This Week’s New York Deal Sheet
This week saw three religious organizations involved in leases, and multifamily dominated the week's financing deals, although few significant sales took place.
TOP LEASES
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has signed for 40K SF at 245 W. 77th St., West End Collegiate Church’s historic Upper West Side church building, according to a release. The landlord and the tenant will cohabitate on the property, with their own dedicated spaces as well as shared programming spaces that include the building’s gym, kitchen and chapel. West End Collegiate Church is also reportedly in talks with another religious group that may become the third to share the space. The church building itself was completed in 1892 and was built in a Dutch colonial style and has three windows designed by Tiffany Studios. Open Impact Real Estate’s Stephen Powers, Lindsay Ornstein, Amy Lawrence and Julia Fish repped the landlord, while CBRE’s Mark Zussman repped the tenant.
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The Feil Organization’s 488 Madison Ave. has a new tenant, the Archdiocese of New York, which signed for 142K SF at the 447K SF Midtown tower, according to a release. The 30-year lease will see the Archdiocese of New York take over the third through seventh floors of the building, which is now more than 90% leased. The move will see the archdiocese reduce its central office footprint and restore its campus near St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which 488 Madison overlooks. The Archdiocese plans to move into the turnkey space in the 23-story office tower in 2025. It was represented by CBRE’s Mary Ann Tighe and Lauren Crowley Corrinet. Andrew Wiener repped The Feil Organization in-house.
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Paul Taylor Dance Co. is expanding and moving, signing a 31K SF lease at George Comfort & Sons’ 307 W. 38th St. office tower, according to a release. The dance company, founded in 1954, will move from 13K SF at 551 Grand St. It will occupy the entire ninth and 10th floors of the 21-story, 300K SF office building, which was built in 1933 and was most recently renovated in 2018. Retail tenants at the property include Culture Espresso, Nimbus and City Bicycle NYC. Paul Taylor Dance Co.’s 30-year lease will begin in 2025. Lincoln Property Co.’s Jeffrey Rosenblatt repped the dance company, while George Comfort & Sons had in-house representation from Peter Duncan, Matthew Coudert and Alexander Bermingham.
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Hudson Square Properties, a joint venture of Trinity Church Wall Street, Norges Bank Investment Management and Hines, has renewed a tenant at 200 Hudson St., Commercial Observer reported. David Yurman, a luxury jeweler, has signed to keep its space in the building and expand to a total of 150K SF for 15 years. The brand first moved into the 12-story building, which is part of the 13-building Hudson Square campus, in 2002. Over the years, it had expanded from 65K SF to almost 119K SF. Other tenants in the building include advertising firm Havas and office furniture-maker Steelcase. Peter Shimkin, David Falk and Jonathan Franzel of Newmark repped the landlord, while CBRE’s Mary Ann Tighe, Ken Meyerson, Ariel Ball, Alex Leopold and Ali Gordon repped the tenant.
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American Express is expanding at Brookfield Properties’ 200 Vesey St., Bisnow has learned. The financial company signed a 33K SF sublease at the office complex, adding to the more than 1M SF it already has in the building. Sublandlord Cision, a public relations company, is giving up its space altogether in the building, while AmEx plans to grow. The property is part of Brookfield Place, where its landlord has invested more than $350M into capital improvements. AmEx has long had its headquarters in the office complex, which also has the Royal Bank of Canada among its tenants. JLL’s Andrew Coe, Lisa Kiell, Michael Shenot and Edward DiTolla repped the tenant, although the firm declined to comment on the deal. Savills' Nick Farmakis and Kate Walker repped the sublandlord.
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Flex warehouse company ReadySpaces, which operates on a model similar to WeWork but concentrates on industrial properties, has signed a 116K SF lease for a warehouse in Queens, The Real Deal reported. ReadySpaces will occupy a portion of the 620K SF property at 184-10 to 184-60 Jamaica Ave., but it will likely partition the remainder of the property into smaller units for clients to use on more flexible terms than normal leases. The lease is ReadySpace’s second location in Queens and its sixth in the New York metro area. Asking rents were $25 per SF. Richard Warshauer and Mike Davis of Colliers repped ReadySpaces. Avison Young’s Joseph Lagano and Reid Berch, plus Cushman & Wakefield’s Joseph Hentze Jr. and Frank Liggio, now of CBRE, represented the landlord, New Jersey-based private equity real estate firm KABR Group.
