This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet
The city is continuing to experience sluggish lease activity, with few deals inked at the over-20K SF mark last week. But the slowdown in leasing, for the time being, was overshadowed by the closing of New York City's biggest investment sale in years.
TOP SALES
Google has closed on its landmark acquisition of the Chelsea Market building. Jamestown sold the 1.2M SF office and retail property, of which Google already occupies a substantial portion, for $2.4B in a deal that closed Tuesday morning. The sale is the second-largest single-asset sale in New York City history, behind Boston Properties' purchase of the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue.
The former Nabisco factory, between Ninth and 10th avenues and 15th and 16th streets, was last updated in 2012, when 300K SF was added to the groundbreaking food hall. Jamestown, which will continue to manage the food hall, was represented by Cushman & Wakefield's Doug Harmon, Adam Spies and Kevin Donner, and Google was represented by Darcy Stacom at CBRE.
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AJ Capital Partners has signed a ground lease for $117M to develop a hotel on Roosevelt Island on Cornell Tech's campus, The Real Deal reports. The 65-year lease allows the development company to build a 224-room hotel next to the Verizon Executive Education Center, and also gives AJ Capital the rights to buy the site if Cornell decides to sell.
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An industrial building in Brooklyn's tony Williamsburg neighborhood could soon become condominiums. Largo Investments has bought 215 North 10th St. in Brooklyn for $25M, The Real Deal reports, and plans to build condos with the site's 50K SF of buildable zoning. Northstar Equities LLC sold Largo the site, with Cushman & Wakefield brokering the deal.
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Stone Street Properties and Greenwich Village Capital have paid $18.35M to acquire the 15K SF mixed-use building at 151 Eighth Ave. in Chelsea. Cushman & Wakefield's Brock Emmetsberger, Billy Simons and Rachel Aschendorf represented the seller, Roy Savelli's All The Marbles Realty Corp., who acquired the building for $7.15M in 2004.
TOP LEASES
The biggest lease of the last week was NYC Office Suites' deals for a combined 70K SF in Manhattan. The flexible office provider is taking 40K SF at Tishman Speyer’s Rockefeller Center at 1270 Sixth Ave., Commercial Observer reports. The 15-year lease is for the full seventh and eighth floors, and asking rents were in the low $70s per SF. It is also taking 30K SF at 601 Lexington Ave., as a sublease with Citibank. The asking rents were not made public.
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Carver Federal Savings Bank is taking 20K SF at Savanna’s Lee Building at 1825 Park Ave., Crain’s New York Business reports. The bank, which was founded in Harlem in the 1940s to provide loans to African-Americans who were denied access to other financial institutions, will move from its current headquarters at 75 West 125th St. in six months, according to Commercial Observer. The new lease is for 10 years, and the asking rent was $47/SF.
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Kepos Capital is taking 20K SF at SJP Properties’ 11 Times Square, or 640 Eighth Ave., in a 10-year deal. The alternative investment firm will take part of the 35th floor of the 40-story building, Commercial Observer reports. At the moment, the firm has 17K SF at the New York Times Building at 620 Eighth Ave.
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CreditSights has inked a deal to take 28K SF at Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund-owned 2 Park Ave., The Real Deal reports. The research firm currently has around 20K SF at 470 Park Ave. South, which is owned by TH Real Estate. The lease there is set to expire in 2012. The starting rent was in the mid-$60s/SF, according to TRD, which cited CompStak data.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
HSBC has lent Zeckendorf Development $175M for its Robert A.M. Stern Architects-designed condo tower at 520 Park Ave., The Real Deal reports. The deal entails the Hong Kong-based bank assuming the existing debt from Children's Investment Fund and allows Zeckendorf to continue construction on the luxury tower, which has a projected $1B sellout.
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MassMutual has secured a $155M loan for its apartment tower at 555 West 42nd St. in Hell's Kitchen, which has a 7K SF location of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, where the comedy troupe co-founded by Amy Poehler performs. ING Capital provided the loan for the 44-story, 418-unit tower, replacing the existing $60M of debt on the building from Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance.
