NEW YORK CITY — Stone Street Properties has acquired two apartment properties in the Gramercy Park submarket of New York City for a total of $123 million. The properties are located at 210 and 220 E. 22nd St. They are situated just east of the Flatiron District, near the East River. The buildings sold for a little more than $1,030 per square foot. The acquisition includes 208 rental units, with an average rent of $3,450 per month. The communities are situated near Peter Cooper Village, the National Arts Club and the Union Square Subway. They are one block from Gramercy Park. The property at 210 E. 22nd St. was built in 1982. It features 88 units throughout eight floors. Amenities include a doorman, elevator, laundry facilities on every floor and an on-site super. The property at 220 22nd St. was built in 1930. It features 122 units throughout six stories. This community also features a doorman, elevator and an on-site super. Broad Street Development and Crow Holdings originally listed the properties for sale this past April for a targeted price of $130 million. The partners purchased the property for $85 million in 2012. Broad and Crow have invested about $4 …
NEW YORK — Berkadia has arranged two loans totaling $366.7 million for two Brookdale Senior Living portfolios consisting of 39 seniors housing properties. The two portfolios are located across 17 states, including California, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Washington. Managing directors Heidi Brunet and Christopher Fenton of Berkadia’s Seniors Housing and Healthcare Group originated the financing for Brookdale (NYSE: BKD), which will use the loans to refinance existing debt on the properties. Brunet and Fenton secured a $226.4 million, 10-year loan through Berkadia’s Fannie Mae program for the first portfolio of 21 properties totaling 1,924 units. The portfolio, which has an average occupancy of 90.6 percent, consists of 5.7 percent independent living, 15.9 percent memory care and 78.4 percent assisted living units. The pair also closed a $140.3 million, seven-year loan through Berkadia’s Freddie Mac program for a portfolio of 18 properties. The portfolio, which consists of 1,190 units in total, comprises 22.9 percent memory care and 77.1 percent assisted living units. Average occupancy was 87.8 percent at time of closing. “Our team’s extensive experience working with seniors housing assets across the country allowed us to secure competitive loan terms for these expansive portfolios,” said Brunet. “We have …
NEWARK, CALIF. — Rouse Properties Inc. (NYSE: RSE), a retail REIT based in New York, has closed a new $135 million first mortgage loan for NewPark Mall, a 1 million-square-foot retail property located in Newark, roughly 25 miles south of Oakland in San Francisco’s East Bay market. Rouse Properties has withdrawn $114.3 million from the financing, with approximately $65 million of proceeds used to pay off the property’s previous mortgage loan and $49.3 million used for closing costs and general corporate purposes, including paying down the company’s revolving credit facility. The remainder of the refinancing will be used for renovations and additional leasing. The new loan has a three-year term and a one-year extension option. The non-recourse mortgage carries an interest rate at Libor plus 2.1 percent, with a forward starting swap fixed at 3.26 percent effective on Jan. 1, 2016. “This new loan facility represents a $70 million increase over our previous $65 million loan,” says John Wain, chief financial officer of Rouse Properties. “This clearly demonstrates the meaningful value creation we have already achieved with our significant renovation and repositioning initiative currently underway, which is Rouse’s largest planned capital investment in our portfolio.” Rouse Properties has recently arranged …
IRVINE, CALIF. — Commercial real estate markets are starting to show signs of stabilization following years of run-up and appreciation, according to Auction.com’s second-quarter 2015 commercial real estate market monitor report. While CRE deal volume increased in the first quarter, volume declined 14.6 percent in the second quarter to $112.4 billion, but remains 24 percent higher than a year ago. The second quarter dip marked the first time since 2008 that total deal volume dropped on a quarter-over-quarter basis. “It’s unclear whether the second-quarter drop in sales volume is the beginning of a slowdown in the CRE market, or simply an adjustment from an unusually strong first quarter,” says Rick Sharga, Auction.com’s executive vice president. “What’s clear is that all of the major CRE sectors continue to perform far better than they did a year ago, and may be strong enough to withstand a potential decline in international investment activity due to the economic issues in China and Europe.” Europe continues to struggle with high unemployment and low growth, leading the European Central Bank to start its own quantitative easing program to spur lending and growth. This has depressed European interest rates when compared to U.S. rates, which have risen …
NEW YORK — Madison Realty Capital (MRC), an institutionally backed real estate investment firm, has provided first and second mortgage financing totaling $124 million for the acquisition and future renovation of a 15-building, 175,000-square-foot portfolio of residential and mixed-use properties in New York’s East Village. “This portfolio of properties in such prime locations in the East Village would be nearly impossible to replicate in today’s market,” says Josh Zegen, co-founder and managing principal of MRC. “We’re excited to offer a customized loan package to help the borrower enhance the value of the portfolio.” The portfolio has a mix of studio and one-bedroom units. The buildings are located in a neighborhood that is increasingly popular with young professionals and students due to its retail, restaurants, nightlife and proximity to New York University and the city’s employment centers. The acquisition was an off-market deal with long-term family owners. The borrower plans to update common areas of the buildings, renovate residential units to maximize square footage and lease up vacancies. Including this transaction, MRC has closed 24 debt investments totaling $590 million so far in 2015, consisting of special situation loan origination opportunities and loan acquisition deals. MRC is a New York-based real estate …
