NEW YORK CITY — VITAL, a full-service fitness and climbing gym, will open a 45,000-square-foot facility at Essex Crossing, a mixed-use development on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The three-story facility will offer bouldering, yoga, cycling, open weightlifting, fitness classes and climbing instruction. The opening is slated for spring 2024. A joint venture between Taconic Partners, L+M Development Partners, BFC Partners, The Prusik Group and Goldman Sachs Asset Management owns Essex Crossing.
NEW YORK CITY — Law firm Cohen Clair Lans Greifer & Simpson LLP has signed a 17,862-square-foot office lease at 919 Third Ave. in Midtown Manhattan. The lease term is 10 years. The 47-story, 1.5 million-square-foot building was originally constructed in 1970 and recently underwent a capital improvement program. Robert Alexander, Ryan Alexander, Emily Chabrier, Taylor Callaghan, Alex D’Amario and Nicole Marshall of CBRE represented the landlord, SL Green, in the lease negotiations. Craig Reicher and James Ackerson, also with CBRE, represented the tenant.
By Taylor Williams “Numbers never lie; they simply tell different stories depending on the math of the tellers.” Mexican-American poet Luis Alberto Urrea may not have been talking about commercial real estate development and investment when he wrote that line, but the implications of that statement are undeniably applicable to those fields. The use of numerical projections in commercial development and investment is different from employing sabermetrics in sports or using predictive analytics to diagnose illnesses in medicine. Hard costs are what they are, and the formulas that developers and investors rely on to make critical decisions tend to be well-established in their rigidity, even if their inputs can and do change. Respecting the time-tested veracity of these formulas can make the difference between coasting through a down cycle or being crushed by it. Yet this is a world in which complex equations, algorithms and computations increasingly influence key business decisions. And so the ability to accurately forecast, control and manipulate numerical inputs is beyond valuable. Underwriting represents the piece of the real estate development or acquisition process in which these numerical details are shoved under the microscope and relentlessly finagled in hopes of keeping a development or deal alive. …
CONSHOHOCKEN, PA. — David’s Bridal LLC and some of its subsidiaries have filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Both the brand’s nearly 300 physical stores, as well as its online platforms, will remain open and operational, according to the company. The Conshohocken-based retailer is seeking customary “first-day” relief authorizations from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey to continue payment of employee wages and benefits, maintain certain customer programs and honor vendor obligations. The company had previously filed for bankruptcy in November 2018 and re-emerged under new ownership in early 2019. The retailer’s current ownership group comprises lenders led by global investment manager Oaktree Capital Management. Also in 2019, Brookfield Asset Management acquired a majority stake in Oaktree Capital Management. David’s Bridal has retained Gordon Brothers to assist with inventory sales. The company will also continue to evaluate its physical footprint and explore the sale of some or all of its assets. “Our business continues to be challenged by the post-COVID environment and uncertain economic conditions, leading us to take this step to identify a buyer who can continue to operate our business going forward,” says James Marcum, CEO of David’s …
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Higher Interest Rates Cause Affordable Housing Values to Return to Old Norms
Rising interest rates dinging commercial real estate and multifamily assets have plunged low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) properties back into reality, especially those coming to the end of their 15-year compliance periods. “There were some huge profits made in the affordable housing space over the last two or three years,” says Cliff McDaniel, a managing director with Lument, which is representing Harmony Housing in the $1.4 billion sale of its affordable housing portfolio to the Michaels Organization. “We sold a lot of properties for $60,000 a unit or even $120,000 a unit, and the debt was $40,000 a unit. But the mania over that type of profitability is over, and values are going back to where they were before.” Up until about five years ago, the phrase “huge profits” and “affordable housing” would rarely if ever have occurred in the same sentence. Or even in the same story. Prior to that, affordable housing properties typically had very little value at the end of their initial 15-year compliance periods, and limited partners who provided equity to the project by buying tax credits routinely agreed to sell their interest to the general partner for a nominal fee. At that point, the …
BOSTON — A partnership between the Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), the Boston Housing Authority (BHA), the City of Boston and Madison Park Development Corp. has broken ground on the third and final phase of a mixed-income redevelopment project in the city’s Lower Roxbury neighborhood. Known as Flat 9 at Whittier, the final phase will deliver 172 affordable housing units and 9,000 square feet of commercial space in a 13-story building to the site of the former Whittier Street Apartments. Phases I and II of the redevelopment, which will ultimately house 300 residences that will be subject to a range of income restrictions, were completed in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
BOSTON — Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion, an affordable housing owner-operator, has received approval from the Boston Planning & Development Agency, as well as the Zoning Board of Appeal, for the construction of a $25 million community center. Known as the Center for the Arts, Self-Determination and Activism (CASA), the facility will span 26,425 square feet and house a performance hall, classrooms, private offices, a gym and other common spaces. Studio ENÉE and Annum are the project architects. Construction is scheduled to begin this fall and to be complete in late 2024.
NEW YORK CITY — JLL has negotiated the $20 million sale of a portfolio of three contiguous multifamily buildings totaling 36 units in Manhattan. The buildings, which are located across from the Port Authority bus terminal at 321-325 W. 42nd St. and include ground-floor retail space, were constructed in the 1920s. An undisclosed private investor who had owned the portfolio for 25 years sold the assets to Aya Acquisitions. Bob Knakal and Jonathan Hageman of JLL brokered the deal.
NEW YORK CITY — CBSK Development will redevelop the Jacob Riis Bathhouse, a historic building in the Rockaway Beach area of Queens that was originally constructed in 1932. The redevelopment will convert the 40,000-square-foot bathhouse into a 28-room boutique hotel with 1,247 square feet of retail and restaurant space and an outdoor concert venue that can accommodate up to 2,000 people. Procida Funding provided a $32.5 million construction loan for the project. A construction timeline was not disclosed.
ROCKY HILL, CONN. — Michael Baker Engineering Inc. has signed a 9,158-square-foot office lease at 500 Enterprise Drive in Rocky Hill, a southern suburb of Hartford. The building is located within the 506,500-square-foot Corporate Ridge development, which offers a fitness center, game room, outdoor gathering areas and a full-service cafeteria. Bob Kelly and Jon Putnam of Cushman & Wakefield represented the landlord, KS Partners LLC, in the lease negotiations. The representative of the tenant was not disclosed.