This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
Following an active first week in May in New York City commercial real estate, the market quieted down — with the exception of WeWork, which continues to gobble up space all over Manhattan.
TOP LEASES
WeWork is bringing its flexible office offerings to Wall Street. Next door to Federal Hall, WeWork has signed a 50K SF lease for its headquarters by WeWork offering, which will offer branded space to clients on five floors in the building with an average floor plate just over 11K SF. The Pyne family owns the building, and the brokers representing the landlord were unclear as of press time. WeWork's Arash Gohari handles finding locations for the headquarters by WeWork offering, which was rebranded after a copyright infringement claim from Regus.
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Bardin Hill Investment Partners, the investment manager recently rebranded from Halcyon Capital Management, is getting a new headquarters to go with its new name. Bardin Hill is moving from 477 Madison Ave. to 299 Park Ave., the 42-story 1.2M SF Midtown skyscraper owned by Fisher Brothers. Bardin Hill signed a 12-year lease for the entire 28K SF 24th floor of the building, where it plans to move in November. Fisher Brothers is embarking on a renovation of the building, where it is headquartered alongside tenants Capital One and The Carlyle Group. CBRE's Chris Corrinet and Neil King represented Bardin Hill, while Newmark Knight Frank's Peter Shimkin, Andrew Sachs, Eric Cagner and David Falk worked alongside in-house leasing agents Marc Packman and Clark Briffel on behalf of Fisher Brothers.
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The city agency that oversees welfare, food stamps and homeless services is staying put in its longtime home in Downtown Brooklyn. The New York City Human Resources Administration has renewed its 342K SF lease at 250 Livingston St. with landlord Clipper Equities, Commercial Observer reports. The 10-year lease will kick off in August 2020, and will see the city pay $14.9M a year at first, gradually rising to $16.9M. There were no brokers involved in the deal.
TOP SALES
A self-storage builder has eyes for helping Brooklynites store their stuff. Storage Deluxe paid $45.5M to acquire 74 Bogart St. in East Williamsburg, and plans to spend $50M tearing it down to replace it with a seven-story storage facility, Crain's New York Business reports. The seller of the property, currently home to a one-story warehouse covered in street art, is Joseph Brunner, according to property records. Brunner paid just over $12M to buy the site in 2012.
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Thurcon Construction and Development has paid $77.5M to acquire 106 Fulton St., a former Pace University dormitory, from DSA Property Group, according to city property records. The acquisition was an off-market deal — DSA CEO Arik Lifshitz told The Real Deal it "was an offer we couldn't refuse" after DSA paid $51.1M for the building less than three years ago. Thurcon secured a $36.9M acquisition loan from Signature Bank to complete the deal.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
Stonehenge NYC has recapitalized The Ritz Plaza apartment building, what it calls its "NYC flagship property," through a joint venture with The Carlyle Group. The private equity firm paid $251M for a majority stake in the 479-unit tower, The Real Deal reports. Deutsche Bank provided the joint venture with a $235M first mortgage, Stonehenge said in a release this week. Property records show Deutsche loaned Carlyle an additional $102.3M in a gap mortgage as part of the deal.
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Blumenfeld Development Group received an infusion of new debt on its East River Plaza retail project along 116th and 117th streets in Upper Manhattan. ING Real Estate Finance loaned $235M to refinance four parcels, The Real Deal reports. The retail center counts Target and Costco among its tenants.
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Madison Realty Capital has secured a $69M mortgage from Deutsche Bank to refinance 915 West End Ave., a prewar rental building on the Upper West Side. The loan replaces the outstanding debt on the $74.5M KKR loaned Madison Realty Capital to acquire the building in 2016.