NEW YORK — HFF (NYSE: HFF) has secured a $110 million first mortgage financing for 180 Madison Avenue, an historic, 23-story, 280,953-square-foot office tower in Manhattan. 180 Madison Avenue is located at the southwest corner of Madison Avenue and East 34th Street in Manhattan’s Midtown South office submarket. The building, formerly known as The Lingerie Building, was historically the premier building for lingerie manufacturers and wholesalers in New York. Originally built in 1926, the property is in the final stages of a comprehensive renovation that has repositioned the asset as a best-in-class office building. Improvements include a lobby renovation, elevator modernization and window replacements, as well as various electrical upgrades. Recent rollover at the building, which is currently 72 percent leased, has enabled ownership to demolish and pre-build space as tenants’ leases expire. The property has become a desirable location for firms in the technology, advertising, media and information (TAMI) sectors that are concentrated in the Midtown South market, according to HFF. Two of the top five largest tenants located in the building, The Rubicon Project and Unified Social, are indicative of growing TAMI firms relocating to Midtown South. Both tenants signed leases at the property in the last few …
U.S. office demand gained momentum in the second quarter of 2015 as net absorption increased 40 percent year-over-year, according to the latest quarterly U.S. office occupancy report from CBRE. This further tightened market conditions for renters and pushed second-quarter 2015 downtown (10.6 percent) and suburban (15.1 percent) vacancy toward its previous lows in 2007 of 9.7 percent and 13.9 percent, respectively. “Market conditions in the U.S. are owner-favorable in most downtown and suburban areas,” reads the report. Downtown office property is particularly hot, with asking rents surpassing their 2008 peak in the first quarter of 2015 and setting a new historical high of $42.70 in the most recent quarter. Suburban rents increased more slowly and remain 3 percent below 2008 levels. The report also states that San Jose, Seattle, Austin, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Phoenix are generating the strongest rates of new demand relative to the size of their respective markets, making conditions more competitive. The U.S. gross average asking rent increased by 1.1 percent quarter-over-quarter, and by 3.6 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, surpassing its 2008 peak. Double-digit year-over-year rent increases occurred in downtown San Francisco, downtown Manhattan, Seattle, Houston the Boston suburb of Cambridge. Major leasing activity …
RENO, NEV. — MG Properties Group (MGPG) has purchased two multifamily properties totaling 722 units in Reno for $68.1 million. The transaction includes the 318-unit Vizcaya Hilltop Apartments and the 404-unit Village at Iron Blossom Apartments. The acquisition represents the largest bulk purchase of multifamily units in Reno’s history, according to MGPG. Vizcaya is located at 1350 Grand Summit Drive, while Village at Iron Blossom is located at 690 E Patriot Blvd. The communities are situated near Tesla’s soon-to-be-developed Gigafactory. Both properties include a mix of one- to three-bedroom units. MGPG plans to renovate the communities’ common-area amenities. Unit interiors will also be upgraded, and deferred maintenance will be addressed. “The potential to create value through renovations and upgrades to these properties makes them an excellent fit for our fully integrated investment and management platform,” says Mark Gleiberman, CEO of MGPG. “These assets will bring added value to our existing portfolio.” MGPG has purchased eight multifamily properties in the past year. These acquisitions included 2,600 units for a combined purchase price of $370 million. MGPG is currently targeting properties in the Western U.S. in areas including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. The transaction was executed by Newmark Grubb …
ATLANTIC CITY- N.J. — Caesars Entertainment Corp. has opened its Waterfront Conference Center at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City. The $125.8 million center has already booked meetings and conventions through 2019. Due to the addition of the conference center, there has been an increase of 90,000 advance room bookings for the upcoming 12 months at Harrah’s. This is an increase from the 7,000 advance room bookings for the previous 12 months. The 100,000-square-foot facility is now the largest conference-hotel complex from Baltimore to Boston according to Caesars. “For Atlantic City, this is an opportunity to attract a new type of customer to the city and significantly increase hotel occupancy, as well as drive revenue for local restaurants, retail outlets and other businesses,” says Mark Frissora, president and CEO of Caesars. Designed by Friedmutter Group and located in Atlantic City’s Marina District, the Harrah’s Waterfront Conference Center can accommodate up to 5,000 attendees. The 100,000 square feet of flexible meetings space can be broken down into 56 separate small meeting rooms with up to 300 different configurations of reception, banquet and pre-function space. “We are excited to introduce Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City Waterfront Conference Center as a major player in not only …
NEW YORK — SL Green Realty Corp. (NYSE: SLG), New York City’s largest commercial property owner, has reached an agreement to sell two Fifth Avenue retail development sites to a single, undisclosed buyer for $125.4 million, or $13,690 per zoning square foot. The transaction is expected to be completed before the end of this year and is subject to customary closing conditions. The sites, located at 570 and 574 Fifth Ave., were acquired by SL Green in November 2013 for a total of $78.7 million. The publicly traded REIT subsequently vacated the tenants in the existing buildings in preparation for a comprehensive retail development. “With this transaction, SL Green will realize returns on its original investment that are consistent with our original underwriting without having incurred any development risk,” says Brett Herschenfeld, managing director of SL Green. “In addition, the sale provides a source of equity capital that can be tax efficiently redeployed into Eleven Madison on an immediately accretive basis.” These sales are part of SL Green’s disposition and reinvestment strategy to help fund its previously announced $2.6 billion acquisition of Eleven Madison Avenue. SL Green Realty Corp. is focused primarily on acquiring and managing commercial properties in Manhattan. …