STAMFORD, CONN. — Colliers International has arranged two office leases in Stamford, for a total 15,320 square feet. Law firm McCarter & English LLP has renewed a long-term lease for 11,058 square feet in the Canterbury Green building. Spruce Investment Advisors has renewed a five-year lease for 4,262 square feet in the 1 Stamford Plaza building. Jeffrey Williams and Hollis Pugh of Colliers arranged both leases. RFR Realty owns both properties.
BOSTON — Fortis Property Group has received an $87.5 million construction loan for LaGrange Street Residential Development, a 170-unit multifamily property in Boston. The project will include street-level retail. Apollo Global Management provided the loan. The property will offer studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, 22 of which will be rented at below-market rates. Construction is underway, slated for completion in late 2021. Stantec is the architect of the project and Zarifi is the interior designer.
NEW YORK CITY — Ariel Property Advisors has brokered the sale of 440 West 36th Street, a vacant multifamily property in Manhattan, for $6.9 million. The site spans 14,862 buildable square feet and currently houses an 8,562-square-foot building. Matthew Gillis, Michael Tortorici and Howard Raber represented the seller in the transaction. Angela Huang of Chase Global Realty LLC procured the buyer.
NEW YORK CITY — NorthMarq has arranged a $4 million cash-out refinance of a 8,799-square-foot multifamily property in Brooklyn. The property, 66 Nassau Avenue, is five stories with ground floor retail. The loan was structured with a 10-year term, a 4 percent fixed interest rate and a 25-year amortization schedule. The property was originally acquired in 2000 and was later demolished and redeveloped in 2018.
The 2017 tax overhaul was supposed to spur $100 billion in investments across the country through the designation of more than 8,700 areas as Opportunity Zones. Investors could reduce or postpone taxes on profit from businesses, partnerships and stocks by reinvesting in the Opportunity Zones. They could also avoid future profits from those reinvestments, provided they make substantial improvements. To get the full benefit, investors would have to buy into eligible projects by the end of 2019. To fully shelter 2018 profits from hedge funds and other partnerships, the deadline was June 29. The land rush hasn’t started. In January, only half of real estate investors surveyed by research firm Preqin were considering investing in Opportunity Zones. More than 90 percent weren’t even involved in an Opportunity Zone project at the time of the survey. The biggest reason for the hesitation is that the rules to take advantage of Opportunity Zones have only begun to be clarified. The IRS and Treasury Department haven’t released the type of detailed guidance that investors need before they are confident enough to move forward. Final regulations on the zones were delayed by the government shutdown earlier this year and have yet to be made …
STAMFORD, CONN. — JLL has negotiated the sale of AVA Stamford, a 304-unit multifamily property in Stamford, a city on the southwest coast of Connecticut. The property has since been renamed Sofi at 50 Forest. The 18-story tower offers one-, two- and three-bedroom units averaging more than 1,000 square feet, each equipped with laundry appliances and patios or balconies. Amenities include a heated pool, fitness center, clubhouse and a 1.1-acre private park with tennis courts. The property, construction of which was completed in 2001, was 95 percent occupied at the time of sale. Jose Cruz, Stephen Simonelli, Kevin O’Hearn, Andrew Scandalios, Michael Oliver, Mark Mahasky and Grace Braverman of JLL represented the seller, AvalonBay Communities Inc., in the transaction. The buyer was West Coast-based multifamily investor Pacific Urban Residential. The exact sales price was undisclosed.
GREENWICH, CONN. — CBRE has arranged the $30 million sale of a retail property leased to CVS in Greenwich, a city on the southwest coast of Connecticut. The 10,695-square-foot property is located at 99 Greenwich Ave., in a retail and restaurant corridor that also includes apparel vendors Saks Fifth Avenue and Gucci. Jeffrey Dunne, David Gavin, Travis Langer and Will Pike of CBRE represented the seller, Midwood Investment & Development, in the transaction. The trio also procured the undisclosed buyer.
BETHLEHEM, PA. — Rittenhouse Realty Advisors has brokered the $21.4 million sale of a student housing portfolio located near Lehigh University in Bethlehem, a town near the eastern border of Pennsylvania. The portfolio consists of 44 properties totaling 219 beds. The buyer in the transaction was an undisclosed family office new to the student housing market. The seller was also undisclosed.
EAST GARDEN CITY, N.Y. — RIPCO Real Estate has secured a 68,000-square-foot retail lease for department store chain Century 21 Stores on Long Island. The property is located in the Roosevelt Field shopping center of East Garden City, which also includes a Bloomingdale’s Furniture, Nordstrom, Macy’s and a variety of other retail and dining businesses. The store is scheduled to open in spring of 2021. Gene Spiegelman of RIPCO represented Century 21 Stores in the transaction. Simon Property Group owns Roosevelt Field.
LIMERICK, PA. — RedGo Development has broken ground on a 25,000-square-foot office property in Limerick, a city located northwest of Philadelphia. The property will serve as the new headquarters of Maillie LLP, an accounting firm operating in the northeast. Avison Young is the construction manager; Customers Bank is the lender; D2 Groups is the designer; and Fickler Construction is the general contractor. Construction is underway and slated for completion in the summer of 2020.