NEW YORK CITY — Locally based investment firm Conway Capital has acquired a four-property multifamily portfolio in Brooklyn for $11.5 million. The portfolio consists of 14 residential units and two commercial spaces, one of which was vacant at closing. The portfolio includes 74 First Place, a 5,324-square-foot, four-story building with five units; 228 Livingston Street, a 4,904-square-foot, four-story building with two residential units and two retail spaces; 710 DeGraw Street, a 3,938-square-foot, four-story building with four residential units; and 302 East 5th Street, a 2,772-square-foot, three-story building with three residential units. Urban Standard Capital provided an $8.8 million acquisition loan for the transaction. The seller was undisclosed.
LOS ANGELES AND NEW YORK — Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. and Blackstone have formed a joint venture to expand the film and TV production platform for both publicly traded companies. Hudson Pacific is bringing on Blackstone as a partner to help capitalize a portfolio of studios and offices in Hollywood that have been used sparingly since the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent stay-at-home directives in Los Angeles. As part of the deal, Blackstone (NYSE: BX) will buy a 49 percent stake in Hudson Pacific’s 2.2 million-square-foot Hollywood Media Portfolio, which spans three studios and five office buildings. Hudson Pacific (NYSE: HPP) will remain responsible for the day-to-day operations of the portfolio, which is valued at $1.65 billion. “Our latest joint venture with Blackstone unlocks a portion of the value we’ve created for our shareholders and provides us with significant capital to grow both our studio and office portfolios,” says Victor Coleman, chairman and CEO of Hudson Pacific. The portfolio includes Sunset Bronson, Sunset Gower and Sunset Las Palmas Studios (formerly Hollywood Center Studios), which comprises 35 stages and production and support spaces totaling 1.2 million square feet. The offices in the portfolio include 6040 Sunset, Icon, Cue, Epic and …
PHILADELPHIA — Hilco Global, an Illinois-based developer, has acquired a 1,300-acre industrial development site in Philadelphia. The sales price was $225.5 million. Located at 1735 Market St., the site formerly housed the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) oil refinery for more than 150 years. Hilco plans to redevelop the site as an “environmentally responsible” commercial hub, the exact details of which were undisclosed. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, PES was the East Coast’s largest refinery until a corroded fuel line ignited in June 2019, leading to the bankruptcy and permanent closing of the refinery. At the height of its activity, the refinery formerly employed as many as 1,000 workers. Hilco plans to demolish and rebuild the site over a period of several years, creating 8,000 union construction jobs and 10,000 permanent jobs, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
NEW YORK CITY — Innovo Property Group, a New York City-based developer, has launched 210,000-square-feet of office space in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens. The space is located on two floors of The Bridge, an 830,000-square-foot mixed-use building located at 24-02 49th Ave. and can be adapted for coworking or shared office use. The building was originally completed in 1928 as an industrial facility and once served as a warehouse for Bloomingdale’s. The New York City Housing Authority holds a 30-year lease for 600,000 square feet of at the building.
HARRISBURG, PA. — Indoor dining and entertainment establishments have been cleared to reopen in 12 counties, according to a statement from Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolfe’s office on Friday, June 26. The counties include Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Erie, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton, Philadelphia and Susquehanna, leaving only one county in the state still in the more restrictive yellow phase of reopening. Businesses in the state have reopened in recent weeks according to a phased system as the COVID-19 pandemic has gradually eased in the state. Businesses allowed to reopen in the governor’s green phase of reopening include restaurants and bars at 50 percent capacity, childcare, indoor recreation, fitness and wellness facilities, gyms and spas. Casinos, theaters and shopping malls have also been cleared to reopen at 50 percent capacity. As of June 28, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported nearly 85,500 cases of COVID-19 across the state, and more than 6,600 deaths.
SEABROOK, N.H. — BJ’s Wholesale Club will open a 90,000-square-foot store in Seabrook, approximately 50 miles north of Boston. The newly constructed building will be located on a 20-acre site on the crossroads of Interstate 95 and State Routes 107 and 1. The store will anchor several nearby parcels planned for future commercial development. Slated for delivery in 2021, the new store will be BJ’s seventh in the state. Waterstone Properties owns the development site.
STRATFORD, CONN. — Italian food supplier Nuovo Pasta Productions has signed a 35,492-square-foot industrial lease in Stratford. The space is located within a former food storage and distribution facility at 849 Honeyspot Road in Stratford Industrial Park, Nuovo Pasta signed a 10-year lease at the facility. Bruce Wettenstein of Vidal/Wettenstein represented Nuovo Pasta in the lease negotiations. George Shawah Jr. of Baldwin Pearson & Co. Inc. represented the undisclosed landlord.
NEW YORK CITY — Amazon has preleased a 1-million-square-foot, build-to-suit industrial warehouse located at 55-15 Grand Ave. in Queens, according to reports from Business Insider and City Biz List. A joint venture between New York City-based developer RXR Realty and Los Angeles-based developer LBA Realty plans to demolish a former factory structure to construct a new build-to-suit facility for the Seattle-based e-commerce giant. The four-story facility will feature a rooftop parking structure that will house a fleet of Amazon’s delivery vehicles. The construction schedule was undisclosed.
NEW YORK CITY — Barings LLC has provided a $250 million construction loan for a 345,000-square-foot academic and residential building in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. A partnership between Australian developer Lendlease and New York-based L+M Development Partners Inc. was the borrower. Located at 100 Claremont, the 41-story building will feature 165 residential condominiums, 54,000 square feet of academic space for the Union Theological Seminary and 49,000 square feet of faculty housing. The condominium residences will include a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units. Robert A.M. Stern Architects designed the project. Christopher Peck and Scott Aiese of JLL arranged the loan. Construction is slated to be complete in spring 2023.
CRANBURY, N.J. — JLL has negotiated a 68,000-square-foot office lease for WuXi Biologics, a Chinese medical technology development company, in Cranbury, a northeastern suburb of Trenton. The company has leased the entirety of a facility located at 7 Clarke Drive for 10 years. The building includes a research and development laboratory, biologics manufacturing space and office space. The facility was constructed in 1998 and is located within Cedar Brook Corporate Center, a 1.2 million-square-foot office and technology park. This is the third lease for the WuXi Biologics in the United States, along with a facility in Worcester, Massachusetts, and a 33,000-square-foot development laboratory in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Cedar Brook Corporate Center, the owner of the building, was represented internally. Robert Ryan and John Buckley of JLL represented WuXi Biologics in the lease negotiations.