● besen & Associates
Unconventional truth
Besen & Associates’ Amit Doshi has sold the leasehold interest in 213-215 Madison Avenue (aka 22 East 36th Street) for $12.5 million.
Located across the street from the recently modernized J.P. Morgan Library at the southeast corner of East 36th Street and Madison Avenue, the property is a 10-story plus penthouse elevator apartment building with 37 units and four medical offices.
The leashold expires in 2036, making it something of an unusual sale, according to Doshi.
“This was not really the most obvious deal,” said the veteran broker, who has a long track record with the seller, for whom he has sold some 30 buildings.
“23 years remaining on a ground lease is not a relatively long period as far as these things go. It’s a fine asset and the wanted it for cash flow.”
Built in 1927 with dimensions of 64 by 98 ft., the building is approximately 60,000 gross square feet, and has a 24-hour doorman on duty. 51,300 s/f is residential space and 9,000 s/f is medical offices on the ground floor.
According to Doshi, the buyer had been quietly pursuing the property since 2009.
● URSTADT BIDDLE PROPERTIES, INC
Shopping center buy
no accident
Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. has acquired The Village Shopping Center in New Providence, NJ, for $34,850,000.
The property was purchased subject to an existing mortgage in the amount of $18,980,000 that requires payments of principal and interest at a fixed rate of 5.6803% per annum. The mortgage matures in January 2022.
The Village Shopping Center is located on Springfield Avenue in the center of the affluent community of New Providence.
The 110,000 s/f shopping center is anchored by a 45,000 s/f A&P supermarket, CVS, Radio Shack, Investor’s Bank and Smashburger. It was built in 1965 by the seller but recently renovated to accommodate the new A&P.
Willing Biddle, President of Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. said, “We are very pleased that we have continued the process of investing capital raised from our stock offerings in October 2012 into another grocery-anchored income producing property.
“Coupled with other holdings in nearby Bergen County, including our recent investment in the Chestnut Ridge Shopping Center in Montvale, northern New Jersey is proving to be a high performance market for us.”
James Aries, director of acquisitions, added, “We’re thrilled to add another trophy grocery-anchored center to our core portfolio. This is no accident. Sellers have faith in our ability to close quickly and without complication.
“We already have several exciting leasing leads on the few vacancies at Village Shopping Center and look forward to establishing a greater presence in this marketplace.”
● aRIEL PROPERTY ADVISORS
Foothold in LIC anyone?
Ariel Property Advisors is marketing a Long Island City development site with 78,000 buildable square feet. The asking price for the property at 14-01, 14-07, and 14-19 Broadway is $11,250,000.
Shimon Shkury, Howard Raber, Esq., Victor Sozio, Michael A. Tortorici, and Randy Modell are leading the effor to sell property, which consists of three contiguous lots with 182-feet of frontage on the north side of Broadway between 14th and 21st Streets.
The corner parcel is currently occupied by an auto repair shop with an expiring lease; the center parcel is a vacant lot, and the third parcel consists of a vacant one-story, four-bay garage. The site is close to the N and Q trains, as well as local restaurants, bakeries, and stores.
“This property offers developers the opportunity to gain a foothold in a rapidly up-and-coming area of Queens,” said Shkury, president of Ariel Property Advisors.
“Zoning allows for a development with both residential and commercial components and about 78,000 buildable square feet.”
● MRA / ANGELO GORDON & CO
And that’s how it’s done …
Tapping into strong investor interest for healthcare-related office property, Metropolitan Realty Associates (MRA), with longtime equity partner Angelo, Gordon & Co., culminated its successful three-year redevelopment of Garden City Square with the $16.4 million sale of its office/medical condominiums to Great Neck, N.Y.-based Benedict Realty Group.
The sale follows The Hampshire Companies’ $66.3 million acquisition of the retail condos earlier this month.
The 17-acre project located at 711 Stewart Avenue comprises 117,500 s/f of office/medical space now leased to various medical practices.
The 176,000 s/f retail component is leased to BJ’s Wholesale Club and LA Fitness.
Jeffrey Dunne, Steve Bardsley and David Gavin of CBRE’s New York Institutional Group represented ownership in both transactions.
MRA and Angelo, Gordon purchased the property in May 2010 for $15 million, or less than $45 psf, through a note acquisition.
At the time, the transaction was noted by real estate experts to be the low water mark in a rising market.
On April 23, MRA and Angelo, Gordon received the Top Redevelopment award from Long Island Business News (LIBN) for its repositioning of the property, which originally served as a manufacturing plant for General Bronze Corp.
●newmark grubb knight frank
Detroit back in vogue
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF) Capital Markets has completed the sale of the Travelers Tower I & II buildings in Southfield, the Detroit metro area’s largest office submarket.
An investor group led by Time Equities Inc. of New York purchased the 790,000 s/f, Class A office complex from an affiliate of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. after winning out over a number of competing bidders.
“This is a gateway event signaling that out-of-town capital is once again interested in Detroit,” said Larry Emmons, a senior managing director in NGKF’s Capital Markets Group in Detroit. “We took the buildings to market right around Thanksgiving, and received nine offers within weeks.”
●MACK-CALI REALTY CORP.
Feeding multi-family beast
Mack-Cali Realty Corporation has sold its Mack-Cali Airport property in Little Ferry, New Jersey, for $32.3 million.
The building is a fully leased, two-story, 286,628 s/f commercial property.
Mitchell E. Hersh, president and chief executive officer of Mack-Cali, commented, “The sale of this property continues our strategy of recycling our capital out of non-core assets to fuel our diversification into multi-family.”
