Leases
Digital media firm heads downtown
Address: 107 Greenwich St., Manhattan
Landlord: Trinity Church Wall Street
Tenant: Puck
Lease size: 10,108 square feet
Asking rent: $79 per square foot
Asset type: Office
Brokers: A JLL team led by John Wheeler, Andrew Coe and Margaux Kelleher represented the landlord. An LSL Advisors team including Eric Siegel, Daniel Lolai and Raphael Zar represented the tenant.
Sales
Eis unloads 8-building rental portfolio in the East Village
Addresses: 58 Second Ave., 60-62 Second Ave. and 110 E. First St., Manhattan
Seller: Leonard Eis
Buyer: Alfred Sabetfard
Sale price: $18 million
Asset type: Mixed use
Brokers: Avison Young’s Brandon Polakoff and Ryan McGuirl represented the seller.
Addresses: 105, 107 and 109 First Ave., Manhattan
Seller: Leonard Eis
Buyer: Lawrence Movtady
Sale price: $13.75 million
Asset type: Mixed use
Brokers: Avison Young’s Brandon Polakoff and Ryan McGuirl represented the seller.
Addresses: 425 and 543 E. Sixth St., Manhattan
Seller: Leonard Eis
Buyer: Son Dinh Tran
Sale price: $6.25 million
Asset type: Mixed use
Brokers: Avison Young’s Brandon Polakoff and Ryan McGuirl represented the seller.
Financings
New Knickerbocker Village owner obtains acquisition loan
Address: 10-20 Monroe St., Manhattan
Owner: L+M Fund Management
Lender: Wells Fargo
Loan amount: $90 million
Asset type: Multifamily
Read more about the deal here.
A developer has decided to say farewell to a landmarked post office that has been the focus of dreams about the turnaround of the South Bronx.
Chelsea-based Youngwoo & Associates, which helped transform a dilapidated Manhattan cargo warehouse into the food hall complex Pier 57, has listed 558 Grand Concourse for about $75 million.
In 2014 Youngwoo paid $19 million for the 4-story, 175,000-square-foot government property, public records show. Afterward it invested $40 million to renovate the upper floors of the full-block, Art Deco site, which besides housing a small postal facility is also home to Zona de Cuba, a five-year-old Cuban restaurant.
“While development plans are to be unveiled at a future date, [Youngwoo] intends to build upon the property’s legacy as a trophy of the Bronx and an iconic gateway to the borough,” said a statement from the developer from around when it bought the property, a major bet on the area at the time. A food hall was once considered for the property, which is at East 149th Street.
With the revival of the area in full swing, the brokers now marketing the property expect the eye-catching edifice to attract a single occupant, which would presumably use it for classrooms, offices or as a medical facility, though the existing leases would transfer with it.
“The area has gotten tremendously better in the last decade,” said James Nelson, the Avison Young broker handling the sale. “And this is not just some old warehouse.”
Nelson added that since Youngwoo purchased the property, which was accomplished with the help of a $12.4 million loan from Cathay Bank, the South Bronx has become awash with residential development. Indeed, developers have added 62,000 new homes in the past decade, he said, and nearly 17,000 are planned, he pointed out.
The 1935 granite-and-marble Bronx Central Annex, whose facade features tall, arched windows and two mounted statues, received local landmark status for its exterior in 1976.
“The elegant simplicity of the building with its finely executed details make[s] it one of the best examples of government architecture in this style,” says the official report compiled for the designation. “It met a long-felt need in the Bronx when built, and continues to serve that function today.”
In 2013 city officials also conferred landmark status on a portion of the inside of the building, a rarity. A series of 13 Great Depression-era murals called “Resources of America,” depicting scenes of workers harvesting wheat and firing furnaces, that was painted by the husband-and-wife team of Ben Shahn and Bernarda Bryson Shahn grace the space.
No. 558 offers 169,000 square feet inside and 4,400 square feet outside, across several terraces, plus 39 parking spaces, its listing shows. The post office leases about 10,000 square feet, and Zona de Cuba occupies 15,000, Nelson added. The terms of those leases was not immediately clear.
Bryan Woo, an executive at Youngwoo, a firm founded in 1979 by his father Young Woo, declined to comment. In addition to Pier 57, Youngwoo served as a developer of 200 11th Ave., a West Chelsea high-rise condo whose apartments come with adjacent garages for cars.
The luxurious Italian wellness spa on Governors Island, QC New York, is gearing up for a major expansion this summer. QC NY on Thursday announced plans to open a 15,000-square-foot addition in July, featuring sensory saunas, waterfalls, a salt room, a lavender room, an ice room, a relaxation room with waterbeds, and a 142-seat restaurant. [...]
The post Luxury spa on Governors Island to undergo major expansion in July first appeared on 6sqft.
Blackstone has sold off a major portfolio of industrial properties in Queens and New Jersey to San Francisco-based real estate firm Terreno for $246 million.
Terreno announced earlier this month that it had purchased an industrial portfolio in the city, New Jersey, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area for about $365 million, but the firm did not identify the seller. The portfolio consists of 28 buildings spanning about 1.2 million square feet that is 91.6% leased to 70 tenants.
The Queens properties consist of 21 parcels near John F. Kennedy International Airport. Blackstone had acquired the parcels in 2019 for about $130 million.
"Logistics has been a high-conviction theme for us for well over a decade, and this transaction illustrates the continued strength we see today," David Levine, co-head of Americas acquisitions for Blackstone, said in a statement.
A representative for Terreno declined to comment.
