Cushman & Wakefield
Mack-Cali pays $82M for office tower
Cushman & Wakefield’s Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group has orchestrated the $82.3 million sale of Metro 101, located at 101 Wood Avenue South in Iselin.
Mack-Cali Realty Corporation purchased the 263,000 s/f, Class A office tower from Spear Street Capital.
Metro 101 was developed in 1990 for Engelhard Corporation. Spear Street Capital purchased the property in 2008 and orchestrated an extensive renovation that positioned the 10-story building for multi-tenant occupancy.
Now 95 percent occupied, Metro 101 offers above-standard amenities, including food service and covered parking, and is located adjacent to the Hilton-Woodbridge.
According to Cushman & Wakefield’s Andrew Merin, who led the transaction with team members David Bernhaut, Gary Gabriel, Brian Whitmer and Kyle Schmidt, 101 Wood Avenue South’s MetroPark location enhances its appeal for tenants and investors alike.
The property is located directly off Exit 131 of the Garden State Parkway, just north of its intersection with the New Jersey Turnpike, within walking distance of NJ Transit’s Metropark train station.
“MetroPark continues to be one of the most desirable locations in the State of New Jersey,” Merin said.
“Businesses appreciate being on a main commuter line into and out of New York City, and on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. Investors continue to pursue best in class buildings in the most competitive markets, and the significant interest we saw for this offering attests to MetroPark’s strength in that regard.”
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NGKF
Newmark tapped to sell non-core asset
NGKF Capital Markets has been retained by Mack-Cali as the exclusive agent to arrange the sale of the 237,295 s/f Monmouth Executive Center office complex in Freehold, New Jersey.
NGKF Capital Markets’ Steven Schultz, executive managing director, Adam Silver, managing director and Tony Georgiev, managing director are marketing the property.
Monmouth Executive Center totals 237,295 s/f of office space distributed among four buildings over 22.9 acres, offering tenants a corporate campus setting with landscaped grounds and a newly upgraded courtyard.
Constructed as multi-tenant buildings, the floor plates provide flexibility to accommodate tenants of all sizes and includes an extensive roster of tenants in the legal, technology, government, engineering, insurance, healthcare, communications, real estate, electric and business industries.
“The award-winning, on-site, property management and institutional ownership of the complex has maintained the park in highly marketable condition, setting it apart from the rest of the submarket’s office inventory,” said Schultz.
“The corporate campus setting and flexible floor plates cater to small and large space requirements, presenting prime opportunity for office and medical users looking to establish presence in Monmouth County.”
“The sale of Monmouth Executive Center is a strategic continuation of Mack-Cali’s effort to dispose of non-core assets to reinvest in transit-oriented assets,” noted Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of Mack-Cali, Ricardo Cardoso.
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Marcus & Mllichap
Chinatown building fetches $25M
Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of 243 Canal St., a six-story office and retail building in Chinatown.
The $25 million sales price equates to $1,152 per square foot.
“The retail portion of the property was delivered vacant along with a portion of the upper floors,” said Barbara Dansker of Marcus & Millichap’s Manhattan office. “The balance of the leases expire in 2017.”
Dansker, along with Steven Lusby and Zachary Ziskin, also in the firm’s Manhattan office, represented the seller and procured the buyer.
The approximately 21,700-gross-square-foot property is located directly in front of the Canal Street subway station on the north side of Canal Street between Lafayette and Centre streets.
The building has two elevators, a full basement with 11-foot ceilings, a ground-floor retail unit and five floors of open, loft-style office space.
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Herald Square Properties
Partners buy Chelsea fixer upper for $52M
Herald Square Properties and Marciano Investment Group have teamed up to purchase 251 West 30th Street for $52 million.
The 16-story, 114,000 s/f mid-block prewar loft office building is located in Chelsea, two blocks from the entrance to the High Line and the new Hudson Yards Development.
The Partnership plans to completely transform the mid-block building by upgrading the systems, infrastructure and amenities to offer value to the burgeoning TAMI tenant market.
The property will feature modern, open space layouts, light on three sides, outdoor space opportunities, and contemporary kitchens on floor sizes ranging from 5,000 to 8,000 s/f that will appeal to growing creative tenants seeking full floor identities.
“This is our fourth and perhaps most exciting acquisition,” said Michael Reid, a principal of Herald Square Properties.
“We have an extremely strong and experienced ownership team with the Marciano Investment Group and we are buying an exceptionally well-located building with great bones, light and air, and upside potential.”
Capital improvements planned for 251 West 30th Street include an expansion and renovation of the lobby and the restoration of the street level façade. The Partnership plans on implementing a prebuilt program also.
