New Developments
The Archdiocese of New York is backing a Midtown East rezoning that would allow St. Patrick's Cathedral to sell its unused air rights to developers. A committee studying the neighborhood's development potential proposed freeing up landmarked properties, like St. Patrick's, to sell air rights anywhere within the rezoned district.
Anthony Bourdain is building at Pier 57 in the Meatpacking district, a restaurant complex with 155,000-square foot, 100 culinary stalls and is currently under construction and to be completed in 2016. The Bourdain Market will be the largest of the city's themed restaurant markets.
The residents of a co-op building in at 77 Bleecker Street acquired the master lease for the retail and office space at its base for $25.8 million paying nearly $1,400 per square foot for 18,650-square-foot space aka 649-657 Broadway. The ground floor houses four retail tenants and one vacant space. There are 14 office units, all with windows, on the basement level.
The owners of the Four Seasons restaurant are working on a deal that could move the lunch spot Downtown to take over the top of 28 Liberty Street. 28 Liberty is owned by a Chinese investment firm which is also considering three other restaurants for the space.
Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma are leaving their three-story, 35,000-square-foot retail space at 127 East 59th Street, between Lexington and Park avenues.
Vantone Industrial asked to cut its commitment from 202,000 square feet to 31,344 square feet at One World Trade Center, a year after first asking to cut it by half.
Canadians invested $3.8 billion into New York City's property market this year, nearly doubling last year's $1.97 billion total, and surpassing the previous record of $2 billion in 2007. Canadian investors have purchased $15.5 billion worth of property in the city in the last decade, more than any other foreign country including the Chinese and the Russians.
Japanese investors are returning to New York's commercial real estate market not seen since the country's economic downturn in the 1990s. Japan-based real estate companies purchased $1.5 billion of property in the city in the past 12 months.
The Meatpacking District is experiencing a second wind as a retail hotspot with the new Whitney Museum, a popular High Line and growing TAMI office space in the area. Meatpacking gained momentum with the arrival of high-end designers in 2002. Rents surged, but then fizzled, during the recession. The increased traffic is attracting more mainstream retailers, and competition is heating up for both prime and non-prime locations.
The Kaufman Organization is partnering with Goldman Sachs on its long-term ground lease at 155 West 23rd Street. The partnership paid about $45 million for a 99-year ground lease of the 12-story, 82,000-square-foot office building. Kaufman plans to spend $10 million refurbishing. Once refurbished, asking rents will range from high-$60s to $70s per square foot.
Montefiore Medical Center assumed operational control over Albert Einstein College of Medicine worth an estimated $209 million. The deal includes 24 parcels along Morris Park Avenue, Pelham Parkway South and Eastchester Road in the Bronx.
RXR Realty is selling 61 Broadway a 790,000-square-foot Financial District office tower, seeking $450 million. RXR bought the property in 2014 for $330 million from Broad Street Development. Downtown office rents have increased 16 percent on average from last year.
The New York Public Library picked a Dutch architecture firm to lead a $300 million renovation of its Midtown properties. Plans call for opening more public space at the library's Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, and creating a new interior for the Mid-Manhattan Library at 455 Fifth Avenue.
Maddd Equities filed plans for a 70,000-square-foot community facility at the site of a former Catholic Church on the Upper East Side. It will consist of two connected seven-story buildings, at 321 East 61st Street and 328 East 62nd Street and will be used for medical offices, education facilities or student and resident-doctor housing.
An ownership dispute at Gemini Real Estate Advisors is causing the company to sell four Manhattan hotel sites including the Jade Hotel in Greenwich Village, the Wyndham Garden in Chelsea. They have received offers of $78 million for the Jade, $57 million for the Wyndham, $37.3 million for the Best Western Seaport in the Financial District, and $25.5 million for a development site at 36 West 38th Street.
Caerus Group is in late-stage talks to build a 105,000-square-foot Washington Height's building with 150 rooms of student housing. Caerus bought the Baptist Church at 206-212 Wadsworth Avenue, near West 184th Street, after acquiring air rights in February. As part of the acquisition, Tsimmer agreed to allow for a church community space on the ground floor of a new, eight-story building.
Jack Guttman and Steve Schwartz have abandoned plans to assemble land for a $300 million, 240,000-square-foot television production complex on the West Side Highway at 51st and 52nd streets. The developers had contracts or options on all the properties on the block, including 641 West 51st Street. The developers failed to find an anchor tenant willing to take 35,000 square feet in the planned complex, to be called 630 West 52nd Street and the landowners got weary and the sellers moved on.
