NEW YORK CITY — JLL has negotiated a 15,202-square-foot office lease at 71 Fifth Ave. in the Union Square/Flatiron area of Manhattan. The tenant, AI-backed video game company Captions, will occupy the entire sixth floor of the 11-story building, which was originally constructed in 1907. Kyle Riker of JLL represented Captions in the lease negotiations. Mitchell Konsker, Ben Bass, Dan Turkewitz and Kyle Young, also with JLL, represented the landlord, a partnership between Madison Capital and Lubert Adler Partners, in conjunction with internal agents Jonathan Ratner and Cindy Chang.
NEW YORK CITY — Affinius Capital has provided a $150 million loan for the refinancing of a portfolio of six industrial properties totaling 1.8 million square feet. Though names and addresses were not disclosed, the properties are located in Atlanta, Dallas, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Louisville and South Florida and feature clear heights ranging from 24 to 36 feet. The borrower was Ares Management. The portfolio was roughly 40 percent occupied at the time of sale, although Affinius notes that “letters of intent are out on the majority of the remaining vacant space.”
NEW YORK CITY — Advent International has signed a 10-year, 34,000-square-foot office lease at The Seagram Building in Midtown Manhattan. The private equity firm will occupy the entire 14th and 15th floors of the 38-story building, which is located at 375 Park Ave. and was originally constructed in 1958. Lindsay Ornstein, Patrick Robinson, Casey Noel and Kate Whitman of OPEN Impact Real Estate represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. A.J. Camhi and Paul Milunec represented the landlord, locally based investment firm RFR, on an internal basis.
NEW YORK CITY — Douglaston Development has topped out a $320 million multifamily project located at 1057 Atlantic Ave. in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood Brooklyn. The 17-story building will ultimately house 456 apartments, 137 of which will be reserved as affordable housing. Units will come in one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. Amenities will include a fitness center, lounge, golf simulator, game room, screening room, children’s playroom and a landscaped rooftop deck, as well as 31,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Greystone Capital Advisors arranged financing for the project, which included $185 million in construction financing from Wells Fargo Bank, M&T Bank and BankUnited. Funds managed by Ares Real Estate also have a preferred equity investment project in the development, which is slated for completion in late 2025.
SUFFERN, N.Y. — Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: REGN) has purchased Avon Innovation Center, a 235,000-square-foot life sciences facility in Suffern, located just across the New York-New Jersey border. The seller, pharmaceutical company Avon, will be vacating the building in the near future. Larry Carroll, Shawn Straka, David Bernhaut, Frank DiTommaso and Seth Zuidema of Cushman & Wakefield, along with Michael Katz of Actio Corporate Advisors, represented Avon in the transaction. Dan Loughlin and Matt Loughlin of JLL represented Regeneron.
NEW YORK CITY — A joint venture between Douglaston Development and the Entertainment Community Fund has received construction financing for Rialto West, a $125 million affordable housing development in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. Located at 509 W. 48th St., the eight-story building will include 158 units for low- and moderate-income residents. Rialto West will feature a mix of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units that will be designated for households earning up to 140 percent of the area median income. Fifteen percent of the units will be dedicated to serving formerly homeless households. Shared amenity spaces will include a fitness center, laundry room and bicycle storage area. Additionally, the development’s ground floor will include more than 5,500 square feet of cultural space as well as a public restroom facing an approximately 25,000-square-foot public plaza that will be built at 705 Tenth Ave. The NYC Department of Parks and Recreation will operate the public open space, which is to be named after Lorraine Hansberry, the famed playwright and author of “A Raisin in the Sun.” The developers are in discussions with IndieSpace, a provider of affordable workspaces for artists, to lease and operate rehearsal and coworking spaces at the property. The …
ROME, N.Y. — BWE, the commercial lending firm formerly known as Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital, has arranged an $8 million acquisition loan for Freedom Plaza, a 197,397-square-foot shopping center located in the upstate New York city of Rome. Current tenants at the property include Grand Union, Dollar Tree, Domino’s and Marshalls, and Hobby Lobby will open in the coming months. Alan Tapie of BWE arranged the financing through an undisclosed life insurance company on behalf of the borrower, metro Atlanta-based owner-operator Octave Holdings & Investments.
NEW YORK CITY — Butterfield Market will open a 10,000-square-foot grocery store in Queens. The space is located on the ground floor of RISE LIC, an apartment complex in the borough’s Long Island City area with more than 100 units. Charles Rapuano of Winick Realty Group represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. Thomas Galo, also with Winick Realty Group, represented the landlord, a joint venture between The Davis Cos., SB Development and Hazelton Capital. An opening date has not yet been established.
NEW YORK CITY — Discount retailer Five Below has debuted a 9,500-square-foot store at Parkchester, a mixed-use development located in the central part of The Bronx. A 170,000-square-foot Macy’s anchors the retail portion of the development, which also features office and residential units. Olshan Properties owns Parkchester and was self-represented in the lease negotiations. JLL represented Five Below.
NEW YORK CITY — Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) has announced plans to close 150 of its namesake department stores over the next three years. According to the retail giant, these stores represent 25 percent of the company’s gross square footage as of fiscal year-end 2023 but only account for 10 percent of sales. (Macy’s fiscal 2023 ended Feb. 3, 2024.) Macy’s anticipates closing approximately 50 stores by the end of fiscal year 2024, the locations of which have not been disclosed, though CNBC reports some are located in California, Florida, Hawaii and Virginia. Other elements of the retailer’s real estate optimization strategy, which it is naming “A Bold New Chapter” in its investor materials, includes reinvesting in its remaining 350 stores. “Over the past several years, we have taken proactive actions to fortify our operations, including strengthening our balance sheet, managing expenses and tightening inventory controls,” says Adrian Mitchell, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Macy’s. “The dedicated work of our teams delivered a solid close to 2023 and provides a strong foundation for us to execute A Bold New Chapter.” As part of the plan, Macy’s will open at least 30 Bluemercury stores, the company’s smaller footprint …