NEW YORK CITY — Massey Knakal Realty Services has completed the sale of 121 Ludlow Street, a three-story commercial building located in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, for $3.45 million. The building consists of a vacant ground-floor unit equipped for a restaurant, a second-floor art studio with 12-foot ceilings and a third-floor hair salon with 10-foot ceilings. Massey Knakal’s Michael DeCheser negotiated the transaction. The property was acquired by a local investor at a 4.35 percent capitalization rate.
Northeast
NEW YORK CITY — Sandpoint, Idaho-based women’s retailer Coldwater Creek has signed a lease for 23,000 square feet of office space at 575 Broadway, located in the Soho neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The retailer will use the space for creative and design purposes. The tenant was represented by Grant Greenspan of The Kaufman Organization. The landlord was represented by Fred Grand of 575 Broadway Associates LP. The lease carries a 10-year term; the rental rate was not disclosed, but the asking price was $50 per square foot. The 575 Broadway building is a six-story brick building located in Soho’s Cast Iron District. It contains more than 160,000 square feet of loft office space.
SECAUCUS, N.J. — Secaucus-based Hartz Mountain Industries has brokered the lease for the New Jersey expansion of Capital Supply Co. The Manhattan, New York City-based janitorial supply company has signed a lease for 45,770 square feet of warehouse space at 111-115 Castle Rd., located in Secaucus. The company will continue to operate its Manhattan facilities. Terms of the lease were not disclosed.
MALTA AND STILLWATER, N.Y. — GLOBALFOUNDRIES has purchased 223 acres of land at the Luther Forest Technology Campus. The land was purchased to construct Fab 2, with space remaining to develop two additional fabs. Luther Forest Technology Campus, located in New York’s Tech Valley and spans Stillwater and Malta, comprises 1,414 acres of shovel ready sites designed for semiconductor and nanotechnology manufacturing and other innovative industries. The campus will be home to GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ state-of-the-art 300 mm fabrication facility, which is slated to begin construction in summer 2009 with a completion in 2012. The remaining land at the campus will be divided into nine development areas with lot sizes ranging from 65,000 to one million square feet.
TINTON FALLS, N.J. – The Sudler Companies has renovated a 20,000-square-foot office, light industrial and flex property located at 45 Park Rd. within Sudler’s Corporate Park in Tinton Falls. Renovations included an open floor plan, landscaped grounds, a new roof, new mechanical systems and bathrooms, new electric service of 800 AMP, a new exterior façade with tinted windows and a new parking lot. Immediate occupancy will be available in July.
NEW YORK CITY – Clipper Equity has completed more than $20 million in renovations to Flatbush Gardens in Brooklyn, New York City. The community features 59 six-story buildings with a total of 2,469 units. The property comprises 30 acres of East Flatbush and is bordered by Newkirk, Nostrand, Farragut and Brooklyn Avenue. Of the $20 million loan, $10 million went towards renovating the property and $10 million to renovating 1,200 units. The renovations included installing 59 elevators, updating the boiler system, re-roofing 40 percent of the buildings, repairing the exterior brick, installing a laundry facility and replacing the mailroom with a 24/7 center and parcel post office. Also, GreenbergFarrow designed the new courtyard.
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Marcus & Millichap has completed the sale a six-unit apartment property located in Jersey City. The facility, built in 1900, features 5,100 rentable square feet with three-one bedroom and three-two bedroom units. The property recently underwent renovations that included a new roof, all new electric and new furnace/boilers. Declan Devlin of Marcus & Millichap’s New Jersey office, represented the seller, an undisclosed private investor, and procured the buyer, an undisclosed local investor. The sales price was $420,000.
Job cuts among financial and professional services firms will cause office fundamentals to weaken in Boston this year, but modest amounts of new construction will temper the supply and demand imbalance. With layoffs at State Street Bank, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Fidelity Investments projected to total in the thousands, a resulting decline in office space demand will drive up vacancy for the second consecutive year. In the CBD, negative net absorption of approximately 550,000 square feet will raise the average vacancy rate nearly 200 basis points to the high-11 percent range. While tenant demand across the metro will wane in the near term, tighter construction financing and lingering economic concerns have reined in development activity. Completions in 2009 will drop off from last year and will represent only a 0.6 percent expansion of metrowide inventory, helping to offset reduced employment-generated demand. Weakening fundamentals and an uncertain economic outlook will underpin conservative buyer expectations this year. As a result, deals will be underwritten assuming higher vacancy rates and rent declines, elevating cap rates metrowide. Currently, initial yields are averaging in the high-6 percent to mid-7 percent range, up about 25 basis points to 50 basis points over the past …
BETHLEHEM, PA. — Development has commenced for The Plaza on 8th, a 9.5-acre retail and office complex located at the corner of Eighth and Eaton avenues in Bethlehem. The project will be built on the site of the former offices of Bethlehem Steel Corp., which have been demolished to make way for the new construction. Phase I will include the demolition, site improvements and traffic flow improvements. In addition, a commercial building, a retail strip center, a future restaurant, and pad sites for CVS/pharmacy and PNC Bank will be built. Phase I construction costs are estimated to total $19.5 million. Phase II will include the construction of a multi-story, Class A office building. PNC and CVS will break ground for their buildings this summer. The developer of The Plaza on 8th is locally based DB3 LLC. Allentown, Pa.-based Summit Management & Realty Co is serving as project manager, listing agent and property manager.
SALEM, N.H. — Chestnut Hill, Mass.-based WS Development has begun the redevelopment of Stateline Shopping Center, a 230,000-square-foot retail property located in Salem. The primary focus of the project will be the construction of a new anchor location for Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse. The retailer’s new building will contain 102,000 square feet as well as a 29,000-square-foot outdoor garden center. It is expected to open in the fourth quarter of 2010. Other components of the shopping center redevelopment will include architectural updates to existing buildings, stormwater drainage improvement and roadway improvements on the center’s Route 28 frontage. Current tenants Namco and Sovereign Bank will remain open during construction.