New Developments:
Extell swaps office for residential at 180 East 125th Street. The 415,000-square-foot project is aiming for 543 apartments, pending the approval of a zoning bonus for locating a grocery store at the building as part of the city’s FRESH foods program. The building will also include 24,500 square feet of commercial space.Bally’s eyes casino bid at Trump’s Bronx golf course at Ferry Point in the Bronx. Bally’s would operate the casino on 10 acres and use the other seven acres for green space or another use, like housing for workers. The end goal for Bally’s would be to take over the entire 300-acre site.
RFR seeks $1 billion refinance of Seagram Building, as the debt package and preferred equity is due on the 38-story office property at 375 Park Avenue. An additional $100 million of preferred equity in the deal was provided by MSD Partners. If it’s not paid off, MSD can purchase the preferred equity at par and exercise mezzanine rights.
Joy Construction and Madd Equities are ready to start on their planned 611-unit apartment complex in Inwood at 3875 Ninth Avenue.
Rabsky Group filed plans for a 186,000-square-foot property at 370 Livingston Street. The 105-unit building will be 22 stories tall and rise to 235 feet. Goose Property Management bought the development site at 364 Livingston Street and 60 Flatbush Avenue for $25.5 million last year. The sellers were a group of investors that included ISJ Management and Jemstone Group. Goose filed plans to demolish the two apartment buildings and retail space at the site, which are already zoned for commercial and residential use. Zoning allows Katz to build up to 188,000 square feet.
Blackstone’s $271 million multifamily loan in special servicing. Loan backs CMBS deal collateralized by 11-property portfolio. Blackstone and Fairstead Capital paid the Caiola family $690 million in 2015 for the portfolio. The purchase included 24 properties with 978 assets, approximately a third of which have been sold since.
Erno Bodek, the owner of 541 West 21st Street since the early 1980s, has put his conversion project into bankruptcy to halt foreclosure, initiated by mezzanine lender SME Capital. The owner says he needs another $500,000 and three to six months to get a temporary certificate of occupancy, and that with stable tenancy, the building would be worth $80 million. Senior lender G4 Capital and mezzanine lender SME Capital Ventures have together lent almost $62 million to the project, and negotiations were underway to salvage it.
Vornado’s joint venture with Crown Acquisitions and other investors defaulted on a $450 million non-recourse loan at 697-703 Fifth Avenue. The venture is negotiating with its lender to restructure the loan. If unsuccessful, Vornado will hand over the keys to the property. The building is part of a struggling portfolio of seven retail properties along Fifth Avenue and near Times Square once valued at $5.6 billion but now worth $4 billion.
Trump’s 40 Wall Street was placed on the watchlist amid concerns of rising expenses and vacancies, The mortgage, which is being serviced by Wells Fargo, has a balance of $126.5 million. The vacancy rate at the 72-story tower neared 18% in the third quarter. Since the origination of the $160 million mortgage in 2015, expenses at the building have risen 11%. The debt service coverage ratio has dropped from 2.13 to 0.92. Asking rent at the 1.3 million-square-foot property are $40 per square foot.
Esprit rented 38,000 square feet at 160 Varick Street. The 11th and 12th floors will serve as the fashion brand’s global creative headquarters, including design, branding, creative and marketing departments. Employees are expected to move in later this year.
Manhattan projects dominate the office construction pipeline to 13 million sf under development in Q1.
The largest project is Brookfield’s Two Manhattan West, 2 million square feet in the fourth quarter. The 58-story property is 80% leased to tenants including law firm Crowell & Moring, which signed for 71,000 square feet.
Vornado Realty Trust’s 2 Penn anticipated for the fourth quarter 25% of the 1.6 million-square-foot redevelopment will be occupied by MSG Entertainment, which signed a 428,000-square-foot lease to keep its corporate headquarters in place.
The “Googleplex” at 550 Washington Street is expected to arrive in the second quarter, even as the company evaluates its office needs. The tech giant plunked down $2.1 billion to buy the site in 2021 and is building it out to 1.3 million square feet.
The Terminal Warehouse development L&L Holding Company and Columbia Property Trust secured a $1.25 billion construction loan in 2021 for the 1.3 million-square-foot project, which is expected to be delivered in the third quarter.
13 million square feet of office construction is taking place in the first quarter in Manhattan.
MSG Entertainment filed an application to renew its special permit to operate the 22,000-seat arena. MSG will ask the city to make the approval permanent. The City Planning Commission is filing a text amendment in tandem with MSG’s proposal, seeking changes to the permit agreement that, among other things, ensure the arena’s operation does not interfere with future improvements to Penn Station.
ZD Jasper Realty filed permits for an 11-story mixed-use building to replace an empty lot in Hell’s Kitchen. When completed, the project at 430 West 37th Street would be 128,000 square feet. Most of the space is for the 128 apartments, but 10,000 square feet would be for commercial use.