TOP SALES
The Museum of Chinese in America has purchased its longtime home, 215 Centre St., for $51.1M, Crain’s New York Business reported. The museum was first founded in 1980 and is dedicated to documenting Chinese American history. It moved into the Centre Street space in 2009, having previously been based nearby at 70 Mulberry St. The purchase of 215 Centre St. also included a $39.4M mortgage. The seller was industrial equipment retailer Grand Machinery Exchange, which told The New York Times in 2006 that it would have left Manhattan sooner if it hadn't owned the property.
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FedEx has acquired a Sunset Park industrial property for $248M, Crain’s reported. The 18-acre property at 75 20th St. in Sunset Industrial Park will serve as a 246K SF distribution center and should be up and running later this year, a company spokesperson told Crain’s. The building will replace a smaller building that FedEx has in the same industrial park. Seller Bridge Industrial acquired the site in 2019 in partnership with Dov Hertz, with the pair shelling out $214M to acquire the property from 601W Cos.
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Related Cos., Sterling Equities and the New York City Football Club have purchased two parcels spanning almost 20K SF in Willets Point for $12.3M, Commercial Observer reported. The sale of the parcels at 126-17 34th Ave. and 126-11 34th Ave. went under contract in March and closed last week, a year and a half after the developers first approached previous owner the Benaim family. The sites will likely be part of the developers’ plans for Willets Point’s redevelopment, which includes creating a permanent home for the NYCFC. They were the last pieces of land the developers needed to own all the space required to complete their master plan for the neighborhood. The development needs rezoning permission to push ahead and is headed to a vote by the New York City Council. It already has the vocal support of Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.
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Hennick & Co., the family office of Colliers International Group CEO Jay Hennick, purchased a retail condo at 401 E. 60th St. for $153M. The property, which is at the base of the Bridge Tower apartment building by the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, is fully leased to a Starbucks and a future 120K SF Home Depot.
TOP FINANCING
Lightstone nabbed a $166M refinancing loan for a 430-unit apartment building in Gowanus from Freddie Mac Multifamily, Crain’s reported. The property, 365 Bond St., spans 12 stories and was completed in 2016, New York YIMBY reported. JLL’s Peter Rotchford, Michael Shmuely, Nico Lupo, Jeffrey Julien, Rob Hinckley, Steven Rutman, Jonathan Hageman and Hall Oster repped the borrower.
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Rybak Development scored a $71M construction loan from Valley National Bank for a residential condo development in Queens’ Forest Hills neighborhood, according to a release. The project, known as The Austin, is a planned luxury doorman building that will span seven stories and provide 98 units. The development at 78-29 Austin St. is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter. A JLL Capital Markets team led by Robert Tonnessen and Aaron Niedermayer arranged the financing.
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H.I.G. Capital has agreed to lend $56M to CW Realty Group, refinancing a construction loan on residential development at 1499 Bedford Ave. in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood, PincusCo reported. The debt is broken down into a $44M senior loan and $12M of mezzanine financing. CW Realty is building a 98-unit, 67K SF building on the site, which was permitted in May 2022 after the developer acquired the site for $13.9M in September 2020. The sum replaces a previous loan of $44M from Cross River Bank.
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EMP Capital Group has scored a $109M construction loan for a 193-unit development site at 1042 Atlantic Ave., PincusCo reported. The development was one of several that found itself in political crosshairs two years ago when City Council Member Crystal Hudson asked the developer to increase the number of income-restricted apartments in the property to get the rezoning approval needed. EMP Capital plans to build a 193-unit multifamily property, with QuadReal Property Group stepping in as the project’s newest lender. The prior lender was State Building Group, which had a $2.5M loan on the property.
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S3 Capital has agreed to loan Borough Developers $39M for the construction of a 101-unit development in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood, PincusCo reported. Plans for the property at 155 S. Elliott Place were submitted in late November and haven't yet been permitted, but the deal for its financing closed on Jan. 11. Around the same time as it submitted plans to develop 155 S. Elliott Place, Commercial Observer reported that Borough Developers had snagged a $44M construction loan for 526 Baltic St., a 100-unit development in Gowanus.
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Slate Property Group’s debt financing arm, Scale Lending, has agreed to lend Namdar Group $243M for two multifamily developments in Jersey City’s Journal Square neighborhood, according to a release. The first of the two loans is worth $160M and will go toward the construction of 626 Newark Ave., a 27-story mixed-use development that will deliver 576 rental apartments, 10K SF of retail and 18K SF of office space when it is completed in 2026. The second loan is $83M of bridge financing for 26 Van Reipen Ave., which Namdar will use to replace a $73M loan for construction and leasing. Construction finished late last year on the 27-story building, which has 235 residential units as well as 7K SF of retail and 7K SF of offices. The loan is Scale Lending’s second in as many weeks, following last week’s agreement to lend $46M on a residential development in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill neighborhood.
