This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
Even though 2018 has started out sluggishly from a leasing and investment sales standpoint, this past week has shown some serious signs of life on both fronts, including the largest lease of the year so far.
TOP LEASES
JPMorgan Chase and L&L Holding Co. executed the biggest office lease of 2018 so far late last week, when the bank agreed to fill the rest of 390 Madison Ave., L&L's massive redevelopment in Midtown. JPMorgan agreed to occupy 16 floors of offices in the 32-story tower and two ground-floor retail spaces. L&L is developing the building with Clarion Partners, acting on behalf of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, and the company run by David Levinson and Rob Lapidus brokered the lease for itself and JPMorgan, with Levinson, David Berkey, Andrew Wiener and Jim Traynor working on the deal.
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CIT Group decided not to wait to renew its lease at Tishman Speyer's 11 West 42nd St. The lender renewed its deal for 150K SF on the 11th through 15th floors of the 32-story building three years before it was set to expire, The Real Deal reports. The 1M SF building has asking rents between $55 and $75 per SF. Samantha Augarten and Gregory Conen represented Tishman Speyer. Newmark Knight Frank’s Chris Mongeluzo, Eric Zemachson and Noel Flagg brokered the deal on behalf of CIT.
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WeWork signed yet another six-figure square foot lease in Manhattan, this time just steps from its headquarters. The co-working giant leased the entirety of the 167K SF office portion of 18 West 18th St. in Chelsea, owned by 17-18 Management Co. WeWork has already signed at least three leases of 100K SF or more in Manhattan in 2018, and the company was represented in this latest deal by CBRE’s Derrick Ades, Timothy Dempsey and Brett Shannon. Cushman & Wakefield's Tara Stacom, David Green and Connor Daugstrup represented the landlord, a partnership controlled by the Schaffer family.
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Luxembourger commodities trader Traxys is moving next door to JPMorgan's massive new headquarters. The company signed a 30K SF lease to move to the entire 38th floor of Fisher Brothers' 299 Park Ave. in 2019, after the landlord completes a renovation to its longtime headquarters building. Traxys will leave its offices at 825 Third Ave. CBRE's Ken Meyerson, Adam Rabin and Taylor Scheinman represented the trader, and NKF's David Falk, Peter Shimkin, Andrew Sachs, Eric Cagner and Andrew Peretz represented Fisher along with its in-house team of Marc Packman and Charles Laginestra.
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Knotel has signed three office leases in the last week. At Moinian Group's 72 Madison Ave. last week, Knotel agreed to open a 20K SF location, and concurrently agreed to manage a floor in the building for Starbucks. It announced two more leases Tuesday morning: 16K SF at 43 West 24th St. and 14K SF at 41 Union Square. At The Rosen Group's Flatiron building, Knotel is taking three floors in a deal brokered by Skylight Leasing's Elie Reiss. At Brause Realty's Union Square property, Knotel will occupy two floors in a deal brokered by Newmark's Michael Morris and Greg DiGiola.
TOP SALES
Triangle Equities is the latest player to jump into the multistory warehouse game. The Queens-based developer is bringing a three-story, 300K SF warehouse to what is currently a surface parking lot near JFK at 130-120 South Conduit Ave. in South Ozone Park. Triangle paid $25.4M to acquire the site, backed by a $10.1M JV with a pension fund, through L&B Realty Advisors, and a $19M floating-rate loan placed with Citizens Bank. HFF brokered the deal and arranged the financing. Triangle plans to break ground next year on the project, which will have full loading capabilities on two floors, and deliver it in 2020.
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Hidrock Properties also acquired a development site, acquiring the parcel at 112 Liberty St. in the Financial District for $38M, The Real Deal reports. The firm, run by the Hidary family, could build a significant residential project at the site, where there currently sits a small retail-and-residential building in the shadow of the World Trade Center.
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Anbau also made a move toward a development far north of Hidrock's site. The firm, planning two residential towers, paid $22.5M for 620 West 153rd St. in Hamilton Heights, parking garages Verizon has owned and used for vehicle storage. As part of the sale, Anbau will provide a facility for the vehicles to clear the way for dual condo towers.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
Muss Development nailed down a major refinancing for the mixed-use property it built in Downtown Brooklyn. CGA Capital was the lender on the $198.3M CMBS loan, which replaced a 22-year-old, $80.8M BNY Mellon loan on the property, which includes a fully leased, 820K SF office tower and a 667-room Marriott hotel.
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Lightstone Group is not listening to the noise that getting construction loans for ground-up hotel projects is impossible. The developer has secured $91M from Bank of the Ozarks for the Moxy hotel it plans to build at 112 East 11th St. in the East Village. Goldman Sachs provided the financing that got construction started, and Ozarks' debt will replace Goldman's on the project, which is scheduled to deliver later this year, according to TRD.
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JMC Holdings, one of the beneficiaries of New York REIT's portfolio liquidation, has found a lender to finance its acquisition of the Interior Design Building in Lenox Hill. Square Mile Capital Management lent the firm, led by Matt Cossin, $51M to buy the property at 306 East 61st St., which will go to retire some of NYRT's outstanding debt and go toward capital improvements as JMC repositions the property as a boutique office product.
