NEW YORK CITY — Progress Capital has arranged a $15 million acquisition loan for a development site located at 124-132 E. 125th St. in Harlem. The site is situated near public transit outlets and several recreational areas such as McNair Park, Alice Kornegay Triangle and Harlem Art Park. The borrower, locally based developer Maddd Equities, plans to construct a building of an undisclosed size that will feature retail and other types of commercial space. Brad Domenico of Progress Capital arranged the loan, terms of which included two years of interest-only payments, through Metropolitan Bank.
MENLO PARK, CALIF. AND NEW YORK CITY — Flexible office space provider WeWork has entered into an agreement with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) BowX Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: BOWX) to be taken public at an initial valuation of $9 billion. A SPAC is a business entity with no commercial operations that is formed strictly to raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO) for the purpose of acquiring other companies. Menlo Park, Calif.-based BowX Acquisition Corp. is an affiliate of Bow Capital, a venture capital firm begun by Vivek Ranadive, the founder of TIBCO software and owner of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. The transaction, which is expected to close by the third quarter, will provide New York City-based WeWork with approximately $1.3 billion of cash to fund future growth initiatives. The transaction will be funded with BowX’s $483 million of cash in trust, in addition to $800 million in private investment from capital sources such as Insight Partners, funds managed by Starwood Capital Group and others. SPACs have recently grown in popularity among private and institutional investors alike as vehicles for taking companies public. According to Forbes, which recently analyzed the U.S. activity of SPACs, these entities raised as much …
NEW YORK CITY — The General Services Administration (GSA) has tapped Chicago-based architecture and engineering firm Krueck Sexton Partners (KSP) to design the $240 million redevelopment of the Silvio J. Mollo Federal Building in New York City. Constructed in 1974, the 10-story, 160,000-square-foot building is located at 1 St. Andrew’s Plaza in Lower Manhattan and houses the offices of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Marshals Service. Enhancements will include the replacement of all major building systems, modifications to the base building structure and the installation of a new façade. Other building modifications will include the development of a new main entrance, upgrades to the building’s accessibility and security infrastructure and the implementation of a new interior design plan. As part of the project, KSP will also design two floors of swing space at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building at 26 Federal Plaza that will serve as temporary accommodations for building occupants during the modernization. Construction is expected to begin in fall 2023 with completion scheduled for summer 2026.
NEW YORK CITY — Global private equity firm Hellman & Friedman has signed a 27,800-square-foot office lease at 425 Park Avenue, a 47-story tower in Midtown Manhattan that is nearing completion. The firm signed a 15-year lease and will relocate from the nearby Lever House building at 390 Park Ave. during the fourth quarter. Jonathan Serko, Barry Zeller, Andrew Ross, Richard Serko, Ed Donnery and Mike Middleton of Cushman & Wakefield represented Hellman & Friedman in the lease negotiations. Andrew Wiener and David Berkey represented the landlord, L&L Holding Co., on an internal basis.
NEW YORK CITY — JLL has negotiated the sale of Gallivant Times Square, a 336-room hotel located at 234 W. 48th St. in Manhattan. The 16-story building spans 209,851 square feet and offers amenities such as a fitness center, business center and meeting space. In addition, the building houses two restaurant concepts. Jeff Davis, K.C. Patel, Michele Mahl and Nikhil Chuchra of JLL represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. The buyer and sales price were also undisclosed.
BROOKHAVEN, N.Y. — Woodmont Industrial Partners has sold a 130,565-square-foot facility located at 100 Precision Drive in the Long Island town of Brookhaven. BlackRock Real Assets purchased the asset for $30.7 million on behalf of one of its institutional clients. The 12.6-acre property was originally built in 2002 and is located less than half a mile from the Long Island Expressway. Woodmont acquired the asset in 2019 and implemented a capital improvement program.
ROSLYN, N.Y. — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the $33 million sale of Horizon at Roslyn, a 50-unit, age-restricted apartment building in the New York City suburb of Roslyn. The sales price equates to $660,000 per unit. Michael Tuccillo, Anthony Cerrone and Nicholas Tuccillo of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller, Horizon at Roslyn LLC, in the transaction. The trio also procured the buyer, Fairfield Knolls LLC.
WEST ISLIP, N.Y. — Piazzetta Italian Kitchen & Bar has signed a lease to open a 3,000-square-foot restaurant at a 19,757-square-foot retail center in the Long Island hamlet of West Islip. The center is under construction at 425 Union Blvd. and will house other tenants such as 7-Eleven and Brownstone Coffee. Christopher Mayor and Lawrence Densen of Island Associates Real Estate brokered the lease negotiations. The restaurant will be the chain’s fifth.
NEW YORK — JLL Capital Markets has arranged $393 million in construction financing for a project that will convert a 399,029-square-foot office building at ABC/Disney’s former headquarters building in Manhattan into a life sciences facility with purpose-built research and lab space. The borrower, a partnership controlled by New York City-based developer Taconic Partners and investment firm Nuveen Real Estate, purchased the building at 125 West End Ave. in 2019 for $230 million. With the vacating of the property by its primary tenant, which operated out of the building from 1985 until its lease expired in January of this year, the partnership is set to begin construction. The senior lender on the four-year, floating-rate financing package was a fund backed by Apollo Global Management, while Oaktree Capital Finance also provided mezzanine debt for the project. Evan Pariser and Geoff Goldstein of JLL placed the financing. The 125 West End Ave. building is located less than a quarter-mile from Lincoln Square and is close to the 1, 2 and 3 subway lines as well as West Side Highway. Additionally, the project is situated just 18 miles from the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The existing building’s specs allow …
NEW YORK CITY — Ariel Property Advisors has arranged a $4.7 million loan for the refinancing of a 42-unit multifamily building located at 500 W. 111th St. in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights neighborhood. Matt Swerdlow and Matt Dzbanek of Ariel Property Advisors placed the debt, which was structured with a fixed interest rate of 10 percent for three years and a 40-year amortization schedule, through an undisclosed New Jersey bank. The undisclosed borrower will use a portion of the proceeds to fund capital improvements.