This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
Holiday weekends are slow times for commercial real estate dealmaking, and last week was no different, with only a few leases, sales and loans crossing the wires.
TOP LEASES
Capital One, less than a year after signing a lease for 72K SF at 11 West 19th St. in Flatiron, has agreed to nearly double its footprint in the building. The Virginia-based credit giant signed a new, 52K SF lease to bring its offices to 124K SF in the 11-story building. Its previous lease was a sublet of Publicis' space on the second through fourth floors, but Capital One's new deal is a direct lease with the landlord, a JV of Savitt Partners and Block Buildings. Bob Savitt and Brian Neugeboren of Savitt Partners repped the landlord in-house, and Cushman & Wakefield's Dale Schlather repped the tenant. Asking rents in the building are $68/SF.
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Gap has signed a lease for its subsidiary, Intermix, to move to two floors and about 81K SF in Herald Square. Intermix is moving to 111 West 33rd St., owned by Empire State Realty Trust, from its space at 1440 Broadway. ESRT was repped in-house by Keith Cody, along with a team from Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. CBRE repped Gap in the deal for the building, which is undergoing a lobby renovation.
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William Kaufman Organization signed three companies to leases at 437 Madison Ave., the Midtown East office building it recently upgraded. Munich Re agreed to a 19K SF lease for the entire 26th floor, where it will move in Q4 from 1177 Sixth Ave. Law firm Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads expanded its lease by about 7,500 SF, bringing its total footprint to 36K SF. And Eos Management committed to a 10K SF lease for part of the 14th floor. Sage Realty Corp., WKO's leasing arm, repped the landlord in-house on the deals along with a JLL leasing team. Savills Studley repped Munich, and Transwestern repped Eos.
Chinese media company WanXin Media has acquired two buildings at 7-15 West 44th St. with plans to build a 90K SF hotel and Chinese cultural facility. The development was already being planned as a luxury Lazar hotel property, with 20 floors and 96 rooms. WanXin acquired the Midtown property for $68M from an undisclosed foreign investor.
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Normandy Real Estate Partners has increased its holdings in Long Island City, paying $54M to acquire a stake in 43-10 23rd St., a 130K SF warehouse it plans to convert into offices. Normandy bought the piece of the building from owner Kassabian Realty, with whom it will partner on the conversion/expansion to 180K SF.
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Copperline Partners has acquired the six-story apartment building at 74 Leonard St. in Tribeca for $21.3M. According to The Real Deal, the contract was signed and the transaction closed on the same day, a necessity considering Copperline, run by the Schlesinger family, was trying to execute a 1031 property exchange to avoid heavy taxes. The seller of the 18-unit property was Allegra Holdings, based in Spain.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
Natixis, one of the more active lenders in New York City this year, has lent Canadian pension giant Ivanhoé Cambridge $360M to fund its acquisition of 85 Broad St. in Lower Manhattan. The deal, a 10-year, CMBS loan, has a 55% loan-to-value ratio, the kind of equity spread in a deal financiers are willing to make. The tower was built in 1983 for Goldman Sachs as its one-time headquarters.
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Normandy, to fund its Long Island City acquisition and redevelopment, secured a $66M loan from AllianceBernstein. The funds will go toward a full-scale renovation, including adding outdoor spaces and other amenities.
