This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
Long Island City, now one of the hottest neighborhoods in the country thanks to Amazon HQ2, was home to a number of big deals this week.
TOP SALES
A Carlyle Group-managed fund closed on its $284M purchase of 1 QPS Tower, records filed with the city Monday show. The sellers of the luxury rental are the Hakim Organization, Property Markets Group and Howard Lorber’s New Valley. The sale of the 45-story tower at 42-20 24th St. marks the highest price ever paid for a rental property in the borough. Hodges Ward Elliott’s Will Silverman represented the seller. MetLife Real Estate Lending provided a $179.8M loan for the purchase.
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A&E Real Estate Holdings paid $220M for Glenn Gardens, Commercial Observer reports. The seller of the property, at 175 West 87th St., is a partnership led by Sherwood Guernsey. The complex spans two buildings and features 266 units. A $163M loan for the purchase came from KREF. The off-market deal was brokered by Meridian Capital Group’s Helen Hwang.
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Taconic Investment Partners and TH Real Estate paid $269M to Unizo Holdings for 440 Ninth Ave., the companies announced this week. The 18-story building spans 411K SF and features both retail and office space. Japanese real estate firm Unizo Holdings Co. paid $211M for it five years ago. CBRE’s Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan brokered the deal for Unizo.
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Kevin Lalezarian paid $79.5M to Riese Organization for five parcels at the corner of 34th Street and Third Avenue, The Real Deal reports. The properties are at 207-211 East 43rd St. and 507-511 Third Ave., according to the publication, and feature 120K SF of development rights.
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Lightstone Group bought 151-153 Bowery and 331-337 Broome St. for $56.6M, The Real Deal reports, where it is planning to build a Lower East Side Moxy Hotel. Emmut Properties is the seller of the property on the Bowery, and the Broome Street site was sold by Lau Management. Friedman Roth Realty was the broker on the deal.
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Extell Development paid $62.5M for an office building at 572 Fifth Ave., The Real Deal reports. The seller is Braha Industries. The site is part of Gary Barnett’s Diamond District assemblage, where he is planning a hotel development.
TOP LEASES
Flexible office space provider Knotel is taking a full floor at the former New York Times building on 43rd Street, its biggest single space yet. Knotel is subleasing 51K SF across the eighth floor at 229 West 43rd St., the company announced. Columbia Property Trust owns the office part of the building, and the deal is with Engine Group, which has a direct lease for the space. Knotel was represented by Colliers International’s Michael Cohen, John Pavone and Jessica Verdi.
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Fluent Inc., a digital marketing company, is taking 42K SF at 300 Vesey St., The Real Deal reports. The deal is a sublease and has Fluent taking space from Virtu Financial. The new space means it is leaving 33 Whitehall. Fluent will move in the first quarter, and rents in the deal were $55 per SF. Newmark Knight Frank’s Eric Cagner represented the tenant with Greg Wang and Todd Hershman. JLL’s Cynthia Wasserberger, Frank Doyle, Andrew Coe and Kyle Young brokered the deal for Virtu alongside Sage Realty’s Michael Lenchner.
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The William Kaufman Organization inked two leases spanning 16K SF at 777 Third Ave., the company announced Tuesday. Oppenheimer & Co. is taking 13K SF that will span the whole of the 34th floor in a 10-year deal. Piton Investment Management is taking 3K SF on the 22nd floor. Rents in the deal were $68 to $70 per SF. Lenchner represented the landlord. JLL’s Matthew Astrachan and Steven Bauer represented Oppenheimer and Cushman & Wakefield’s Eric Thomas represented Piton.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
S3 Capital Partners provided a $75M construction loan to CGS Developers for 210 East 135th St. in the Bronx, the lender announced in a release. The loan is for the development of 237 residential units and 3K SF of commercial space. Meridian Capital Group’s Isaac Filler arranged the financing.
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Normandy Real Estate Partners and Drake Street Partners scored $75M from Deutsche Bank to refinance 47-11 Austell Place in Long Island City, The Real Deal reports. Normandy is turning the former warehouse building into office space. Newmark Knight Frank’s Dustin Stolly, Jordan Roeschlaub, Nick Scribani and Chris Kramer brokered the deal.
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S3 Capital Group provided $46M to Brooklyn North Capital and RiverBrook Equities for a planned residential development at 165-169 Lexington Ave. The planned project would reach 11 stories and feature condominiums. It is expected to be finished in March 2020, The Real Deal reports. Eastern Union Funding’s Michael Muller and Moshe Lipschitz arranged the financing.
CORRECTION, DEC. 12, 4:00 P.M. ET: Michael Lenchner is a vice president at Sage Realty. An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled his name. This story has been updated.
