Jack Guttman has added to his Long Island City holdings with the acquisition of a discounted life sciences building.
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Pearl Realty Management bought the Hatch Life Sciences Building at 43-10 23rd St. in Queens from Longfellow Real Estate Partners for $86.9M, according to property records.
That is roughly $6M less than Boston-based Longfellow paid when it partnered with Sculptor Real Estate to buy the 215K SF building in 2021 from Columbia Property Trust for $92.5M, Commercial Observer reported.
The partners then redeveloped the property, a former parachute manufacturing factory, into life sciences space from August 2022 to September 2023, Crain's New York Business reported.
It is unclear how much Longfellow ended up pouring into its remodeling, but it had planned to invest $120M to convert the former parachute manufacturing plant into a mix of labs and offices, CO reported.
The deal is a possible deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure transaction, because Pearl Realty had purchased the debt on the building from its former lender, Affinius Capital, PincusCo reported.
The loss comes as New York City’s life sciences real estate struggles. The city had the highest availability rate of any U.S. life sciences market at the end of Q1, at 37%, according to JLL.
TOP SALES
CW Realty Group bought a Downtown Brooklyn residential development site at 55 Smith St. for $58M from Edison Properties. The developer has yet to announce its plans for the site but could build up to 137K SF as of right or 164K SF under Universal Affordability Preference, which allows developers an extra 20% on the as of right square footage as long as all additional units are designated as affordable housing. JLL’s Mike Mazzara, Ethan Stanton, Brendan Maddigan and Drew Isaacson arranged the deal.
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YS Developers and Rabsky Group acquired a Bedford-Stuyvesant residential development site at 1150 Broadway for $23.5M, according to a release. The 27K SF site, sold by A-Plus International Realty, is zoned for a mixed-use building with 134K SF as of right zoning. JLL’s Brendan Maddigan, Steve Rutman, Mike Mazzara and Ethan Stanton brokered the sale. The joint venture is planning a pair of 11-story towers, Crain’s reported.
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Azora sold the Chemists’ Club Hotel at 52 E. 41st St. to Grupo Hotusa for $96.6M, PincusCo reported. The buyer, which manages hotels through its Eurostars Hotel Co. brand, signed for a $62.8M acquisition loan with BBVA USA to finance the purchase of the 63K SF building.
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Phoenix Realty Group paid $80M to L+M Development Partners for 1920 Amsterdam Ave., a senior housing apartment building in Washington Heights, PincusCo reported. Lument Real Estate Capital lent $58M for the acquisition of the 181K SF, 182-unit building, the New York Business Journal reported.
TOP LEASES
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Capital Group, which manages $3.6T of assets, is expanding its Manhattan footprint with a new office in the final available space at 345 Park Ave. Rudin signed Capital Group to the entire 70K SF fourth floor of the 1.9M SF Plaza District skyscraper, where Blackstone and the NFL are headquartered. The investment manager, represented by CBRE's Chris Mansfield, Frank Scott, David Opper, Zachary Weil, Eddie Sisca and Trevor Larkin, is keeping its existing office up the street at 399 Park Ave. Rudin was represented in-house by Robert Steinman.
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OceanSound LP is expanding to 32K SF at SL Green’s 450 Park Ave. The tenant will transition from a 22K SF sublease deal on the entire 22nd and 23rd floors of the 33-story office to a standard lease for those floors, plus the entire eighth floor. Other tenants include Banco Bradesco, Blue Crest Capital Management, Garnett Station Partners, Muzinich & Co. and Steadfast Financial. CBRE’s Paul Amrich, Neil King, Alex D'Amario, Matthew Dichter and Brooke Dewing represented the landlord. Savills' John Johnson represented OceanSound.
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Fintech firm Maybern almost tripled its footprint at GFP Real Estate’s 10 Astor Place. The tenant increased its 11K SF lease to 30K SF, renewing its third-floor space and expanding across the entire fourth floor. Maybern moved into the seven-story, 156K SF building in 2024 after outgrowing its former SoHo office. Neith Stone represented the landlord in-house alongside Newmark’s Rob Silver, Anthony Sciacca and Brittany Silver. Newmark’s Jonathan Franzel and Leo Kone represented the tenant.
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Volastra Therapeutics inked an 18K SF sublease at the Alexandria Center for Life Science at 430 E. 29th St. in Kips Bay. Volastra is moving to accommodate an expansion after occupying 11K SF in the Mink Building for the past six years, Crain’s reported. CBRE’s Joe DeRosa represented Volastra, while CBRE’s John Isaacs represented sublandlord Black Diamond Therapeutics. The 460K SF property is owned by Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
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Immigration law firm Manifest Law subleased 18K SF at Koeppel Rosen’s 902 Broadway, Commercial Observer reported. The law firm is taking over space formerly occupied by Adaptive Security, moving to the eighth floor just a few months after Adaptive signed a 51K SF sublease at 120 Broadway. Manifest is moving from 333 Park Ave. S. Asking rents were $75 per SF. Nomad Group's Bill Janetschek, Nick Hein and Matthew DeRose represented the tenant. Savills’ Christopher Foerch and Zev Holzman represented the sublandlord.
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Artificial intelligence-driven employee management platform Warp is expanding inside HRC’s 156 Fifth Ave., bringing the property to 100% occupancy, Commercial Observer reported. Warp initially signed for 8K SF just last year but now occupies 25K SF. Asking rents in its new five-year, 17K SF deal were $75 per SF. Current Real Estate Advisors’ Rob Kluge represented Warp. Newmark’s Eric Cagner, Dylan Weisman, Leo Koné and Claire Koeppel represented HRC.
TOP FINANCING
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Kensico Properties refinanced The Lowell Hotel, a 17-story, 74-key luxury boutique at 28 E. 63rd St., with a $106M loan from Blue Owl Capital, Commercial Observer reported. Kensico has owned the Upper East Side property, which opened almost a century ago, since 1984. CBRE’s Matthew Klauer represented the borrower.
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Korman Communities refinanced two of three hotel properties it acquired during a recent buyout with loans totaling $142.5M, PincusCo reported. Prime Finance provided debt, split between an $80M loan on the 134-key hotel at 42 W. 58th St. and a $62.5M loan on the 112-key hotel at 123 W. 44th St. The loans replaced mortgages from Capital One, which were $54.8M and $37.7M, respectively. The buildings were part of a July deal valued at $220M total, in which Korman bought out its partners, the California State Teachers' Retirement System and BlackRock, at three AKA-branded Manhattan hotels.
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Kriss Capital provided a $33M loan to Glacier Equities to refinance a 75K SF, 21-unit apartment building at 99 Commercial St. in Greenpoint, PincusCo reported. The financing replaced a $25M loan from 360 Capital Funding.
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Abraham Stern and Yechiel Stern refinanced 87 George St. and 150 Noll St., a 324-unit Bushwick rental building, with $40M from Amalgamated Bank, PincusCo reported. The mortgage replaced a $33.5M loan from Popular Bank.
