NEW YORK CITY — Curtis + Ginsberg Architects has signed an 11-year, 12,602-square-foot office lease at One Battery Park Plaza in Lower Manhattan. The design firm is relocating its headquarters from 55 Broad St. to the 27th floor of the 35-story, 870,000-square-foot building. Ruth Colp-Haber of Wharton Property Advisors represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. Kevin Daly internally represented the landlord, Rudin, which originally developed the building in 1971.
New York
Retail REIT Merger: Kimco Realty to Acquire RPT Realty for $2B in All-Stock Transaction
by John Nelson
JERICHO AND NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. — Kimco Realty (NYSE: KIM) has entered into a definitive merger agreement with RPT Realty (NYSE: RPT) under which Kimco will acquire RPT Realty in an all-stock transaction. Both REITs are based in New York — Kimco in Jericho and RPT in Manhattan — and own and operate open-air and grocery-anchored shopping centers, as well as mixed-use assets. Kimco valued the transaction at approximately $2 billion, including the assumption of debt and preferred stock. The merger will add 56 open-air shopping centers, including 43 wholly owned and 13 joint venture assets, to Kimco’s existing portfolio of 528 properties. The affected portfolio spans 13.3 million square feet of gross leasable area. GIC, a sovereign wealth fund based in Singapore, is RPT Realty’s largest joint venture partner and plans to continue its dual ownership with the combined company post-merger. Conor Flynn, CEO of Kimco, says that roughly 70 percent of RPT Realty’s portfolio aligns with Kimco’s strategic markets. This includes Mary Brickell Village, a mixed-use development in Miami that RPT Realty purchased last year for $216 million. Kimco plans to remerchandise and redevelop portions of the center, as well as add it to the company’s Signature Series …
NEW YORK CITY — Merchants Capital has provided $320 million in financing for the renovation of Edenwald Houses, an affordable housing complex in The Bronx that was originally developed in the 1950s and is home to more than 5,000 residents. The property is the second-largest New York City Housing Authority property in the state and the largest in The Bronx. Merchants Capital secured a New York Housing Development Corp. Freddie Mac Risk Share Loan on behalf of the property developer, Camber Property Group. The funds will support an intensive, four-year construction period to fully rehabilitate the property.
NEW YORK CITY — Short Term Capital, a locally based family office, has funded a $4.5 million acquisition loan for a 13,000-square-foot, five-story office building located at 150 W. 36th St. in Midtown Manhattan. The borrower, an undisclosed private investor, is under contract to purchase the building, which includes ground-floor retail space, from Falcon Properties for $6.5 million.
MCLEAN, VA. — Capital One has provided $200 million in financing in separate deals for four multifamily properties totaling roughly 1,300 units in New York and New Jersey. Balance sheet transactions included a refinance of Ramblewood Apartments in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, and a refinance of Mid-Island in Bayshore, New York. Both deals featured fixed-rate loans with full term interest-only payments. Agency transactions included a seven-year, fixed-rate Freddie Mac loan with full-term, interest-only payments to refinance Eagle Rock Apartments at Freehold in Freehold, New Jersey. The team also arranged a Freddie Mac supplemental loan for Vista Point Apartments in Wappinger Falls, New York. Abe Hirsch and Zev Karpel of Meridian Capital Group arranged the loans on behalf of the borrower, Eagle Rock. Todd Phillips and Michael Maidhof led the transactions for Capital One.
NEW YORK CITY — Vera Wang has signed a 26,708-square-foot office lease at 500 Park Avenue in Manhattan’s Plaza District. The fashion designer is relocating from 15 East 26th St. and will occupy the entire fifth floor and part of the seventh floor. The complex comprises the 11-story former Pepsi-Cola Building that was constructed in 1960 and the 40-story 500 Park Tower that was built in 1984. Cynthia Wasserberger, Frank Doyle and Michael Pallas of JLL represented the undisclosed landlord in the lease negotiations. Jeff Peck, Daniel Horowitz and Christopher Foerch of Savills represented Vera Wang.
NEW YORK CITY — JLL has arranged a loan of an undisclosed amount for the refinancing of Westin Grand Central, a 774-room hotel located at 212 E. 42nd St. in Midtown Manhattan. Built in 1981, the property features 13,000 square feet of meeting and event space, a restaurant and lobby bar, fitness center and a 144-space parking deck. Kevin Davis and Mark Fisher of JLL arranged the floating-rate financing through funds managed by Apollo Global Management. The borrower was an undisclosed global investment management firm that has owned the hotel since early 2019.
NEW YORK CITY — Sprinklr (NYSE: CXM), a provider of customer management software, has signed a 23,623-square-foot office lease at Hudson Commons in Manhattan. The company will occupy the entire 12th floor of the 25-story, 697,960-square-foot building. Evan Haskell, Ben Joseph, James Ackerson and Howard Fiddle of CBRE, along with internal agents Ian Gaffney and Taber Brown, represented the landlord, CommonWealth Partners, in the lease negotiations. Nick Farmakis and David Goldstein of Savills represented Sprinklr.
NEW YORK CITY — Commercial finance and advisory firm Axiom Capital Corp. has arranged a $22 million loan for the refinancing of an unnamed multifamily building in Manhattan’s Financial District. The eight-story building houses a mix of studio, one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units and includes commercial space. The fixed-rate, nonrecourse loan carried a five-year term with three years of interest-only payments. The borrower and direct lender were not disclosed.
NEW YORK CITY — JLL has brokered the $7.7 million sale of a 15-unit apartment building located at 515 W. 47th St. in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. The five-story building houses a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units as well as a commercial space occupied by a coffee shop. The ground-floor rear apartments feature private outdoor spaces, and units on the fifth floor have private roof terraces. Jonathan Hageman, Hall Oster, Teddy Galligan, Braedon Gait, Jake Russell and Bob Knakal of JLL represented the seller, Corigin, in the transaction. The buyer was RockSolid Ventures.