NEW YORK CITY — Hersha Hospitality Trust, an owner of upscale hotels in urban gateway markets, has closed on the sale of Hotel 373 in Midtown Manhattan. The hotel sold for $37 million or approximately $529,000 per key. The sales price valued the hotel at $1,680 per square foot and represented an economic capitalization rate of 5.2 percent based on the hotel’s net operating income for the year ending in December 2013. New York City-based Solid Rock Advisors East represented Hersha in the previously announced transaction.
Northeast
NEW YORK CITY — Madison Realty Capital has closed a $13 million loan to finance the acquisition and redevelopment of a townhouse located at 39 East 72nd Street in New York’s Upper East Side neighborhood. The undisclosed borrower plans to reposition the five-story townhouse as a residential development. Architect and developer Robert B. Lynd constructed the building in 1881 as his personal residence. A mix of commercial tenants, including two art galleries, currently occupies the building.
Boston — Samuels & Associates and its partner Weiner Ventures have completed project financing for Barry’s Corner Residential and Retail Commons in Boston’s Allston neighborhood. The project is the first private development undertaken on Harvard University land in Boston and is subject to a long-term ground lease. Situated at the corner of North Harvard Street and Western Avenue, the site will be redeveloped as a LEED Gold-certified, mixed-use project for non-academic uses. The project will include 325 rental apartment units, 35,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, approximately 180 below-grade parking spaces and 40 on-street parking spaces on two new to-be-created streets within the development. Construction is underway and residential units will be available in August 2015. HFF, on behalf of Samuels & Associates, secured joint venture equity with American Realty Advisors and a construction loan through Northwestern Mutual.
GREAT NECK, N.Y. — The Nassau County Industrial Development Agency has approved an economic development package, including tax breaks, for AvalonBay Communities’ proposed apartment community in Great Neck. The company will construct a multifamily project on a now-defunct petroleum storage facility located at 240 E. Shore Road, which will generate $56.4 million in local economic benefits to the community. The project will offer 191 apartment units with 10 percent of the units designated as affordable workforce housing. Construction is slated to start in December, with completion scheduled for January 2016.
New Jersey’s industrial market took a positive turn in the past 18 months, and now the lack of new development during the downturn has market conditions comparable with any boom period. Occupiers are paying record rents as high as $8 per square foot for new, Class A product, while submarkets such as Port/Airport and Exits 10 and 12 report vacancy below 5 percent. Investor demand for industrial property with credit tenants and decent lease term remaining is literally insatiable. Central New Jersey closed 2013 with 1.2 million square feet of fourth quarter net absorption and a vacancy rate of 6.6 percent, which is a 170–basis-point decrease compared to the end of 2012. Northern New Jersey’s largest -submarket, Meadowlands, has 78.2 million square feet and the submarket posted 1.7 million square feet of net absorption to finish the year with 6.2 percent vacancy. To the south, where average asking rents are $4.87 NNN per square foot, several Central New Jersey submarkets are at sub-6-percent vacancy, including Exit 8A, the region’s largest industrial submarket, which ended 2013 at 5.1 percent vacancy. Mom & Pop, Meet Amazon New Jersey’s traditionally strong base of small- to medium-sized, mom-and-pop end users certainly plays a role …
NEW YORK CITY — New York City Economic Development Corp. (NYCEDC) and Triangle Equities have executed a lease for a long-vacant, three-acre site in the St. George neighborhood of Staten Island. This transaction paves the way for the construction of the $200 million mixed-use Lighthouse Point development. Situated adjacent to the St. George Ferry Terminal and the Stapleton waterfront, Lighthouse Point will include 85,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space; a 12-story, 94,000-square-foot residential building with 100 units; an approximately 160-room hotel; a communal-style workspace for local start-up businesses; an urban beach; and outdoor recreational areas. Twenty of the residential housing units will be designated as permanently affordable for New Yorkers earning 60 percent or less of the area median income. Construction is scheduled to commence this fall with completion slated for late 2019. Project construction will be phased with each portion of the project opening to the public as it is completed.
BEAVER, PA. — Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a brokerage division of Marcus & Millichap, has arranged the sale of Friendship Ridge, a 605-bed nursing home in Beaver, a suburb of Pittsburgh. A private consortium of owners and investors based in New York and New Jersey purchased the property for $33.5 million from Beaver County, Pa. Situated on 25 acres at 246 Friendship Circle, the nursing home facility has been in operation since 1959. Joshua Jandris, Mark Myers and Charles Hilding of IPA, along with Matthew Gorman of Marcus & Millichap’s Philadelphia office, represented the seller in the transaction.
MEDFORD, MASS. — Lexington, Mass.-based Bierbrier Development has completed the $22.8 million refinancing of Wellington Circle Plaza in Medford. Located at the junctions of Routes 16 and 28, the property is a 55,000-square-foot shopping center with national tenants, including CVS/pharmacy, Men’s Wearhouse, LenCrafters and Chipotle. The borrower purchased the property in 1985. Matthew Kirsch at Bank of America provided the 10-year financing. Brian Cororan and Lee Norman of Ackman-Ziff represented Bierbrier in the transaction.
CLARK, N.J. — Garden Communities, a subsidiary of Garden Homes, has opened the first apartment building at Woodcrest at Clark, an active-adult residential community in Clark. Located in Central Jersey, the four-building property will offer one- and two-bedroom units ranging from 900 to 1,630 square feet. The apartment units feature granite countertops, breakfast bars, stainless steel appliances, custom walk-in closets, master bathrooms with soaking tubs and double vanities, private balconies, controlled central heat and air conditioning, and utility rooms with washers and dryers. Additional property amenities will include a clubhouse with fireplaces, a fitness center, a card room and a TV lounge, which are slated for completion this summer. Garden Communities is currently preleasing the second apartment building, which is expected to be available for move-in by July. Completion for the entire project is slated for 2015.
MONROE, CONN. — Maplewood Senior Living LLC, an assisted living and memory care facility, has leased warehouse space at 580 Pepper St. in Monroe. The company will occupy 10,000 square feet of warehouse space the building leaving approximately 12,000 square feet of flex space available. Jon Angel of Southport, Conn.-based Angel Commercial LLC represented both the tenant and the landlord in the transaction. Terms of the lease were not disclosed.