NEW YORK CITY — GameChanger, a provider of livestreaming and communications services for youth sports, and its parent company, Dick’s Sporting Goods, have signed a 25,600-square-foot office lease in Midtown Manhattan. The tenants will occupy the entire 17th and 18th floors at Zero Irving, a 176,000-square-foot building owned by RAL Development. Mitchell Konsker, Ben Bass, Dan Turkewitz, Kristen Morgan and Carlee Palmer of JLL represented the landlord in the lease negotiations. Simon Landmann, also with JLL, represented GameChanger and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Office
Newmark Arranges $535.8M Financing for Office-to-Residential Conversion Project in Lower Manhattan
by John Nelson
NEW YORK CITY — Newmark has arranged a $535.8 million loan for the acquisition and redevelopment of 25 Water Street, a 1.1 million-square-foot office building in Lower Manhattan, New York City’s historic Financial District. Dustin Stolly, Jordan Roeschlaub and Chris Kramer of Newmark arranged the loan through MSD and Apollo. The seller was not disclosed, but multiple media outlets have reported that Edge Funds sold the asset. The borrowers, GFP Real Estate, Metro Loft Management and Rockwood Capital, will use the funds to convert the 22-story office building into a residential tower housing 1,300 apartments ranging in size from studios to four-bedroom units. The project represents the largest ever office-to-residential conversion in U.S. history, according to Newmark. The office building, formerly known as 4 New York Plaza, was once anchored by JPMorgan Chase & Co. The financial giant recently unveiled plans for its newly revamped headquarters at 270 Park Ave. in Manhattan. Built in 1969, 25 Water Street features 12-foot, 4-inch slab-to-slab ceiling heights and 40,330-square-foot floor plates, which will give future residents direct views of the Lower Manhattan skyline and the New York Harbor from all floors. The property is situated on a double-wide street corridor with the widest …
NEW YORK CITY — Grimshaw Services USA, a division of British architectural firm Grimshaw, has signed an 18,783-square-foot office lease at 60 Madison Avenue in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. The tenant plans to take occupancy of the entire fourth floor in the second quarter of next year. Gregg Rothkin, Tim Freydberg, Jared London and Hayden Pascal of CBRE represented the landlord, The Moinian Group, in the lease negotiations. Ken Fishel of LegacyNY represented the tenant.
University Avenue Partners Acquires 51,149 SF Mixed-Use Property in San Ramon, California
by Amy Works
SAN RAMON, CALIF. — University Avenue Partners has purchased a mixed-use property located at 2551 San Ramon Valley Blvd. in San Ramon. Terms of the transaction were not released. At the time of sale, the 52,149-square-foot asset was 90 percent leased to a diverse mix of office and retail tenants. Steven Golubchik, Edmund Najera, Jonathan Schaefler and Darren Hollak of Newmark facilitated the transaction. Nicholas Bicardo of Newmark advised on the retail component of the sale.
CHICAGO — Owner CIM Group has negotiated three new leases totaling 108,975 square feet at 425 S. Financial Place, a 40-story, 1 million-square-foot office tower in Chicago’s Central Loop. Loop Capital, a full-service investment bank, brokerage and advisory firm, leased 36,676 square feet on the 26th and 27th floors. The company is relocating its Chicago operations. Chicago Trading Co., which has occupied space at 425 S. Financial Place since 2009, is expanding within the building taking an additional 46,343 square feet on the seventh and eighth floors. The company is a proprietary trading firm and consists of a collaborative group of traders, quants, technologists and operations team members. TICG Management, which offers a range of products including mortgage loans, real estate services and a line of insurance, renewed its lease for 25,956 square feet. The company has occupied space on the 20th floor since 2014. In 2015, 425 S. Financial Place underwent renovations, including the addition of a full-service cafeteria, conference centers, concierge services, a tenant lounge and outdoor terrace. The property also houses the Buckingham.AC, a private social and athletic club, as well as the 21-room Buckingham Hotel.
DALLAS — Law firm McGuireWoods has signed a 33,345-square-foot office lease at The Link at Uptown in Dallas. The firm will occupy the entire 22nd floor and part of the 21st floor of the 25-story building, which is now 96 percent leased. Blake Shipley of JLL, in conjunction with Sarah Kennington and Bryce Jackson of Thirty-Four Commercial, represented the landlord, Kaizen Development Partners, in the lease negotiations. Stephen Hemphill, Cory Darden and Steve Macnoll of Mohr Partners represented McGuireWoods.
RICHMOND, VA. — Locally based real estate investment firm Lingerfelt has sold a portfolio of 11 office buildings in and around the Innsbrook master-planned park in Virginia’s Henrico County. Charlottesville, Va.-based Seminole Trail purchased the portfolio for approximately $119 million. The 723,103-square-foot portfolio was approximately 82 percent leased at the time of sale. The buyer plans to move forward with adding over 1,300 apartments to five of the 11 properties in the portfolio, which Henrico County rezoned for mixed-use in 2021. Lingerfelt and its investors will continue to own eight properties within Innsbrook totaling 240,000 square feet of office and flex warehouse buildings. The company also has an active development pipeline for new industrial assets and multifamily communities in Henrico County and beyond.
Buchanan Street Partners Purchases Oakbrook Plaza Office Building in Laguna Hills, California for $28.1M
by Amy Works
LAGUNA HILLS, CALIF. — Newport Beach-based Buchanan Street Partners has purchased Oakbrook Plaza, an office building located at 24422 Avenida De La Carlota in Laguna Hills. A New York City-based fund manager sold the property for $28.1 million in an off-market transaction. The four-story building features 120,354 square feet of space. Currently, the property is 66 percent occupied, with 30 percent of the existing space leased to medical tenants. The asset is located less than one mile from MemorialCare Sadddleback Medical Center and several retirement communities. Kevin Shannon, Paul Jones and Brandon White of Newmark represented the seller in the transaction.
NEW YORK CITY — Fintech services firm WorkFusion has signed a 13,327-square-foot office lease at 1450 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan. The tenant will relocate from 48 Wall Street to the entire 19th floor of the 42-story building, which features a fitness center, conference facility and tenant lounges. Val Stobetsky, William McGarry and Michael Pallas of JLL represented WorkFusion in the lease negotiations. Mitchell Konsker, Barbara Winter, Greg Wang, Simon Landmann and Thomas Swart, also with JLL, represented the landlord, ZG Capital. The building is now 90 percent leased.
By Ken Colao, president and CEO, CNY Group Whether you’re on the Jersey Parkway or the Turnpike, you’ve undoubtedly driven past commercial buildings and office parks that have stood in the Garden State for decades. But the age of many of these structures is starting to cause problems. Earlier this year, JLL released a report in which the real estate firm estimated that 57 percent of suburban office space nationwide is old enough to be considered functionally obsolete. In New Jersey, specifically, that figure rises to 72 percent, among the highest in the nation. Based on two decades worth of construction experience in New Jersey and New York, CNY Group believes the two most likely outcomes for these structures involve upgrades to true Class A offices or conversion to life sciences facilities. Keeping Offices Intact With a growing number of people migrating out of urban cores, suburban office developers are revitalizing their properties to attract new tenants. When employees began moving away from city centers, employers didn’t particularly follow them, but that trend could change. Businesses will decrease their real estate footprints in urban areas unless costs of occupancy are reduced, safety is maintained and environmental standards and practices are …