Blackstone bet particularly heavily on industrial real estate in 2019, most notably through an $18.7 billion purchase of warehouses across the country from Singapore-based firm GLP Pte. But Blackstone has more recently inked multiple deals to sell parts of its industrial portfolio, including a $3.1 billion sale to Prologis last year, and placed a huge bet on multifamily properties, striking a deal to purchase apartment landlord AIR Communities for roughly $10 billion earlier this year.
The firm is still a big believer in the industrial sector "as illustrated by our $175 billion global logistics portfolio," Levine said.
Industrial real estate in the city did very well during the pandemic, although growth from the logistics and e-commerce firms that helped it stay strong slowed during the second half of last year. However, the sector got off to a strong start in 2024, with the outer boroughs seeing their busiest first quarter since 2019, thanks in part to demand from wholesale firms and studios, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
On the heels of Second Chance Month and entering National Small Business Week, it is a time to reflect as a state and raise awareness on the importance of second chance opportunities for people returning to their communities from incarceration. As a business owner, a New Yorker, and someone who has been incarcerated, I am a living testament to the value of meaningful second chances. The mistakes I made as a young person did not define me, because there were opportunities for me to succeed and contribute to my community.
Since my own release, I’ve become a proud community member of the city and the owner of a thriving business that’s all about second chances. At Untapped Solutions, we connect justice-impacted individuals and other folks from marginalized communities to employers and job opportunities, harnessing the potential of traditionally untapped talents to create more diverse, dynamic, and stronger workplaces. Connecting people to quality jobs drives economic growth, reduces recidivism, and promotes social equity by providing meaningful employment opportunities to talented individuals who want to work and take care of their families.
And I see the opportunity for so many more businesses and our communities overall to benefit from the contributions of formerly incarcerated people if we can pass commonsense sentencing reform this year. New York has not passed meaningful sentencing reform in more than 15 years. Long prison sentences keep people away from their families and locked out of the workforce, without improving public safety. While other states – including Oklahoma and Texas – have passed laws expanding opportunities to reconsider or earn time off sentences, New York has fallen behind. At the same time, many businesses are struggling to hire qualified candidates amidst a persisting workforce shortage.
New York’s elected leaders have the opportunity to address both of these problems by passing a package of sentencing reforms, including the Earned Time Act (S774/A1128) and the Second Look Act (S321/A531), and the Marvin Mayfield Act (SS6471A/A2036B). Advancing these policies will help us strengthen our state’s workforce without compromising public safety.
The Earned Time Act would allow people to earn more time off their sentences for participation in educational and vocational programs that provide them with skills to be ready to rejoin the workforce upon release. The Second Look Act would allow judges to review extremely long sentences to see if a person’s demonstrated rehabilitation means they should be given a reduced sentence, recognizing that people should be given a second chance and that long sentences don’t make us safer.
Every day, I see how supporting justice-impacted people is better for our community as a whole. Employers who utilize Untapped Solutions often tell us how impressed they are with the commitment and work ethic of the employees they find through our platform. Given the right tools and opportunities, formerly incarcerated individuals want to and can thrive in the workforce.
Unfortunately, the longer someone stays behind bars, the more they can fall behind modern technology and the job market. Every year locked away makes it exponentially more difficult to reintegrate into the workforce. With these sentencing reforms that can reduce recidivism and increase job skills, we can make impactful change.
Passing sentencing reform will bring valuable community members back to the workforce and continue to prioritize public safety. Business leaders across the state see the value of second chances. Now, it’s up to New York lawmakers to pass these data-backed sentencing reforms to provide meaningful second chances, strengthen our workforce, and make our communities safer.
Andre Peart is the CEO and Founder of Untapped Solutions, a technology company that empowers employers to connect with and hire talent from underserved communities.
The city is looking to build hundreds of free, secure bike parking locations across the five boroughs to prevent theft and encourage more New Yorkers to bike. The Department of Transportation on Thursday issued a request for proposals seeking operators for a network of 500 secure biking parking facilities to be built starting next year. [...]
The post NYC looks to install 500 secure bike parking facilities first appeared on 6sqft.
U.S. consumer sentiment declined in early May to a six-month low as short-term inflation expectations and concerns about the job market picked up.
The sentiment index slid to 67.4 in May from 77.2, according to the preliminary reading from the University of Michigan. The figure was weaker than all forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
Consumers expect prices will climb at an annual rate of 3.5% over the next year, the highest in six months and up from the 3.2% expected in April, data Friday showed. They see costs rising 3.1% over the next five to 10 years, up slightly from a month earlier.
The decline in sentiment was broad across age, income and education groups, and also reflected growing concerns about high interest rates. While the labor market has driven economic growth over the last year, the downbeat assessment highlighted in the report adds to evidence of a slowdown.
“Strength in household incomes has been the primary source of support for robust consumer spending over the past couple of years, so a softening in labor market expectations is concerning and — if it continues — may lead to a pullback in consumers’ willingness to spend,” Joanne Hsu, director of the survey, said in a statement.
The university’s measure of buying conditions for durable goods, some of which are financed, decreased to a one-year low.
“Worse yet, consumers expect the pain to continue, as expectations for interest rates deteriorated considerably this month,” Hsu said. “Only one quarter of consumers expect interest rates to fall in the year ahead, compared with 32% in April.”
The current conditions gauge declined to 68.8, while a measure of expectations dropped to 66.5 — both six-month lows.
Consumers’ perception of their financial situation, as well as short- and long-term economic outlooks, decreased this month.
Sentiment gauges also provide insight into voters’ feelings about the economy and their finances leading up to the presidential election in November.
Confidence deteriorated this month among Democrats, Republicans and independent voters. The latest figures underscore the hurdle President Joe Biden faces in convincing Americans that his policies have helped the economy.