Category : Featured

Parkway Gardens, a 1940s-era housing project on the South Side of Chicago, re-opened last fall after extensive renovation to the 35 buildings and 694 apartments. Mayor Rahm Emanuel attended the ribbon cutting, as did other politicians, local housing activists, and representatives of Related Companies and Wells Fargo, which had purchased the site in a 2011 joint venture for $40 million, along with a commitment to maintain the affordable housing status of the apartments for the next 30 years.

Gowanus is set for more trendy retail and tech office space following the purchase of a 90,000 s/f building, blocks from the borough’s first Whole Foods store. PWR Holdings, LLC purchased 68-80 3rd Street back in November, but just closed on the sale last week. The five-story red brick building constructed in 1910 was historically home to a tile manufacturer, but for the past 10 years it was used as a film production facility.

Jack Resnick & Sons reports that its longtime anchor tenant, Pace University, is continuing to grow its footprint at 161 William Street. The university has leased an additional 11,552 s/f comprising the entire 10th floor at the 22-story, 216,204-s/f property. The long-term lease brings the university’s total presence in the building to over 170,000 s/f spanning 19 floors. The William Street campus houses classrooms, offices of the Seidenberg School of Computer Science & Information Systems, the university’s business incubators, along with Pace’s Downtown Conference Center. The 10th floor was previously leased to RBSD Architects, which is relocating to smaller space in the area.

New York’s developers have their eye on the future, and are ready to cater to the desires of modern office tenants. Renovation, new construction and open floor plans were all hot topics at the Urban Land Institute’s Real Estate Outlook last week. Scott Rechler, of RXR Realty, described his plans for 75 Rockefeller Plaza, where he recently bought a 99-year leasehold.