This Week's N.Y. Deal Sheet: Blackstone Buys Into 1345 Sixth Ave. At $1.4B Valuation
Blackstone has closed on its purchase of a 46% interest in Fisher Brothers' 1345 Sixth Ave. office tower. The deal values the 50-story, 2M SF skyscraper at $1.4B.
“Midtown Manhattan is the best performing office market in the country,” David Levine, co-head of Americas acquisitions for Blackstone Real Estate, said in a statement. “We are excited to partner with Fisher Brothers in this trophy asset investment.”
The new partners refinanced the tower's debt with an $850M CMBS loan from Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and JPMorgan that matures in two years. Blackstone and Fisher bought out J.P. Morgan Asset Management clients' stake in the building with the recapitalization.
The property is 92% leased and has signed more than 1M SF of leases since 2023, two years after ownership completed a $120M capital improvement project in the building. The bulk of that space was taken by law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, which signed a 765K SF lease in 2023.
Eastdil Secured repped the new joint venture in the refinancing, with lenders repped by Dechert LLP. Fisher Brothers was also repped by Paul Hastings LLP in the acquisition and refinancing deals, while Blackstone was repped by Fried Frank.
TOP FINANCING
Rialto Capital Management provided a $31.1M refi for a Lower East Side multifamily portfolio owned by Gaia Real Estate Holdings, Commercial Observer reported. The loan covers four buildings, spanning 84 apartments and seven retail units. The buildings have addresses of 102 and 106 Norfolk St., 177 Ludlow St. and 99 Allen St. JLL’s Scott Aiese, Alex Staikos and Christopher Pratt arranged the financing.
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Jamestown nabbed an $80M refinancing deal for two Tribeca properties, PincusCo reported. The mortgage from Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg replaces a $145M prior loan from Capital One and covers a 358-unit residential building at 343 Broadway and a retail building at 339 Broadway.
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The shell company that owns the Embassy Suites hotel in Midtown scored a $131M refi, Crain's New York Business reported. NY 37TH ES LLC scored the capital for the hotel at 60 W. 37th St. from Wells Fargo.
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Civic Builders scored a $70M construction loan to develop a charter school in the South Bronx, Crain’s reported. Build NYC, NYC Regional Center, JPMorgan Chase, Capital Impact Partners, LISC and Nonprofit Finance Fund provided the loan for the project at 1472 Boston Road for Bold Charter School, which will occupy a five-story, approximately 60K SF new school building after Civic Builders demolishes a 17K SF vacant commercial structure on the lot, according to New York City Economic Development Corp. documents. The public charter school would serve grades K-8, accommodate up to 700 students and be leased to Bold, which would also have an option to purchase it.
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Westbeth Artists Housing netted an $88.2M mortgage to refinance the famous Manhattan artist housing complex, Crain’s reported. Merchants Capital and New York State Housing Finance Agency provided the loan for the 700K SF residential condominium building at 463 West St., PincusCo reported.
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Carlyle Group refinanced three buildings for $137.8M, PincusCo reported. The loan covers the Public Storage-occupied 1203 E. New York Ave. property in Brownsville, an industrial building at 2926 Fredrick Douglass Blvd. and a retail condo at 31-08 Northern Blvd. The debt from PGIM Real Estate retired a prior $127.6M loan from Santander Bank.
TOP LEASES
Southern Land Co. signed a 13K SF lease at 99 Park Ave., according to a release. The tenant will relocate from 75 Rockefeller Center and brings the building to full occupancy. JLL’s Paul Glickman, Diana Biasotti, Harrison Potter and Kristen Morgan represented landlord Global Holdings Management, along with in-house representation from Craig Panzirer and Alex Radmin. JLL’s Ben Bass and Seth Godnick repped the tenant.
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Tom Ford Fashion has signed a 12K SF office lease at SL Green’s 500 Park Ave., according to a release. Other tenants in the now-fully leased, 201K SF property include The Georgetown Co., Vera Wang and Friedland Properties. David Goldstein, Jarod Stern and Sam Mann of Savills repped Tom Ford, while JLL’s Frank Doyle, Cynthia Wasserberger and Michael Pallas repped SL Green.
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Wilson Daniels, a family-owned, luxury wine importer and marketer, signed a 12K SF lease at The Feil Organization’s 250 Park Ave. S., according to a release. Wilson Daniels will relocate from its current digs at 19 W. 24th St. The owners of the 12-story, 130K SF office plan to build a custom-designed wine cellar for the tenant to showcase its collection. Wilson Daniels was represented by Anthony LoPresti and Jordy Elardo of Cushman & Wakefield, while the landlord was represented in-house by Andrew Wiener, Robert Fisher and Henry Korzec.
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Biotech firm Cresilon is almost doubling its space at Industry City, expanding from 27K SF to 55K SF, according to a release. The larger space will allow the tenant to ramp up its manufacturing capacities. Cresilon is also joined by another biotech firm, Rumi Scientific, which signed for 6K SF to relocate from New York Blood Center to the 6M SF Sunset Park campus. Industry City’s Jeff Fein repped the landlord in-house in both deals, with help from colleague Nick Shears in the Rumi Scientific deal. Josh Pernice of CBRE repped Cresilon.
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Samsung is doubling its office space at Vornado’s 1 Penn, Commercial Observer reported. The electronics company signed for 36K SF in 2023 and added another floor this week. Both deals are set to expire in a decade. Asking rent on Samsung’s new deal was $110 per SF. JLL’s Matthew Astrachan repped Samsung, while Vornado had in-house representation from a team led by Josh Glick.
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An Atlanta-based office REIT has signed the Center for New York City Neighborhoods and law firm Israel David LLC to leases at 60 Broad St., according to a release. Piedmont Realty Trust, which changed its name this week from Piedmont Office Realty Trust, inked the affordable homeownership-focused nonprofit to 11K SF. Savills' Peter Hennessey and Allison Buck, plus Shawna Menifee from Savills affiliate Integrative Partners, CRE, repped CNYCN. Gary Kamenetsky of CBRE repped Israel David in its 3K SF lease. Occupancy in the building is now 93%. JLL’s John Wheeler, Robin Olinyk and Thomas Swartz repped Piedmont in both deals.
TOP SALES
A joint venture between asset management firm Investcorp and real estate company Brickman sold two Midtown office buildings for a $116M loss, Crain’s reported. The partners offloaded 229 W. 36th St. and 256 W. 38th St. for a combined $40.8M after paying $156.8M for the pair of buildings in 2017. The buyer was Empire Capital Holdings, which got an equity investment for the purchase from Cayre Equities for the 12-story 229 W. 36th St., which is 53.7% leased. The Hakimian Organization partnered on the deal for the 14-story 256 W. 38th St., which has a 75% occupancy rate.
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Developer Andrea Gjini bought a parking lot by a Dunkin' location in the Bronx for $11.5M, Crain’s reported. The development site at 205 W. 230th St. in Marble Hill was sold by Michael Ashkenazy and Joshua Agus.
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A multifamily building at 275 Linden Blvd. in Prospect Lefferts Gardens has changed hands for $10.8M, Crain’s reported. The 101-unit building was purchased by Efrem Harkham, a hotelier, and the seller was E & K Realty Co. Marcus & Millchap's Shaun Riney and Daniel Greenblat repped the seller, while their colleague Seth Glasser repped the buyer.
