Lendlease, in partnership with one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, Aware Super, has acquired a 2.6 acre site at 1 Java Street in Brooklyn, where it plans to build a mixed-use development with 800 apartments.
The site was purchased for $110.8 million, making it one of the biggest land purchases in New York City during the course of the pandemic to date.
“Lendlease believes in, and is committed to, long-term opportunities in New York and our other target US gateway cities,” said Jason Alderman, managing director of property at Lendlease.
“Everything that has always made New York a special place – its cultural activities, diversity, dining and entertainment, and most importantly the people who come to the city to make connections in their professional and personal lives will endure beyond the current market challenges.”
JLL brokered the sale of the site on the Greenpoint waterfront directly on the East River on behalf of JZ Capital Partners and RedSky Capital. The JLL Capital Markets team representing the seller includes Vice Chairmen Stephen Palmese and Brendan Maddigan; Managing Directors Winfield Clifford, Michael Mazzara and Ethan Stanton; and Vice President Patrick Madigan. Melissa Burch and Christie Walker negotiated the deal in-house on behalf of Lendlease.
The location offers a maximum development potential of 644,678 s/f and has mixed zoning designations of R6/C2-4, R6 and R8.
Lendlease and Aware Super plan to transform the full city block into a new community with some 800 residential rental units, 30 percent of which will be designated as affordable housing under the Affordable New York Housing Program.
The property will also has a reimagined public waterfront esplanade with improved connection to the India Street pier and NYC Water Ferry.
The announcement extends Lendlease’s partnership formed with Aware Super in 2018, which established the $2 billion Lendlease Americas Residential Partnership (LARP) to develop and hold multi-family assets in targeted U.S. gateway cities.
With this investment, the LARP portfolio spans Chicago, Boston and New York. Lendlease is the partnership’s development, construction and investment manager.
“We are pleased to expand and diversify our U.S. portfolio with Aware Super across the U.S. gateway cities through the addition of the 1 Java project,” said Ben Byrne, portfolio manager at Lendlease. “Investment opportunities like 1 Java directly align with our strategy to develop and hold multifamily assets in resilient markets such as New York.”
A minority interest in 1 Java Street will be retained by members of the former owner.