NEW YORK CITY — Newmark Holdings has closed on $30 million in refinancing for 5-9 Union Square West, a mixed-use building in New York City’s Union Square. The eight-story, 105,000-square-foot building is currently over 93 percent leased to a variety of tenants, including Staples and Rockwell Architecture Design. Provided by Amalgamated Bank, the new loan features a seven-year term with a fixed interest rate of 3.13 percent and five years of interest-only payments.
ENGLEWOOD, N.J. — The S. Hekemian Group has developed ES4, a retail and office building on located at 10 Sterling Blvd. in Englewood. The four-story, 46,000-square-foot building is currently 95 percent leased to Panera Bread, Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza, Verizon, Fusion Academy, Sherman Group and the New Jersey office of The S. Hekemian Group. The property is managed and leased by Silbert Realty & Management Co. Spanning 21 acres, the overall development plan calls for a second phase, including a 180-room hotel and 195 apartment units.
NEW YORK CITY — An affiliate of Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has acquired a 9.9 percent interest in New York-based office/retail REIT Empire State Realty Trust (NYSE: ESRT) for $622 million. QIA purchased 29.6 million newly issued Class A common shares of ESRT at $21 per share. The interest was acquired on a fully diluted basis, which is currently 19.4 percent ownership of Class A shares. Darcy Stacom of CBRE Group introduced QIA to ESRT. Goldman Sachs and Eastdil Secured acted as financial advisors. Goodwin Procter, Proskauer Rose and Clifford Chance U.S. acted as counsel. White & Case acted as QIA’s legal counsel. Empire State Realty Trust owns, manages, operates, acquires and repositions office and retail properties across New York City, including the Empire State Building. The company’s office and retail portfolio covers 10.1 million rentable square feet, consisting of 9.4 million rentable square feet in 14 office properties and 720,000 rentable square feet of retail. ESRT’s stock price closed at $20.52 per share on Tuesday, Aug. 23, up from $16.41 one year ago. The State of Qatar founded Qatar Investment Authority in 2005 to strengthen the country’s economy by diversifying into new asset classes. QIA is headquartered in Doha …
The historic flood of June 2008 is becoming a distant memory as the city of Cedar Rapids prepares for the dedication of the new Northwest Recreation Center, the last public facility to be completed as part of the flood recovery project. The dedication ceremony is slated for Thursday, Aug. 25. The recovery has led to a revitalization of many flood-impacted areas in the city, ranging from residential neighborhoods to the downtown business district. Now the momentum is turning toward several new projects: • This month, tenants will begin moving into the 11-story CRST tower downtown, which features 300 feet of the new flood protection system. • A 28-story, mixed-use tower is being proposed on city-owned property downtown. The development may contain retail, office, hotel and residential space led by Allen Development, an Iowa City developer. • Over 10 downtown housing projects are under construction that will create almost 400 new condo and apartment units, which will bring our core closer to a live-work-play environment. These projects are also putting vacant retail and office buildings to new uses. • The Czech Village-New Bohemia neighborhood continues to grow with historic buildings being renovated and repurposed while augmenting exciting new construction featuring retail, …
TEMPE, ARIZ. — A partnership formed by Angelo, Gordon & Co, Douglas Allred Company and David Warren has purchased a two-building office complex in Tempe for $29.3 million. The complex is located at 1330 W. Southern Ave. and 3001 S. Priest Drive and contains a total of 250,000 square feet. The buildings are located near Interstate 10 and U.S. 60 freeways, a short drive from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The latter building is fully leased and was built in 1995. The seller was Cordia Capital Management.
MIAMI — Colliers International has brokered the $24.5 million sale of the 91-year-old Biscayne Building, a 14-story office building located at 19 W. Flagler St. in downtown Miami. Spanning 153,864 square feet, the asset was originally home to the Bank of Bay Biscayne and later the FBI. Moishe Mana purchased the property, his 39th acquisition in downtown Miami along Flagler Street and surrounding streets. Altogether Mana has invested more than $300 million in the area north of Miami’s Brickell district. Mika Mattingly of Colliers International represented Mana in the transaction. Boris Kozolchyk of the firm’s South Florida office represented the seller, Biscayne Building Inc., in the transaction.
ATLANTA AND DULUTH, GA. — Atlanta Property Group (APG), an Atlanta-based real estate investment firm, has acquired two office buildings in metro Atlanta totaling 151,000 square feet. The sales price was not disclosed. The projects include the 65,000-square-foot 5871 Glenridge Building in Atlanta’s Central Perimeter submarket and the 86,000-square-foot Waterford Centre building located at 5555 Triangle Parkway in Duluth’s Peachtree Corners submarket. Both assets span four stories and were built in 1985. Waterford Centre was 88 percent leased at the time of sale, and 5871 Glenridge was 61 percent leased. David Meline, Stewart Calhoun, Samir Idris and Casey Masters of Cushman & Wakefield represented the single seller in the transaction. These acquisitions bring APG’s total portfolio of owned and third-party assignments to 12 properties spanning over 3.3 million square feet.
WICHITA, KAN. — Vigilias Telehealth LLC has leased 400 square feet of space at 125 N. Market, a 19-story office building in Wichita. The company, a telemedicine and technology platform provider, will occupy space on the 14th floor, which will serve as its headquarters. The building has undergone roughly $4 million of improvements and upgrades since 2013. Amenities at 125 N. Market include free valet parking, a video conference center and concierge services. The facility can accommodate users with needs anywhere from 600 square feet to 26,000 square feet. Security National Life Insurance Co. owns 125 N. Market, and other tenants in the building include Cornerstone Design Development, Viaan Electronics and BalanceComp. Istvan Tamas of Weigand-Omega arranged the lease.
IRVINE, CALIF. — Bomel Construction has purchased a 41,585-square-foot creative office building in Irvine for $15 million. The building is located at 96 Corporate Park. The three-story, multi-tenant building will become the new headquarters for Bomel Construction, which is currently located in Anaheim. Gary Marquis of Coldwell Banker represented Bomel, which purchased the building as a partial owner/user investment opportunity.
NEW YORK CITY — Metropolitan Realty Associates and joint venture partner TIAA Global Asset Management have acquired HUB LIC, a four-story commercial building located at 47-25 34th St. in Queen’s Long Island City, for $89 million. At the time of acquisition, the 326,000-square-foot property was 48 percent leased to a mix of tenants, including POLO Ralph Lauren, TEC Systems (Honeywell), Eleni’s Bakery, Gracie and Richelieu. The buyers plan to redevelop the property into office and retail space to attract a large-format retailer and offer 80,000 square feet of contiguous office space on a single floor. The building features 16- to 21-foot ceilings, a floor-to-ceiling window line, a 7,000-square-foot pitched skylight on the second floor, skylights throughout third floors, abundant parking and eight loading docks. Doug Harmon, Adam Spies, Adam Doneger and Josh King of Eastdil brokered the sale of the property, while Grant Frankel and Rob Turner, also of Eastdil, arranged acquisition financing for the transaction.
