This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
During the first full week of the new year, tumultuous as it was, the retail leasing market in Manhattan shook off some cobwebs.
TOP LEASES
Trader Joe’s will open its first store in Upper Manhattan in the heart of Harlem on 125th Street. The grocer inked a lease to take up 28K SF at the new Urban League Empowerment Center on 121 West 125th St., set to be completed in 2023. The Prusik Group, BRP Cos., L+M Development Partners and Taconic Partners are developing the project, which will contain 90K SF of retail space, 170 units of affordable housing and 70K SF of office space.
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Willner Chemists penned a lease renewal for its 11K SF space at 100 Park Ave., Commercial Observer reports. The vitamin and supplement retailer will remain in the space for another five years. It has been in the space since 1995. Dennis Someck, Justin Myers and Conor Krup of Lee & Associates brokered the deal for the tenant. The landlord, SL Green, was represented in-house by Jeremy Bier, Larry Swiger and Elliot Karp.
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National fried chicken fast-food retailer Popeyes has agreed to a 5K SF lease at 14 East 23rd St. in Midtown East, Commercial Observer reports. Asking rent for the space was $200 per SF and the lease term is for 20 years. The lease comes amid a devastating time for most restaurants and retailers in Midtown. Meridian Capital Group's James Famularo represented the landlord, Nian Chen, while Isa Realty Group’s Joseph Isa and Louis Franco brokered the lease for the tenant.
TOP SALES
An office building in the Meatpacking District that is home to some major tenants was sold in the final week of 2020. Meadow Partners purchased the ground lease of the 120K SF 860 Washington St. for $230M, The Wall Street Journal reports. Tenants include Tesla, which inked a 7,800 SF lease for a showroom at the building for $600 per SF in 2016. Property Group Partners and Romanoff Equities built the building, which sits along the High Line, in 2016. As part of the sale, the property was divided between the ground lease and the land underneath it. Romanoff Equities bought out PGP for $80M in December and will continue to own the land underneath the building. The development duo then sold the ground lease to Meadow Partners, which will pay annual rent to Romanoff, according to the WSJ.
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The Hospital for Special Surgery purchased two Upper East Side buildings for a total of $70M, PincusCo. Media reports. HSS bought the adjacent properties from Haug Realty Corp., which has owned them since 1977. The larger deal, at 506 East 74th St., is a 13-unit, five-story building and was sold for $42M. The smaller sale, 510 East 74th St., which was purchased for $28M, is a four-story building that used to be home to a nursery school, which closed in January 2020 after it was reportedly “looted” by the principal’s husband, the New York Post reported at the time.
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Dov Hertz’s DH Property Holdings LLC purchased a site at 1900 South Ave. in Staten Island, according to Cushman & Wakefield, which secured financing for the 44-acre deal. Hertz paid $65M for the property, The Real Deal reports. The developer plans to build a 420K SF distribution center on the site. CIM Group provided the debt for the acquisition. C&W’s John Alascio, Sri Vankayala, Chuck Kohaut, TJ Sullivan and Emily Johansen arranged the debt.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
Silverstein Properties scored $151M in refinancing for its 327K SF, 19-story life sciences building, the Hudson Research Center at 619 West 54th St., PincusCo. Media reports. Square Mile Capital provided the debt. Tenants in the Clinton Hill building include kidney disease research nonprofit the Rogosin Institute, the New York Stem Cell Foundation and the Manhattan Surgery Center, according to the building’s website. The building, which is co-owned by Taconic Partners, is part of a growing life sciences ecosystem throughout the city.
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Bernstein Real Estate secured $60M to refinance its office building at 216 East 46th St., Commercial Property Executive reports. The five-year, 3.5% fixed-rate loan was financed by an undisclosed regional lender. Meridian Capital’s Allan Lieberman, Rael Gervis and Eli Finke arranged the financing for the borrower, which purchased the building in 2008 for $60M. AT&T and the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising rent space in the building.
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Several affordable housing developments got an infusion of public construction financing this past week. Camba Realty scored a construction loan worth more than $150M from city and state agencies for its 323 units in the Riverdale area of the Bronx at 270 East 203rd St. and 261 East 202nd St., PincusCo. Media reports.
Olshan Properties and its partner, the New York Housing Partnership, secured $93.5M from New York City Housing Development Corp. for the 221-unit affordable development at 1701 Purdy St. in Parkchester. Settlement Housing Fund got $70.6M for its 182-unit affordable housing development at 373 East 183rd St. in Fordham from NYCHDC, according to PincusCo.
CORRECTION, Jan. 12, 10 P.M. ET: Isa Realty Group's Louis Franco and Joseph Isa represented Popeyes, and Meridian Capital Group's James Famularo represented the landlord, while asking rent was $200 per SF. A previous version of this story misstated these facts. This story has been updated.
