NEW YORK CITY — ACT Commodities Inc., a commodities brokerage firm, has expanded its office lease at 437 Madison Avenue in Manhattan by 4,805 square feet, raising the size of its footprint at the property to 17,750 square feet. The 40-story, 850,000-square-foot building was recently renovated to the tune of $60 million. Frank Doyle, David Kleiner, Cynthia Wasserberger, Hayley Shoener and Harlan Webster of JLL represented the landlord, The William Kaufman Organization (WKO), in the lease negotiations along with Michael Lenchner of Sage Realty Corp., the leasing and management division of WKO. Craig Lemle of Savills represented the tenant.
NEW YORK CITY — Global investment bank Greenhill & Co. has signed a 78,000-square-foot office lease at the former Time & Life building within Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center. Rockefeller Group, which owns the 48-story building located at 1271 Avenue of the Americas, is wrapping up a $600 million redevelopment program that is scheduled for completion by year’s end. Following Greenhill’s relocation from 300 Park Avenue in 2020, the building will be close to fully leased. Michael Geoghegan, Andrew Sussman and Peter Gamber of CBRE represented Greenhill in the lease negotiations. Mary Ann Tighe, Howard Fiddle, John Maher, Evan Haskell and Dave Caperna of CBRE represented Rockefeller Group, along with internal associates Ed Guiltinan and Jennifer Stein.
NEW YORK CITY — A joint venture between Ares Corp. and Douglaston Development will develop 601 West 29th Street, a 931-unit residential tower that will be located at the intersection of Manhattan’s Hudson Yards and West Chelsea neighborhoods. The property, which will span a full city block and rise 58 stories, will comprise 697 market-rate units and 234 affordable units, as well as 186 parking spaces and 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Amenities will include a pool, fitness center, outdoor terraces, resident lounges and pet care services. A syndicate of banks led by HSBC and including Bank of China and Raymond James Bank provided construction financing. Greystone arranged the debt. Demolition work on the site is underway and completion is slated for late 2022.
NEW YORK CITY — RDC Development has completed its redevelopment of Ocean Bay Apartments, a project valued at $560 million. Ocean Bay, which houses 1,395 units and nearly 4,000 residents, was damaged in a storm and forced to undergo a two-year rehabilitation project that featured renovated kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms. The rehab project also saw the replacement of roofs, as well as upgrades to elevators, utility systems and public hallways. RDC financed the redevelopment through HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, which stipulates that the refreshed units remain affordable to low-income households.
NEW YORK CITY — Justworks, a provider of payroll, HR and compliance software, has signed a 270,000-square-foot office lease at 55 Water St. in Manhattan. Beginning in the second quarter of 2020, the company will relocate to the 3.8 million-square-foot complex, more than doubling the size of its current space at 601 W. 26th St. Howard Fiddle, Evan Haskell, Brad Gerla, Dave Caperna and Mary Ann Tighe of CBRE represented the landlord, New Water Street Corp., a subsidiary of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, in the lease negotiations. Chris Helgesen, Peter Trivelas, Dirk Hrobsky and Gary Ceder of Cushman & Wakefield represented Justworks. The average asking rent at 55 Water St., which was recently repositioned, is $58 per square foot.
NEW YORK CITY — Cornell Realty Management has topped out 200 Kent Avenue, a 72,000-square-foot retail and office building located in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn. The property spans 50,000 square feet of retail space that will be anchored by a Trader Joe’s, 22,000 square feet of office and restaurant space and 45,000 square feet of parking. Manhattan-based Madison Realty Capital originally provided a $64 million construction loan for the project in November 2017, and Bluestone Group recently provided $8 million in mezzanine debt to finance additional capital expenditures.
NEW YORK — Mortgage banking firm Merchants Capital has secured $51 million in agency funding on behalf of Heights Advisors and Samaritan Daytop Village (SDV) for the permanent financing of 267 Rogers, a 165-unit property in New York City. The property offers transitional housing for homeless families. The Department of Homeless Services (DHS) has partnered with human services organization SDV on the project, which is located in the Crown Heights neighborhood. In addition to providing housing for these transitional families, 267 Rogers offers supportive services to all tenants, including employment and job readiness services, daily living workshops and personal financial management, plus education and child care assistance programs. The project was completed in 2018 and is fully occupied.
NEW YORK CITY — Cushman & Wakefield has arranged the $3.2 million sale of an 8,874-square-foot retail property located at 2542-2550 Boston Road in The Bronx. The sales price for the two-building property equates to $361 per square foot. Cushman & Wakefield’s Jonathan Squires, Eric Roth and Addison Berniker represented the seller, 2550 Boston Post Road Corp., in the transaction. The undisclosed buyer will have the option to expand the property to add more shop space.
LIVERPOOL, N.Y. — SRS Real Estate Partners, a Dallas-based retail brokerage firm, has closed the sale of Clay South Center, a 195,972-square-foot power center in Liverpool, located northwest of Syracuse. Shadow-anchored by Target and anchored by Hobby Lobby and Lowe’s, the property was fully leased at the time of sale to other national tenants such as Chipotle and Verizon Wireless. Kyle Stonis, Pierce Mayson and Jonathan Lapat of SRS represented the seller, a partnership between South Clay Development Co. LLC and Clay Route 31 Development Co. LLC, in the transaction. Kyle Fant and Britt Raymond, also with SRS, represented the buyer, Wilson Development Group, which acquired the asset for roughly $14.7 million. The average household income within a three-mile radius of the retail center exceeds $103,000.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — NAS Investment Solutions, a national investment firm, has acquired a 55,000-square-foot flex building in Syracuse. The property, which was built in 2008 and expanded in 2015, consists of 40,000 square feet of office space and 15,000 square feet of light manufacturing and warehousing space. The building is located adjacent to Syracuse Hancock International Airport and was 100 percent leased at the time of sale to Jadak, a healthcare technology firm that uses the space as its corporate headquarters. John Rotunno of Stan Johnson Co. represented the seller, New York-based Mercer Street Partners, in the transaction.