Not many – if any – things in life remain exactly the same for long. Consider that statement in the context of real estate. What happens to a piece of real estate over several decades? Of course, without proper maintenance, the property would severely change in appearance and functionality. Certainly property values change from year to year, but over several decades, it’s possible the values increase many fold. How about a legal requirement that remains exactly the same for almost five decades? What if that legal requirement was permanently fastened to the value of real estate in 1973; and effectively precluded you from challenging the city assessor’s annual real estate tax guesstimate? What you have is a not so warm welcome to New York City tax certiorari.
Manhattan, NY Taconic Investment Partners LLC, a fully integrated owner, operator, and developer of commercial and residential real estate, together in partnership with TH Real Estate (an affiliate of Nuveen, the investment business of TIAA), have acquired mixed-use office and retail tower 440 Ninth Ave. The 411,000 s/f commercial building, located in the Hudson Yards neighborhood at the corner of West 35th St., was purchased for $269 million. The mixed-use office and retail property was sold by Japan-based real estate company UNIZO Holdings Company, Ltd. Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan of CBRE repped the seller. Metlife Real Estate Investors provided the mortgage financing for the acquisition and redevelopment. The venture was represented by Evan Pariser and Michael Gigliotti of HFF and Tom Traynor and James Millon of CBRE on the debt placement.
Queens, NY The Queens Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Queens) honored its general counsel Raymond Mellon, senior partner at Zetlin & De Chiara LLP, on December 13th with a Chapter Citation Award. Mellon was recognized for his efforts on behalf of AIA Queens to establish the Queens Foundation for Architecture. His legal guidance and advocacy were instrumental to the nonprofit’s inception and launch.
Manhattan, NY According to Cushman & Wakefield, the firm has arranged the sale of 117 East 15th St., a five-story multi-tenanted brownstone in the Gramercy Park neighborhood, off Union Sq. The 6,800 s/f walkup building consists of six residential units, a live-work loft on the parlor floor and a restaurant on the ground floor and basement that was previously home to long-time neighborhood bar & nightclub, Belmont Lounge. The final closing price was $11 million.
Manhattan, NY Howard Epstein, director, HSP Real Estate Group, a member of NAI Global, has arranged a five-year lease at 16 West 36th St. for Plusgrade, L.P. a leading technology provider of upgrade solutions for airlines. The tenant will be moving from a comparably-sized space on the fourth floor of the building to its newly built-out, 5,320 s/f second-floor office in January 2019.
Brooklyn, NY According to John Horowitz, VP - regional manager of Marcus & Millichap, the firm has brokered three deals totaling $7.76 million. The deals include the following:
• The $2.35 million sale of 275 Prospect Park West, a 4,800 s/f mixed-use property. The asset sold for $2.35 million. Jakub Nowak, Matthew Rosenzweig and Jesse Kay, in Marcus & Millichap, had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller, a private investor. The buyer, a private investor, was also secured and represented by the team. “Despite a softening market for rent stabilized assets, our team just closed 275 Prospect Park West at $2.35 million. The interest we generated around this deal indicates that there is still a strong demand for value add rent stabilized buildings,” said Kay.
Manhattan, NY Howard Rosenblum has joined Cresa as senior vice president of the New York office. A 13-year veteran of the industry, Rosenblum specializes in tenant representation and has advised such prominent clients as Biz 2 Credit, Bonobos, JWE Inc., Northwest Group, ODA Architects, Selerity, Reunited Clothing and Vanguard Construction.
New York, NY According to developer Silverstein Properties, Brian Collins will join the firm as EVP and director of development. “Brian has a long and successful history in the real estate industry and we look forward to working with him in the New Year,” said Larry Silverstein, chairman of Silverstein. “We have several billion dollars of development activity in the pipeline and I’m very excited for the future of our company.”
New York, NY According to Thornton Tomasetti, Daniel Stauthamer has joined the firm as chief human resources officer. He brings 15 years of ...
Queens, NY A partnership between Atlas Capital Group, Partners Group (on behalf of its clients) and Invesco have signed a 25,744 s/f, six-year lease for the relocation and expansion of Canada-based Spin Master Corp.’s New York City headquarters at The Factory, the 1.1 million s/f loft office building in Long Island City. The deal brings Spin Master’s total lease commitment at the Factory to 50,802 s/f. Spin Master will join its games and puzzle division, Cardinal Toys, on the sixth floor of the 10-story building. Newmark Knight Frank’s Brian Waterman, Howard Kesseler, Jordan Gosin and Alex Rosenblum represented the ownership.
