This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
Another moribund week for closed deals in New York got a jolt of life Tuesday morning when Tishman Speyer announced it completed 2018's biggest lease and biggest loan in one fell swoop.
TOP LEASES
Pfizer signed its lease for 800K SF at The Spiral, the Bjarke Ingels-designed tower at the northern terminus of the High Line. The pharmaceutical giant will relocate from the 1.1M SF of offices it owns on 42nd Street when The Spiral is complete in 2022. Cushman & Wakefield Executive Vice Chairman Josh Kuriloff represented Pfizer. Asking rents were not disclosed.
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Trucking tech startup Transfix has doubled its footprint in the Garment District. The "Uber for trucking" company has signed a new, 60K SF lease at 498 Seventh Ave., the 980K SF office building owned by George Comfort & Sons, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Loeb Realty Group and MetLife, The Real Deal reports. Transfix was leasing 30K SF in the building in a sub-sublease, but the space's original tenant, Liquidnet, is moving to 620 Eighth Ave. and its lease expires next year. Savills Studley's Greg Taubin represented Transfix, and Matt Coudert led an in-house leasing team for George Comfort.
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Technology-forward real estate brokerage Compass is growing fast in Manhattan, signing a 32K SF expansion lease in Midtown, The Real Deal reports. The firm now has 49K SF at 10 East 53rd St., a 390K SF, SL Green-owned office tower. Compass was represented in the lease by Cushman & Wakefield's Ethan Silverstein, and SL Green was represented by JLL's Paul Glickman, Cynthia Wasserberger and Benjamin Bass, among others. Asking rent at the tower is reportedly north of $70/SF.
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Spaces, the creative co-working concept from IWG, formerly Regus, has signed its first lease in Brooklyn. The concept will open in 31K SF at 41 Flatbush Ave. in Downtown Brooklyn, Commercial Observer reports. The lease covers 27K SF on the second floor and 4K SF on the ground floor in a converted bank vault. Also known as the Pioneer Building, 41 Flatbush is owned by Quinlan Development Group and Building and Land Technology, and is leased by Cushman & Wakefield's Bruce Mosler, Joseph Cirone, Patrick Dugan and Ron Lo Russo. CBRE's Mark Ravesloot and Scott Sloves represented Spaces in the lease, which had asking rents north of $60/SF.
TOP SALES
A&E Real Estate Holdings closed on a mammoth Upper West Side multifamily sale last week, buying a three-building, 420-unit complex for $287M. According to documents filed with the city, an entity controlled by Stonehenge Group sold the properties 13 years after acquiring them for north of $100M. A&E secured a more-than-$145M loan from Signature Bank and Mesa West Capital to fund the purchase, according to The Real Deal.
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Emerald Equity Group and Harbor Group International have sold a 302-unit multifamily portfolio in the Bronx for $65M, Commercial Observer reports. The buyer, ABJ Properties, closed on the 15-building transaction in the last week of March, although the sale has not yet been processed by the city. The sale broke off a piece of the 38-building portfolio the Harbor and Emerald partnership acquired for $140M in 2016.
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The Harlem Aloft Hotel has traded hands. Core Capital Investments, an Irvine, California-based investment firm, paid $34M for the hotel, a piece of the Apex condominium building at 2296 Frederick Douglas Blvd., to previous owner RCG Longview, The Real Deal reports. United Overseas Bank lent Core $20.9M to complete the purchase, according to TRD.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
While Pfizer's lease had long been a known entity, even if it had not been officially signed in New York City, which lender would fund The Spiral's $3.7B construction costs was unknown until Tuesday. Blackstone Mortgage Trust, the lending arm of the Blackstone Group, will provide Tishman Speyer with a $1.8B construction loan, less than 50% of the projected cost of the tower. Tishman Speyer announced it would also provide $1.9B in equity toward the loan, both from its own balance sheet and from a group of unnamed funds and institutional investors. The single-source construction loan is one of the largest in New York City history.
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A Poland-built, pre-fabricated hotel on the Lower East Side from Dutch company citizenM has a new $82.5M financing deal out of Hong Kong. HSBC financed the hotel at 185 Bowery in two different notes: $53.8M and $28.7M, The Real Deal reports. The 20-story, 300-room project was shipped to New York in 210 pieces.
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A nearly complete condo project in Chelsea tied up its last piece of financing before it opens. Madison Realty Capital provided a $72M loan, the firm announced this week. The project, from Highline Development Group, will bring 19 new condos and 5K SF of retail space to 550 West 29th St. The loan retires previous debt and will allow the developer to wrap up construction by the middle of the year.
