Scotiabank Moving From Downtown To 660 Fifth: The N.Y. Deal Sheet
Toronto-based lender Scotiabank is moving its New York City offices from Lower Manhattan up to a newly renovated Midtown tower.
Scotiabank is moving into 205K SF at 660 Fifth Ave., owned by another Canadian financial titan, Brookfield Properties, the landlord announced Tuesday.
Brookfield acquired the building in 2018 via a $1.1B ground lease with Kushner Cos. and spent $400M on renovations that were completed in 2023.
Scotiabank will occupy floors five through seven in the skyscraper when its new office space opens in 2027, joining a tenant roster that includes Macquarie, Citadel and Viking Global.
“Relocating our New York office to 660 Fifth Avenue places us squarely in the heart of the financial world,” Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets CEO and Group Head Travis Machen said in a statement.
Scotiabank will let go of its space at Brookfield Place to make the move. It leased 100K SF at 250 Vesey St. in 2013 and added a 50K SF sublease from Hudson’s Bay Cos., another Canadian business, in the same building in 2018, The Real Deal previously reported.
The Scotiabank deal brings 660 Fifth, a 1.3M SF, 39-story tower, to 100% committed when taking into account tenant expansion options, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Brookfield Properties was represented in-house by Mikael Nahmias, Dan Roberts and Andrew Dunn, in addition to a CBRE team of Howard Fiddle, Peter Turchin, John Maher, Brett Shannon, Cara Chayet and Trevor Larkin. CBRE’s Michael Geoghegan, Ramneek Rikhy and Eric Thomas represented Scotiabank.
TOP LEASES
Bank of New York agreed to sublease 192K SF of Condé Nast’s footprint at One World Trade Center, the New York Post reported. The bank plans to occupy four floors for four years while it renovates its HQ at 420 Greenwich Ave. Condé Nast has 1.2M SF at the 1,776-foot 1WTC and was the building's anchor tenant when it opened in 2014, but the media company has listed and subleased swaths of space as it has consolidated. JLL repped Bank of New York, while CBRE’s Scott Gottlieb repped landlords the Durst Organization and the Port Authority of New York, Commercial Observer reported.
***
Salesforce has added another 71K SF to its spread at the Salesforce Tower at 3 Bryant Park, Costar reported. The San Francisco-based firm renewed its current space at the same time, bringing its total footprint in the building to 311K SF. The expansion comes as the software company seeks to meet growing demand for the AI sector. The company’s new lease runs until May 2029. Landlord Ivanhoé Cambridge, which now operates under the name La Caisse, refinanced the tower at $1.1B in February this year, The Real Deal reported.
***
The Feil Organization has landed two new tenants at 257 Park Ave. Fintech company AngelList took 13K SF across the entire 18th floor, while global executive search and consulting firm Options Group signed for 13K SF across the building’s seventh floor. The landlord of the 20-story, 238K SF art deco building was represented in-house by Andrew Wiener and Robert Fisher. AngelList was represented by Jonathan Franzel of Newmark, and Options Group was represented by Sam Seiler and Patrick Moroney of CBRE.
***
MSQ Partners signed a 38K SF lease at Two Trees Management’s 50 W. 23rd St. in Flatiron, Commercial Observer reported. The London-based marketing firm will take the entire eighth floor plus a portion of the seventh floor in the 13-story building for 10 years. Asking rents were $70 per SF. Colliers’ Michael Joseph and Aidan Campbell represented MSQ Partners. Alyssa Zahler and Jarad Winter repped the landlord in-house.
TOP SALES
Pamera North America, the U.S. arm of German property investor Pamera Real Estate Partners GmbH, acquired the nine-story, 53K SF mixed-use NoHo building at 640 Broadway from Acadia Realty Trust for $49.5M, Bisnow first reported. The purchase was financed with a $30.5M loan from Citi Private Bank, according to JLL, which arranged both the sale and the debt. Targo Capital will serve as Pamera's local operating partner for the building, which has 4,200 SF of fully leased ground-floor retail, according to JLL. Steven Rutman, Jeffrey Julien, Rob Hinckley and Ethan Stanton arranged the sale, while the debt team was led by Michael Gigliotti, Stephen VanLeer and John Flynn.
***
A rent-stabilized portfolio spanning almost a full block in the Bronx has sold for the first time in nearly 50 years. The nine-building, 237-unit Tegford Portfolio, which runs along Wales Avenue, East 152nd Street, East 151st Street and Tinton Avenue and also contains 12 commercial units in Longwood, sold for $19.6M. The seller was Arthur Leeds Real Estate, Multihousing News reported. The buyer was undisclosed. An Ariel team consisting of Victor Sozio, Shimon Shkury, Jason Gold, Remi Mandell, Jake Brody and Gabriel Elyaszadeh represented the seller.
