NEW YORK CITY — The Greater Jamaica Development Corp. has selected a joint venture between BRP Cos. and Wharton Properties to purchase and develop a site located at 90-02 168th St. in the Queens’ neighborhood of Jamaica. The open-air parking lot will become an approximately 500,000-square-foot development with more than 300 mixed-income residential units and more than 70,000 square feet of retail space. Construction is slated to begin in the second half of 2018.
ALBANY, N.Y. — The Rosenblum Cos. has opened a ValuSpace Personal Storage facility, located at 40 N. Russell Road in Albany. The $7 million, 88,000-square-foot facility features 630 self-storage units, code-controlled access and security features.
NEW YORK CITY — TerraCRG has arranged the sale of an apartment building located at 440 Senator St. in Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge neighborhood. An undisclosed buyer acquired the four-story building for $4.8 million, or $340 per square foot. The 14,280-square-foot property features 20 apartment units. Peter Matheos and David Algarin of TerraCRG brokered the transaction.
The office market in 2017 has rebounded from the slowdown of 2016 — suggesting that Manhattan market conditions remain stronger than some might have imagined at the end of last year. Growth in office-using employment has picked up steam this year, and New York’s Gross City Product expanded at a faster rate than in 2016. Buoyed by large transactions in the financial services and government sectors, leasing activity also expanded in the first half of 2017, outpacing 2016’s mid-year leasing activity by 19 percent. Asking rents continued their trajectory of modest growth, though tenant improvement allowances have grown at a far faster rate, suggesting tenants are paying lower net effective rent; meanwhile, the number of upward repricings on existing listings fell off considerably in the first half of 2017, while downward repricings continue unabated from last year. Despite the increase in both leasing activity and velocity in the first half of 2017, Manhattan continues to see negative net absorption this year, largely due to the delivery of new office product in Midtown South and Downtown. This has pushed up the availability rate to 12.0 percent — suggesting increasingly tenant-favorable conditions in the market. New York City Employment After a relatively …
RAMAPO, N.Y. — Gebroe-Hammer Associates has arranged the sale of Suburban Manor, a garden-style apartment community located at 214-226 Old Nyack Turnpike in Ramapo. Suburban Manor LLC acquired the property, along with a four-acre development site, from Ramapo Knolls for $6.3 million. The four-building property features 53 apartment units in a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom layouts. David Oropeza and Debbie Pomerantz of Gebroe-Hammer arranged the transaction.
NEW YORK CITY — Sumaida + Khurana and LENY have acquired a vacant commercial building located at 611 W. 56th St. in Manhattan’s West Side for $65 million. The joint venture plans to demolish the existing structure and redevelop the site into a 35-story residential condominium building. Alvaro Siza designed the building, which will feature 80 units ranging from one- to four-bedroom layouts and penthouses. Amenities will include private terraces, a roof garden, sun deck, fitness center and retail components. Carl Schwartz, Susan Saslow, Douglas Hoffmann and Michal Baum of Hunton & Williams advised the joint venture on the acquisition. The name of the seller was not released.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Pyramid Management, as owner, has opened Embassy Suites by Hilton Syracuse Destiny USA, located at 311 Hiawatha Blvd. W in Syracuse. Situated at Destiny USA, a shopping, dining and entertainment destination, the hotel features 209 suites, 10,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, an indoor heated pool, fitness center, full-service restaurant and 24-hour convenience shop. Aimbridge Hospitality manages the hotel.
NEW YORK CITY — Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT) has arranged the lease of three full floors at 1400 Broadway in Manhattan’s Times Square South. International law firm Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy LLP will occupy the space. The firm currently has more than 40 offices in 20 countries. John Shaunfield, Seth Weinstein and Paul Ippolito of Newmark Knight Frank represented the tenant. Scott Klau, Erik Harris and Neil Rubin of Newmark Knight Frank, along with Keith Cody of ESRT, represented the landlord in the deal.
NEW YORK CITY — Madison International Realty and Forest City Realty Trust have signed definitive agreements for Madison’s acquisition of Forest City’s 51 percent interest in a 2.1 million-square-foot retail portfolio. The transaction is valued at $1 billion. Scattered across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island and Northern New Jersey, the 12-property portfolio is 95 percent leased. Madison plans to engage Cushman & Wakefield as the third-party property management and leasing team for the portfolio. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
Westbeth Artists Housing Breaks Ground on $40M Renovation Project for Manhattan Multifamily Property
NEW YORK CITY — Westbeth Artists Housing, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the Community Preservation Corp. has broken ground on a $40 million renovation project for Westbeth Artists Housing, a multifamily property located in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. Located at the former Bell Laboratories campus, the property features 384 affordable homes, as well as commercial spaces, for artists. The $40 million project will repair damages from Hurricane Sandy, including raising boilers above flood level; upgrading cellar windows and critical doorways to prevent flooding; and installing a new emergency generator, submersible domestic water pumps and submersible sump pumps. Additionally, the renovations will preserve the building’s historic status and remove lead paint and asbestos from the basement and outside surfaces. Funding for the project comes from federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds, administered by the HPD Multifamily Storm Recovery and Resiliency Program.