management continues to dominate Broadway in Hamilton Heights. The New York City firm acquired 3505 Broadway, a six-story, 42-unit apartment building, for $26M. Stellar now owns 31% of the retail frontage and 37% of the residential units between 139th and 144th streets along Broadway, it said in a release. The estate of longtime owner Harriet Okun was the seller, and Peter Vanderpool and Lazer Sternhell of Cignature Realty brokered the deal.
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A development site in Flushing, Queens, also changed hands last week, trading for $23M, or roughly $338 per buildable SF. NY EZ Property Holdings LLC acquired the 23K SF corner site from International Union of Operating Engineers Local 14-14B, which was a long-term owner. Cushman & Wakefield's Stephen Preuss and Stephen Palmese represented the seller.
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In another development site deal, Ziel Feldman's HFZ Capital Group paid $22.5M for 1135 Lexington Ave. on the Upper East Side as part of a bigger assemblage play. Mary McCullough and John Bono sold the two-story building, which is occupied by a branch of First Republic Bank.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
Zar Property Group has secured a $210M refinancing for its Midtown Manhattan office tower at 1450 Broadway. The family real estate company, which purchased the 415K SF office tower in 2011, landed the loans from Goldman Sachs in a deal brokered by Meridian Capital Group's Tal Bar-Or and Richard Sutton.
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Normandy Real Estate Partners landed an $81M acquisition and construction loan for its acquisition of 25-11 49th Ave. in Long Island City from Deutsche Bank. Normandy and its JV partners, Keystone Equities and Drake Street Partners, plan to expand the 135K SF loft property into an 11-story, 238K SF office product, with nine stories of new construction. NKF's Dustin Stolly and Jordan Roeschlaub brokered the deal for Normandy.
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The Domain Cos. secured $38M in financing for its Gowanus development site acquisition. The senior loan, for $28.7M, was provided by CIT Bank, and Sherwood Equities provided $13M of mezzanine debt. HFF represented Domain to find its debt.
