NEW YORK CITY — Cushman & Wakefield has placed a $24 million acquisition loan for The Plant, a 246,343-square-foot office building located at 321 W. 44th St. in Midtown Manhattan. The building was 56 percent leased at the time of the loan closing to tenants such as Broadway Dance Center, TagWall, AKA NYC Limited, Sony Records and Sunlight Studios. Chase Johnson and Caleb Riebe of Cushman & Wakefield originated the debt through an undisclosed life insurance company. The name of the borrower was also not disclosed.
MIAMI — OKO Group and Cain International have completed the development of 830 Brickell, a 57-story office tower located in Miami. Totaling 640,000 square feet, the fully leased building has now received its temporary certificate of occupancy (TCO) from the City of Miami. Tenants — which include Microsoft, Citadel, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Marsh Insurance, Sidley Austin LLP, CI Financial (Corient), Thoma Bravo, Santander Bank and A-CAP — will now begin build-outs and take occupancy of their respective spaces. Roughly 20 percent of the building is already occupied and operational. The project team includes architect Adriam Smith + Gordon Gill and interior designer Iosa Ghini Associati. Amenities at the building will include a Mediterranean restaurant with a private terrace, bar and private club, health and wellness center, conference facilities, an outdoor terrace and cafés and street-level retail space. Construction of 830 Brickell began in 2020.
HOUSTON — A partnership between locally based investment firm LandPark Advisors and The Porter Law Firm has purchased 2603 Augusta, a 244,804-square-foot office building in Houston’s Galleria district. The law firm is in the process of relocating from 2201 South Voss to the 16-story building, which features newly renovated common areas, including bathrooms and amenity spaces, as well as updated infrastructure. The new ownership also plans to add pickleball courts and a golf simulator to the amenity package. The sales price was not disclosed.
TUSTIN, CALIF. — Sagard Real Estate has completed the disposition of Tustin Financial Plaza, a multi-tenant office property in Tustin. A local investment firm acquired the asset for $27.5 million. The five-building asset is located at 17772, 17782, 17852 and 17862 E. 17th St. in north Tustin, about 34 miles south of Los Angeles via I-5. Totaling 185,180 square feet, Tustin Financial Plaza consists of four two-story buildings, one four-story building and a 533-space parking lot. At the time of sale, the plaza was 70 percent occupied. Tustin Financial Plaza was built on 8.5 acres in 1973. Anthony DeLorenzo, Sammy Cemo, Bryan Johnson and Greg Sullivan of CBRE represented the seller in the deal.
NEW YORK CITY — Harvey, a San Francisco-based generative AI platform, has signed a 17,050-square-foot office lease expansion in Midtown Manhattan. The space spans the entire seventh floor of 315 Park Avenue S., a 20-story building in the Flatiron District, and complements Harvey’s original 17,050-square-foot lease that was inked this summer. Todd Stracci, Hugh Scott and Jack Nelson of JLL represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. David Falk, Peter Shimkin and Jonathan Fanuzzi of Newmark, along with internal agents Maria Blake and Ted Koltis, represented the landlord, Columbia Property Trust.
NEW YORK CITY — Locally based real estate giant Tishman Speyer has completed the $3.5 billion refinancing of Rockefeller Center, a 7.3 million-square-foot mixed-use campus in Midtown Manhattan. Bank of America and Wells Fargo led the consortium of lenders that provided the CMBS financing, which carries a fixed interest rate of approximately 6.23 percent. Tishman Speyer will use the proceeds to pay off a 20-year, $1.7 billion CMBS loan and additional mezzanine financing that will mature in May 2025, as well as to fund reserves for contractual leasing costs. Dechert LLP advised Bank of America and Wells Fargo on the transaction. Rockefeller Center was originally developed in the 1920s and comprises more than a dozen buildings across 22 acres between 48th and 51st streets. The campus features office, retail, restaurant and entertainment space, as well as a 24,000-square-foot park atop Radio City Music Hall. Tishman Speyer is currently nearing completion of a redevelopment of the property. The office component of Rockefeller Center is currently 93 percent leased to global occupiers such as Deloitte, Lazard, Christie’s, Simon & Schuster and J.P. Morgan Chase. Retail and entertainment users include LEGO, Banana Republic, Anthropologie, Michael Kors, Catbird, FAO Schwarz and Nintendo. The lineup of …
NEW YORK CITY — Bloomberg LP has signed a 924,876-square-foot office lease extension and expansion at 919 Third Avenue in Manhattan. The deal will see the business media and publishing giant retain its 749,035-square-foot space that covers floors two through 18 and floors 28 through 33. The original lease for that portion of the building expires in 2029, and the new extension runs through 2040. In addition, Bloomberg will expand its footprint within the building by 175,841 square feet via a new 15-year lease covering a portion of the 34th floor and the entire floors on levels 35 and 41 through 44. SL Green owns 919 Third Avenue, which rises 47 stories and spans 1.5 million square feet. The building was originally completed in 1970 and recently underwent a capital improvement program. Robert Alexander, Ryan Alexander, Emily Chabrier, Taylor Callahan, Alex D’Amario and Nicole Marshall of CBRE represented SL Green in the lease negotiations. Howard Fiddle, Chris Mansfield, Zach Weil and Ryan Luck, also with CBRE, represented Bloomberg, which also recently extended its office lease at 731 Lexington Avenue through 2040.
NEW YORK CITY — TD Bank has expanded its office footprint at 125 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. The lease term is 10 years, and the space spans 26,255 square feet across the entire eighth floor. TD Bank now occupies 130,057 square feet at 125 Park Avenue, and the expansion brings the building to full occupancy. Robert Alexander, Ryan Alexander, Matthew Saker and Nicole Marshall of CBRE represented TD Bank in the lease negotiations. Brian Waterman, David Falk, Pete Shimkin and Daniel Levine of Newmark represented the landlord, SL Green.
FARMINGTON HILLS, MICH. — Farbman Group has opened its new 40,000-square-foot shared headquarters for the broader Farbman family-owned enterprises at 31700 Middlebelt Road in Farmington Hills. The move re-unifies Farbman with its family-owned enterprises for the first time in nearly 10 years. The enterprises include Farbman Group, NAI Farbman, Huntington Construction, Apex Mechanical Solutions, Huntington Maintenance, Campusville, Carbon TV and Healthrise. Farbman purchased the Yamasaki-designed building.
By Taylor Williams Successfully executing a commercial conversion project is like hitting a six-leg parlay in sports betting: A lot of dominoes have to fall the right way, and without a little luck and outside help, it’s probably not happening. Take the embattled office sector. Even working professionals from outside the office real estate market who read the plethora of mainstream news articles recognize that it’s no small feat to turn those buildings into apartments. After all, when you’re dealing with thousands of tons of steel, glass and concrete in any capacity, things are bound to get messy. But theoretically, if the demand for more housing is there — and there can be little arguing that it is — and cities recognize that office usage has forever changed, then why aren’t we seeing more of these projects come to fruition in our cities? Setting aside the fact that office-to-residential conversions are incredibly expensive and fraught with risk even in the absence of a tight and constrained lending market like we currently have, there are still numerous reasons as to why these deals don’t proliferate. Does the city in question have flexible zoning? Does the community have a reputation for NIMBYism? …