NEW YORK CITY — Savanna, a New York City-based development and investment firm, has purchased 360 Lexington Avenue, a 268,383-square-foot office building in Manhattan, for $180 million. Barclays provided a $126 million loan for the acquisition. Savanna will rebrand the 12-story building and implement a $20 million renovation project that will deliver a new full lobby and entrance, bathrooms, corridors and infrastructure upgrades. Grant Frankel, Philip McKnight and Rob Turner of Eastdil Secured arranged financing through Barclays on behalf of Savanna. Cole Schotz P.C. served as Savanna’s legal counsel in the acquisition of the property.
Northeast
MADISON, N.J. — Gulf Islamic Investments LLC (GII), a United Arab Emirates-based firm, has purchased a 270,000-square-foot office building in Madison, a western suburb of New York City. The building was completed in 2012 and is the corporate headquarters of residential real estate firm Reology. F.D. Stonewater, a Washington D.C.-based firm, represented GII in the transaction, and The Hampshire Companies was the seller. The price was undisclosed.
JLL Arranges $28M in Acquisition Financing for Office Complex in Burlington, Massachusetts
by Alex Patton
BURLINGTON, MASS. — JLL has arranged a $28 million acquisition loan for 10 and 20 Mall Road, two office buildings totaling 154,378 square feet in Burlington, a northwestern suburb of Boston. Peoples United Bank provided the loan, which carries a fixed interest rate and a 10-year term. 10 Mall Road contains 58,160-square-feet and is leased to four tenants. 20 Mall Road contains 96,218 square feet and is leased to approximately 20 tenants. Lauren O’Neil and Brett Paulsrud of JLL arranged the financing on behalf of the borrower, R.J. Kelly Co. The seller was undisclosed.
ANDOVER, MASS. — Capitol Seniors Housing, a developer based in Washington D.C., has opened Stone Hill at Andover, a 96-unit community located about 25 miles north of Boston. The 81,500-square-foot community offers one- and two-bedroom units and provides independent living, assisted living and a specialized program focusing on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia care. Additional amenities include a bistro, activity room, fitness room, theater, salon and courtyard. Pennsylvania-based Meyer Senior Living Studio designed the property.
RED BANK, N.J. — Dickstein Real Estate Services, a New Jersey-based brokerage firm, has negotiated a 5,175-square-foot office lease in Red Bank, a coastal city about 50 miles south of New York City. The property is located within a two-building complex at 322 Highway 35 South, which was 90 percent occupied at the time of leasing. Larry Dickstein of Dickstein represented the tenant, New Jersey-based Xela Communications, in the lease negotiations. Kristin Hurlbut of Denholtz Properties represented the landlord on an internal basis.
Retail leasing activity across New York City accelerated during the second quarter of 2019, but the market continues to see vast discrepancies in supply-demand balances across various submarkets. In certain parts of Manhattan, year-over-year asking rents declined by double-digit percentages, according to the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) Spring 2019 Report. Midtown East, for example, saw its average asking rent drop by 22 percent from $3,900 per square foot to $3,050 per square foot during this time period. The corridor between 42nd and 49th streets experienced similar activity, sliding 20 percent from an average asking rent of $1,000 per square foot to $800 per square foot. Historically high vacancy and low absorption rates are behind the negative rent growth. Due to the high cost of doing business in New York, landlords have also struggled to backfill spaces vacated by tenants that were victims of the e-commerce world. As a result, property owners are being forced to bring down their tenant improvement allowances and integrate more flexibility into their leases, primarily in the form of shorter lease terms to stimulate cash flows. Midtown East had approximately 100 vacant retail spaces totaling more than 500,000 square feet at the end …
PHILADELPHIA — PMC Property Group, a Philadelphia-based developer, has broken ground on a 65,000-square-foot flagship store for GIANT Food Stores in Philadelphia. Located within the Gensler-designed Riverwalk mixed-use project, the store will offer more than 600 varieties of fresh and local produce, as well as curbside pickup and delivery services. The store is slated to open by fall 2020.
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. — Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) has brokered the sale of 900 and 990 Stewart Ave., two Class A office buildings totaling 462,000 square feet in Garden City, Long Island. The buildings were 88 percent leased at the time of sale. Kevin Welsh, Brian Schulz, Jason Emrani, Rob Griffin, Steven Schultz, Scott Berfas and Dan Oliver of NKF represented the seller, a joint venture of Boston-based The Davis Companies and New Jersey-based Onyx Equities, in the transaction. The NKF team also procured the buyer, a New York-based investor.
ORANGE, N.J. — CBRE has arranged the $7.3 million sale of a multifamily property in northern Orange, a western suburb of New York City. The property, 12-20 Canfield Street, consists of 47 apartment units and one retail unit. Nat Gambuzza, John Veniero, Trevor Fiebel and Manny Sanghera of CBRE represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. The CBRE team also procured the buyer, a local investor.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Korean fashion retailer ALAND has signed a 10,000-square-foot lease at American Dream, an upcoming mixed-use development in East Rutherford, a western suburb of New York City. The store will be ALAND’s second location in the United States after its Brooklyn store opened in 2018. Canadian developer Triple Five Group will open over 3 million square feet of retail, entertainment and food destinations at American Dream in October 2019.