NEW YORK CITY — New York University (NYU) has signed a long-term lease for more than 1 million square feet at 770 Broadway in Lower Manhattan. The 1.1 million-square-foot building is adjacent to the university’s campus and is currently home to a number of tenants that occupy about half the space, and NYU plans to assume the existing leases of these users. Grocer Wegman’s will remain a tenant within the building’s retail space. The first stage of NYU’s programming for 770 Broadway will involve the conversion of vacant floors to science and technology uses, including laboratories, classrooms and workstations, as a means of consolidating faculty and research initiatives under a single collaboration hub. Law firm Fried Frank advised NYU on the transaction, which the academic institution estimates will reduce rental expenses by more than $800 million over the first 30 years.
ROWLETT, TEXAS — General contractor Swinerton has broken ground on a 100,000-square-foot municipal complex in Rowlett, a northeastern suburb of Dallas. Designed by Hoefer Welker, the complex will serve as the new home of municipal departments and facilities such as city hall, the police and fire administration, court system, jail and animal shelter. The complex will also feature community park space. An exact completion date was not announced.
NEW YORK CITY — LMXD, an affiliate of New York City-based L&M Development Partners, and residential developer Ray have begun leasing a 21-story multifamily and civic project in Harlem. Designed by Frida Escobedo Architects and Handel Architects, the National Black Theatre & Ray Harlem houses 222 mixed-income apartments, commercial space along 125th Street and a multi-purpose room that is open to the community. Units come in studio, one- and two-bedroom floor plans. Residential amenities include a communal kitchen and outdoor grilling stations, a coworking lounge, fitness center and yoga studio, library curated by Phaidon Press, living room lounge and two outdoor terraces. In addition, the site features a 27,000-square-foot home for the National Black Theatre. This space houses offices, classrooms, a 250-seat performance venue, a 99-seat flexible studio theater and a set-building shop to support workforce development in theatrical trades. Construction topped out in fall 2023.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — General contractor Austin Commercial has broken ground on Mulva Hall, which will be the new home of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. Designed by Perkins&Will, the 400,000-square-foot building will be situated next to the Robert B. Rowling Hall graduate business building and the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center. Mulva Hall will bring undergraduate classrooms, academic department suites, faculty offices, research centers, convening spaces and the dean’s office under a single roof. Completion is slated for 2028.
SALEM, MASS. — Gilbane Building Co. has begun construction on multiple projects at Salem State University (SSU), located north of Boston, that are part of a “campus unification and modernization” initiative known as SSU Bold. The projects incorporate renovations to the existing Horace Mann building, which has been vacant since 2018, and the expansion of Meier Hall to bring new lab spaces to programs housed in the building. Once these projects have been completed in fall 2027, the university will relocate its South Campus-housed programs to North Campus, unifying its footprint and allowing the planned sale of South Campus to move forward. The new facilities will house nursing, occupational therapy, biology, chemistry and geological sciences programs, as well as various student hubs and flexible classrooms.
DALLAS — Adolfson & Peterson (AP) Construction has begun the renovation and expansion of Christ the King Catholic Church and School in Dallas. Designed by Beck Architecture, the project will include a complete renovation of Parish Hall and demolition of Bernadine Hall, which will be replaced by a new, 25,000-square-foot academic building. The project team will also add a new chapel and courtyard and relocate the church business office. Construction will be carried out in phases, with the groundbreaking to take place in the coming weeks and completion slated for next summer.
BEEVILLE, TEXAS — SpawGlass General Contractors has broken ground on a new elementary school for the Independent School District of Beeville, located near Corpus Christi in South Texas. The 108,100-square-foot campus, which will be able to support about 1,200 students, will replace the current Fadden-McKeown-Chambliss and R.A. Hall Elementary Schools. Both of those schools have served the community for over five decades and will be repurposed and demolished, respectively, following completion of the new school, which is slated for August 2026. In addition to indoor classrooms and collaboration spaces, the new campus will include 51,000 square feet of outdoor learning and natural play areas. Pfluger Architects is designing the project, which is being financed by a $62 million bond that was approved by voters last spring.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Easterly Government Properties Inc. has purchased a 289,873-square-foot civic office building in northeast Washington, D.C. The address, seller and sales price were not disclosed. The property was 98 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants including the District of Columbia Government, which recently extended its 237,118-square-foot lease at the building through 2038 with the option to renew for an additional five years. The District’s government agencies operating within the facility include the District of Columbia Public Schools and the Department of Energy & Environment, both of which have occupied the building since 2009. Other tenants include the U.S. federal government, which occupies 26,327 square feet under the General Services Administration (GSA) banner, and private tenants, which occupy 20,299 square feet. The civic building has a weighted average remaining lease term (WALT) of 11.6 years.
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. — On behalf of the United States Air Force Academy, Bryan Construction has completed Madera Cyber Innovation Center, a cybersecurity training facility for cadets in Colorado Springs. The four-story, 48,800-square-foot facility will be home to Air Force CyberWorx, the Department of Computer and Cyber Science and the Institute of Future Conflict. The facility provides the essential laboratory and workspace environments for cadets engaged in critical disciplines, including cyber engineering, cyber law and cybersecurity forensics. Designed by Clark Nexsen, the facility features a structural glass wall system and a free-floating, self-supporting curvilinear staircase. Construction of project included an extensive communication and technology infrastructure with 29 miles of cabling integrated throughout the facility. Additionally, Madera Cyber Innovation Center meets UFC 4-023-03 standards for progressive collapse resistance.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The NFL’s Washington Commanders have announced plans to develop a new football stadium in Washington, D.C., (“the District”), as well as a surrounding mixed-use destination. The team, which currently plays at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., has pledged to invest at least $2.7 billion into financing the project. The District has committed to a $500 million investment for the new stadium, which is expected to open in 2030. The site spans 180 acres within the Robert Francis Kennedy (RFK) campus on the city’s east side. The Commanders, formerly known as the Redskins, are developing the new 65,000-seat stadium in partnership with the District, which recently gained control of the campus via the D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act. The legislation, which took effect in January, gave the District the ability to develop the campus for a mix of uses, lifting the restrictions that were in place under the previous lease. The legislation also required that 30 percent of the RFK campus be reserved for parks, trails and open space, not including a 32-acre riparian area along the Anacostia River. As part of the larger development, the Commanders plan to bring a variety of commercial …