This Week’s N.Y. Deal Sheet
The New York City investment sales market heated up this week, led by nearly a half-billion dollars in hotel trades by Sam Chang.
TOP SALES
Hotel developer Sam Chang sold three hotels near Times Square in two separate deals last week, netting $450M in total for his McSam Hotel Group. The hotels all share an address — 150 West 48th St. — and carry three separate Hilton hotel brands: a 400-key Motto hotel that opened earlier this month, plus a Hampton Inn and a Home2 Suites by Hilton that are both expected to open later this year. Magna Hospitality bought the smaller property for $160M, followed by Houston-based Dauntless Capital Partners shelling out $290M just days later for the other commercial condo. It is unclear as of press time which hotel brands were included in which deal.
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A development site in Gowanus has changed hands for $29.5M, according to a release. The site, 125 Third St., is a 421-a vested, mixed-use development site with 102K buildable SF. The buyers are Allan Lebovits, Joel Wertzberger and Moishe Loketch, with Orange Management as the seller, per Crain’s New York Business. Lebovits and Loketch are two of the names behind financing platform BridgeCity Capital, while Loketch is also part of The Loketch Group. Lebovits, Wertzberger and Loketch were represented by Cushman & Wakefield’s Daniel O'Brien and Caroline Hodes, while Orange Management was represented by Ariel’s Sean Kelly, Stephen Vorvolakos and Nicole Daniggelis.
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Korean media company MediaWill bought a 113K SF office property close to Manhattan’s Koreatown neighborhood for $37M, Commercial Observer reported. The seller, RJF Realty, has owned the property at 110 West 32nd St. for roughly 40 years and plans to deliver it vacant. MediaWill paid around $370 per SF for the property, which has an alternative address of 115 West 31st St. PD Properties’ Elad Dror repped MediaWill, while Kassin Sabbagh Realty’s Sophia Gaines and Albert Sultan repped RJF.
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Silk & Halpern Realty Associates has sold 6 East 45th St., a classically restored art deco building near Bryant Park, for $26.8M, PincusCo reports. Families linked to Silk & Halpern have owned the property since at least the 1970s, with new buyer Sioni Group paying $338 per buildable SF, according to PincusCo’s analysis. The Class-B office building, which is 19 stories tall and spans roughly 90K SF, was once owned by the California Texas Oil Co. and sold to Aleda Realty Corp. according to a 1950 article in The New York Times.
TOP LEASES
Luxury fashion house Lacoste has leased 18K SF in Midtown South for flagship office space, according to a release. The deal gives the crocodile logo-bearing brand the entire 17th floor of Williams Equities’ 136 Madison Ave., with the landlord agreeing to provide a custom build-out of the space before Lacoste moves in Q2 2024. CBRE’s Eric Deutsch, Jared Freede and Anthony Manginelli represented the fashion house, along with Lacoste USA’s director of real estate, Freddie Majid. Colliers' Mac Roos, Andrew Roos, Michael Cohen and Jessica Verdi represented Manhattan-based Williams Equities.
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Reinsurance brokerage firm Howden Tiger signed a 10-year renewal and expansion at SL Green’s 1350 Sixth Ave., the landlord announced. Howden Tiger will occupy 32K SF in the 35-story, 601K SF Class-A tower in Midtown Manhattan, upping its current space by 19K SF. Other major tenants in the 1965-built tower include KPMG, Casdin Capital LLC and Raines Feldman LLP, according to the building’s website. Newmark’s Leo Paytas repped Howden Tiger, while SL Green had in-house representation from Howard Tenenbaum and Gary Rosen.
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Circle Realty Group has signed financial planner F.L.Putnam Investment Management Co. to 6K SF at 445 Park Ave., Commercial Observer reported. F.L.Putnam signed an 11-year lease for the sixth floor of 330K SF building, where asking rents are in the $90s per SF. F.L.Putnam is planning to relocate from 805 Third Ave. to a building where it will be neighbors with residential real estate firm Brown Harris Stevens, financial planner Alfest Wealth Management and collectibles specialist Heritage Auctions. Adelaide Polsinelli and Lauren Curcio represented the tenant, and Circle Realty Group’s Jay Futersak repped the landlord in-house.
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Homelessness services organization Lantern Community Services has signed a 10K SF lease at Olmstead Properties’ 575 Eighth Ave., Commercial Observer reported. The deal will see Lantern relocate from its 494 Eighth Ave. offices near Herald Square for its new digs, where asking rents are $41 per SF. Ripco Real Estate’s Samuel Hartstein repped Lantern, while Olmstead had in-house representation from Daniel Breiman and Jonathan Bock.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
Riyad Bank has provided a $60M refinancing loan to Bridgeton Holdings for its boutique Tribeca hotel, Commercial Observer reported. The 171-key Walker Hotel Tribeca at 77 Walker St. was converted from an office to a hotel, opening in 2020. The loan replaces a $57M construction loan for the conversion provided late in 2018 by BofI Federal, now known as Axos Bank. Bridgeton acquired the landmarked, 1899-built, 10-story building for $42M in 2013, with the conversion making it the real estate firm’s second Walker-branded Manhattan hotel after the 2013 opening of the Walker Hotel Greenwich Village. The new loan was arranged by Newmark’s Jordan Roeschlaub, Dustin Stolly, Nick Scribani, Chris Kramer and Tyler Dumon.
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Loketch Group nabbed a $23.8M construction loan for a Brooklyn development site, PincusCo reported. The debt, from lender iCross Capital, will go toward building a 32-unit, 35K SF residential building at 630 Grand Ave. in Crown Heights, in a deal that closed on Sept. 1. Construction has not yet been permitted at the site, per PincusCo. Loktech bought the site near Prospect Park, on which sits a single-story building, for $8.3M earlier this month, PincusCo previously reported.
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L+M Development Partners landed a $32M loan to refinance an affordable housing project in Harlem that borders Central Park, Crain’s reported. Goldman Sachs provided the debt for the building at 235 Central Park North, which has 61 units over six stories and was built in 1920, according to StreetEasy.
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Queens-based developer ZD Jasper scored a loan for its first ground-up project outside of the borough, The Real Deal reported. Los Angeles-based Preferred Bank provided a $103M construction loan for a 158-unit condo building in Hudson Yards, located at 501 Ninth Ave. ZD Jasper first acquired the land and almost 13K SF of air rights for the project from Pinnacle in May 2022 for $48M. It bought three contiguous lots from Extell Development for $52M shortly before the deal with Pinnacle. The developer has plans for a 220K SF multifamily condo development, which will be spread across three buildings and is designed to achieve Passive House standards.
