NEW YORK CITY — Hazen & Sawyer has inked a 44,000-square-foot office lease extension at 498 Seventh Ave. in Manhattan’s Times Square area. The engineering firm will continue to house its headquarters across the entire 11th floor of the 960,000-square-foot building through 2035. Curtis Dean of CD Commercial Real Estate Services represented Hazen & Sawyer, which has been a tenant at the building since 1999, in the lease negotiations. Matt Coudert and Andrew Conrad internally represented the landlord, George Comfort & Sons.
NEW YORK CITY — PubMatic Inc., a software provider for the digital publishing and advertising industry, has signed a 60,000-square-foot office lease at 498 Seventh Ave. in Manhattan’s Times Square area. The company already subleases the entire 18th floor of the 960,000-square-foot building and will expand to the entire 19th floor early next year under the terms of the new deal. Greg Taubin of Savills represented PubMatic in the lease negotiations. Matt Coudert and Andrew Conrad internally represented the landlord, George Comfort & Sons.
NEW YORK CITY — A joint venture between nonprofit developer Community Access, affordable housing developers Spatial Equity and Duvernay + Brooks, as well as neighborhood preservation organization Cooper Square Committee, has acquired the site of the former St. Emeric church in Manhattan’s East Village. According to Wikipedia, the former Roman Catholic church was originally built around 1950 and closed in 2013 when the Parish of St. Emeric merged with that of nearby St. Brigid’s Roman Catholic Church. The joint venture plans to build more than 500 affordable housing units on the site, including homes for senior New Yorkers, formerly homeless individuals and those with special needs who qualify for supportive services. The development team expects to break ground on the first phase of the redevelopment in 2026 and may also pursue rezoning through a land use review process for the second phase. Denham Wolf Real Estate Services marketed the property for sale on behalf of the parish, which is overseen by The Archdiocese of New York.
NEW YORK CITY — HKS Real Estate Advisors has arranged a $30 million loan for the refinancing of a 65,787-square-foot mixed-use portfolio in New York City. The portfolio consists of eight buildings in Manhattan and The Bronx that collectively total 54 multifamily units and 17 commercial units. Commercial tenants include Mr. Green Laundry, Hunter Convenience Shop, Little Amber Nails & Spa and Monster Barber Shop. Michael Lee of HKS arranged the loan through Citigroup on behalf of the undisclosed borrower.
NEW YORK CITY — Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc. (DCMA) has signed a 20-year, 44,100-square-foot office lease in Midtown Manhattan. The financial services firm will occupy the entire 49th floor at 1251 Avenue of the Americas. Erik Schmall and Scott Weiss of Savills represented DCMA in the lease negotiations. David Falk and Peter Shimkin of Newmark represented the landlord, Mitsui Fudosan America. A tenant-only conference facility is under construction at the building, and the lobby was recently renovated. Three new food-and-beverage concepts are also set to open at the building in the coming weeks.
NEW YORK CITY — Locally based brokerage firm Rosewood Realty Group has negotiated the $2.5 million sale of an eight-unit apartment building located at 313 W. 92nd St. on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Five of the eight units were vacant at the time of sale. Ben Khakshoor of Rosewood represented the buyer, Put Duc Huang, in the transaction. Mike Kerwin, also with Rosewood, represented the seller, the Goldberg Family, which owned the building for 85 years.
NEW YORK CITY — GrowthCurve Capital LP has signed a 13,350-square-foot office lease in Midtown Manhattan. The private equity firm is relocating from 1301 Avenue of the Americas to the 33rd floor of the 990,000-square-foot building at 250 W. 55th St. Peter Turchin, Caroline Merck, Arkady Smolyansky and Ali Gordon of CBRE represented the landlord, Boston Properties, in the lease negotiations. Jonathan Luttwak and James Cassidy of DHC Real Estate Services, along with Louis D’Avanzo of Cushman & Wakefield, represented the tenant.
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Equity Residential to Acquire 11-Property Multifamily Portfolio from Blackstone for $964M
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK CITY — Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR) has agreed to acquire an 11-property apartment portfolio from Blackstone (NYSE: BX) for $964 million. The acquisition is the largest U.S. multifamily purchase by any public real estate investment trust in the past seven years, according to reports by The Wall Street Journal. The portfolio includes four properties totaling 1,357 units in Atlanta; four properties totaling 1,237 units in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area; and three properties totaling 978 units in Denver. Further details on the communities were not disclosed. The properties were attractive to Equity Residential — one of the largest owners of multifamily assets in the U.S. with 79,738 units across 299 properties — due to their locations in markets where the Chicago-based firm is targeting growth, as well as the properties’ appeal to high-end renters. The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter and will include separate transactions with Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, Blackstone Real Estate Partners and Blackstone Property Partners. Eastdil Secured, RBC Capital Markets, Santander and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) acted as Blackstone’s financial advisors in the transaction. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett served as Blackstone’s legal counsel. Neal Gerber & Eisenberg, Hogan …
NEW YORK CITY — Stark Office Suites has signed an 11,816-square-foot office lease in Midtown Manhattan. The provider of executive suites and virtual workspace solutions is taking a full floor at 825 Third Avenue, a 530,000-square-foot building that recently underwent a $150 million capital improvement program. Tom Bow, Ashlea Aaron, Sayo Kamara and Bailey Caliban internally represented the landlord, The Durst Organization, in the lease negotiations. Craig Lemle and Roi Shleifer of Savills represented the tenant.
NEW YORK CITY — Douglaston Development has received financing for a $190 million affordable housing project that will be located in the Bedford Park neighborhood of the Bronx. The building at 2868 Webster Ave. will rise 12 stories and house 277 units. The financing includes $83.4 million in tax-exempt bond proceeds and $17.4 million in subsidies allocated by The New York City Housing Development Corp. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation & Development also provided a $52.6 million subsidy under its Extremely Low- and Low-Income Affordability Program. Wells Fargo provided Low-Income Housing Tax Credits as well as a letter of credit for the project. Units will come in studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans and will be reserved for households earning up to 70 percent of the area median income. Sixty units will be set aside as supportive units. The project represents the second phase of a two-phase development that also includes a 188-unit seniors housing complex that opened in fall 2023. Levine Builders, the general contracting affiliate of Douglaston Development, will build the community. Construction is expected to be complete in 2027.