CONSHOHOCKEN, PA. — A group of like-minded real estate practitioners have formed Capital Markets Real Estate Network to serve investor clients nationwide in all the commercial real estate industry property sectors, including office, industrial, retail, multifamily and self-storage facilities. The new network will target investment sales, financing and 1031 exchanges nationwide, allowing members to win business in institutional and non-institutional commercial real estate sectors. In addition to new business generation, the network will serve members as an information exchange on market conditions, trends, property pricing, sharing best practices and more. The founding firms and members are Edward Ginn, Ken McEvoy and Bart Delfiner of Equity Retail Brokers; Chad Stine and Brad Rohrbaugh of Bennett Williams Commercial; Colin Flynn of The Flynn Company; Gerard O’Malley and Tim McGinley of Duquesne Commercial Funding; and Matthew May of May Realty Advisors. The network plans to identify and recruit broker members in dozens of primary, secondary and tertiary markets nationwide in the next few years.
NEW YORK CITY — NAI Long Island has announced its expansion with the formation of a new division, NAI Queens. The division will specialize in the sale of investment properties in the Queens market, as well as provide other real estate services to Queens clients. Brian Sarath has joined the new division as a senior director. Most recently, Sarath serviced as director of the capital markets group of Massey Knakal, subsequently Cushman & Wakefield, since 2000. To date, Sarath has sold more than 220 buildings and loans with an aggregate value of $620 million.
BOSTON — FirstService Corp. has expanded its residential property management operations to Boston with the acquisition of The Niles Company, a property management firm that was founded in 1907. The transaction will add more than 80 properties to FirstService Residential’s existing property management portfolio, which totals approximately 7,500 properties comprising more than 1.6 million residential units throughout North America. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
In New York City, sizable tenants are renewing their office leases and expanding work space. Citywide, office space searches are being driven by new businesses that need to establish presence. These dynamics have the office market operating as powerfully and effectively as possible. New York City organizations are slated to create 80,000 new jobs this year, expanding total employment by 1.9 percent. Major companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon have recently committed to large blocks of space, which are becoming notably rare as office vacancy levels in the Big Apple continue to tighten. Vacancy will slip 10 basis points to 9.6 percent this year as firms absorb more than 3.8 million square feet. As a result of office vacancies continuing to tighten, builders have started to add to the pipeline, which New York City will see come to fruition this year with the opening of 10 Hudson Yards, Related Cos.’ long-awaited office building project in Manhattan’s West Side. Overall, developers will complete 3.6 million square feet of office space this year, with nearly half at 10 Hudson Yards. Located near Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea and the Penn Station area, the building is part of the Hudson Yards urban renewal project. Manhattan …
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Point Capital Development and Fields Construction Co. have completed the construction of The Baker Building, an apartment building located at 234 Suydam Ave. in Jersey City. Situated in the Lafayette neighborhood, the five-story complex features 83 apartments, a roof deck, courtyard, dog run, parking, lounge and fitness center. Additionally, the property is located in close proximity to the Liberty State Park light rail station. The complex was designed by C+C Architecture with Urban Design Workshop as the architect of record for construction.
WESTWOOD AND SOMERVILLE, MASS. — Cornerstone Realty Capital has arranged $56 million for the acquisition of four multifamily properties totaling 244 units, including 156 units in Westwood and 88 units across three properties in Somerville. The borrower was TrueNorth Capital Partners. The first of the two acquisitions is Westwood Glen, located at 21 Westwood Glen Road in Westwood. Situated on 13.5 acres, the seven-building, 156-unit, age-restricted property was purchased for $34.4 million. The Somerville Squares Portfolio properties were purchased for a total of $27.3 million from a private family. TrueNorth acquired the 63-unit 379-389 Broadway Street for $20 million, the 18-unit 39-49 Bow Street for $4.7 million, and the seven-unit 8-12 Beacon Terrace for $2.6 million. The buyer plans to invest $6 million in improvements to the Westwood property and $4 million on the Somerville properties. Simon Butler and Biria St. John of CBRE/New England represented the undisclosed seller and procured the buyer in both deals.
WATERBURY, CONN. — HREC Investment Advisors and Ten-X Commercial have arranged the sale of CoCo Key Water Resort in Waterbury. JMDH Real Estate acquired the 284-guestroom hotel from T.J. Waterbury LLC for an undisclosed price. Mark von Dwingelo of HREC represented the seller in the deal.
NEW YORK CITY — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of three adjacent multifamily buildings, totaling 24 units, located at 308-312 W. 113th St. in New York City. The Meshberg Group acquired the eight-unit buildings from Yassky Properties for $8 million. Peter Von Der Ahe, Seth Glasser and Jacob Kahn of Marcus & Millichap’s Manhattan office represented the seller and buyer in the transaction.
HACKENSACK, N.J. — NAI James E. Hanson has brokered the sale of a medical office building located at 155 Polifly Road in Hackensack. Polifly Group acquired the 45,912-square-foot property from Polifly Plaza Associates for an undisclosed sum. The three-story building was 50 percent vacant at the time of sale. Hackensack University Medical Center currently occupies the first floor, leaving 20,269 square feet available for new tenants. The third floor is currently vacant, offering 15,000 square feet of contiguous office space. Randy Horning and Darren Lizzack of NAI Hanson represented the seller, while Anthony Cassano, also of NAI Hanson, represented the buyer in the deal.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — WinnDevelopment and GDD Properties, in a public-private partnership with New York State, have broken ground on the $200 million redevelopment of The Sibley Building, located at the intersection of East Avenue and East Main Street in downtown Rochester. The Sibley Building opened in 1868 as the city’s first department store, and earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The property will be rebranded as Sibley Square, with the name, logo and signage to be changed in the coming weeks. The phased redevelopment will begin with the $100 million construction of 96 modern apartments on the ninth through 12th floors of the building. Phase I will also include the addition of boutique retail, local artisan foodservice tenants, office space and active senior living apartments, as well as a complete rehabilitation of the façade and windows of the property. The residential components of the building will be named The Lofts at Sibley and The Residences at Sibley. Leases for active adult units at The Residences will be available by the end of this year. Redevelopment of the top floor of the building, once home to the Tea Room of the Sibley Department Store, is …