***
Louis Greco, a Brooklyn developer who Bisnow reported this year was under investigation by New York's attorney general, has sold a Brooklyn Heights lot for $5.4M, Crain’s New York Business reported. The property at 27 Cranberry St. was acquired by Dean Brodsky, the CEO of developer Brodmore. Greco had bought the residential-zoned lot for $1.5M in 2010. His sprawling portfolio has been beset by bankruptcies, foreclosures and delays, Bisnow reported in June.
***
Glacier Equities acquired 151 Kent Ave., a three-story loft property in Williamsburg, for $30.5M from DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners, Commercial Observer reported. The sale price is 26% less than the $41.3M price that DLJ paid for it six years ago. Glacier, which plans to renovate the 57K SF building’s units into high-end loft apartments, scored a $26M loan from Derby Capital Copeland for acquisition and pre-development costs, plus a $30M equity investment from an undisclosed private investor. JLL’s Ethan Stanton, Brendan Maddigan and Michael Mazzara brokered the sale, while Colliers’ Dylan Kane and Zach Redding arranged the financing.
***
ZD Jasper has snapped up a property from the Chetrit Group for about $18.6M, Crain’s reported. The prolific, Great Neck-based developer has plans for a 14-story mixed-use property with 175 rental units, including 45 affordable homes, as well as commercial space on the ground floor. The property at 64-11 Queens Blvd. was grandfathered into the 421-a program. Chetrit Group had purchased the site in 2017 for $13.4M. The sale was the subject of a lawsuit from an affiliate of Maverick Real Estate Partners, which claimed Chetrit executive Meyer Chetrit sold the property despite being ordered in June to pay a $133M judgment.
***
Benchmark Real Estate acquired a 15-story apartment building on the Upper West Side for $66M from Robert Ross. The building at 250 W. 85th St. has 121 apartments and three retail spaces and was sold at a 5% cap rate. Benchmark assumed the existing loan on the property. Aaron Jungreis, Ben Khakshoor and Alex Fuchs of Rosewood Realty Group brokered the sale.
***
Penn South Capital sold a five-story, nine-unit building at 18 E. 13th St. and the five-story, five-unit building next door at 20 E. 13th St. to an undisclosed Japanese investor for $24.9M, PincusCo reported. The undisclosed buyer was repped by law firm Belkin Burden Goldman, Commercial Observer reported. Penn South has owned the two Greenwich Village properties since January 2022, when it bought them for $6M apiece. Baseline Real Estate Advisors’ Michael Sherman and Esh Property Group’s Kevin Esh brokered the deal.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
Northwood Investors scored a $230M mortgage from Barings for 520-524 Broadway, two mixed-use properties in SoHo. The 1901 and 1903-built, beaux-arts limestone buildings span 235K SF and are home to Balthazar and Lululemon. The financing will provide future support for the properties’ retail and office components. Newmark’s Jordan Roeschlaub and Vice Chairman Nick Scribani negotiated the deal.
***
Developer David Halberstam netted an $80M refinancing and construction loan from S3 Capital for a 131-unit apartment project at 303 E. 44th St. Halberstam has already started work on the site, which will be a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units and is expected to deliver in the third quarter of 2027. The developer plans to pursue a property tax abatement under the 485-x program and set aside some of the apartments as affordable for those making 80% of area median income. S3 has lent to Halberstam on previous projects, including a 63-unit mixed-use apartment building in Fort Greene and a 73-unit mixed-use multifamily building in Downtown Brooklyn.
***
Lorimer Capital has closed a $51M construction loan with Double U Development for a 126K SF, four-story development with retail, entertainment, hospitality and parking at 29 Wythe Ave. in Williamsburg. The project will have 29K SF of below-grade retail space — preleased to trampoline park company Sky Zone — a 118-space parking garage, a 17K SF rooftop and billboard signage rights that have been preleased to New Tradition Media. Richard Sutton of Parallel CRE arranged the financing.
***
Rybak Development netted a $28.1M construction loan for its condo project at 218 Madison Ave., Commercial Observer reported. The 11-story, 25-unit Midtown East project will replace a retail building. Rybak acquired the site for $12M two years ago from Sapir Organization. The new financing came from Valley National Bank and was arranged by a Meridian Capital Group team that includes Scott Miller and Rael Gervis.