The acquisition represents the fourth pre-war commercial building purchased and repositioned by Herald Square Properties in the past few years, including 1372 Broadway, 142 West 36th Street and 234 West 39th Street.
In addition, Herald Square Properties, performing as asset manager, has orchestrated the repositioning of two pre-war buildings on Madison Avenue, 183 Madison Avenue and 292 Madison Avenue.
William G. Cohen, Executive Vice President and Principal, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank was the broker representing both the buyer and the seller.
Cohen will also serve as leasing agent for the building.
Representing the Borrower for the transaction was Douglas Heitner of Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman.
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Eastern Consolidated
Park Slope rental hits market
Eastern Consolidated has been retained to sell a six-story, Tudor-style elevator rental building at 862 Union Street in Park Slope Historic, one block from Grand Army Plaza and Prospect Park.
The asking price is $25 million.
Peter Hauspurg, chairman and CEO, Scott Burk, director, and Luke Gensburg, associate director, are marketing the property. Gary Meese, senior director, Financial Services, is the analyst for the deal.
The building’s 50 apartments include a mix of free market and rent regulated units, which range from studios to three bedroom s as well as a super’s unit.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for an investor to purchase an architecturally stunning, 50-unit pre-war elevator building in Park Slope,” Burk said.
“The property’s location is second to none allowing investors to acquire a trophy asset in one of the most sought-after neighborhoods not only in Brooklyn, but in all of New York City.”
Gensburg added, “The building is rare because it has remained a rental in a neighborhood where almost all of the rental buildings have been converted to co-ops.”
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Rechler Equity Partners
One down, two to go in Rechler disposition
Rechler Equity Partners, the largest owner of commercial real estate on Long Island, recently announced the sale of 1516 Motor Parkway — the first of three buildings the company intends to sell in 2016.
The 140,000 s/f warehouse and distribution facility sold for $12.6 million.
Last year, as part of its disposition program, Rechler Equity Partners made the strategic decision to target properties that no longer fit within its portfolio profile.
The company has identified three properties, including the recent sale of 1516 Motor Parkway, to sell in 2016 with the hopes of continuing to capitalize on current market trends that have led to significant profits for the company and their investors.
The next property Rechler Equity intends to put on the market is 19 Nicholas Drive in Yaphank.
The 232,000 s/f warehouse and distribution facility is leased short-term and offers an investor/user direct access to the Long Island Expressway service road.
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Eastern Consolidated
Cast iron opportunity
Adelaide Polsinelli is shopping a loft building in Soho’s Cast Iron District.
52 Greene Street offers 25 feet of frontage and nearly 4,000 s/f of unused development rights.
Previously occupied by Particular Iron Works, a family-run ornamental ironwork shop founded in 1914, the building is now home to luxury outdoor furniture designer Gandia Blasco, which occupies the ground floor and lower level retail space, and two full-floor office tenants on the upper floors.
Eastern Consolidated’s Polsinelli, along with Michael Hunter Coghill and Evan Papanastasiou are requesting offers on behalf of the ownership. Gary Meese, senior director, Financial Services, is the analyst for the deal.
“SoHo maintains its cachet as a world-class shopping destination, making 52 Greene Street attractive to investors from all over the world seeking to take advantage of this much sought after neighborhood,” Polsinelli said.
Coghill continued, “This is a great opportunity for an owner-user looking for retail and office space or a value-add investor looking to acquire irreplaceable frontage on Greene Street with future upside.”
Papanastasiou added, “With unused development rights and significant redevelopment potential, the building would be ideal for repositioning as a boutique condominium or flagship store.”
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Eastern Consolidated
Team gets to art of the deal
Eastern Consolidated has arranged the sale of a historic six-story, 13,150 s/f cast iron loft property at 124 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village that was owned for decades by the late artist/architects Madeline Arakawa Gins and Shusaku Arakawa.
The Arakawa/Gins Building traded for $15,415,250.
Exclusive brokers Peter Hauspurg, chairman and CEO, Evan Papanastasiou, director, and David Schechtman, senior executive managing director with Meridian Investment Sales, represented the sellers, the Estate of Madeline Arakawa Gins.
Eastern Consolidated director Jonathan Schwartz procured the buyer, a private investor. Gary Meese, Director of Financial Services, was the analyst for the deal.
Gins, a poet, painter, and architect who died in 2014, and her husband, the artist Shusaku Arakawa who died in 2010, bought 124 West Houston Street in 1966. Proceeds from the sale will go to the Reversible Destiny Foundation, which Gins and Arakawa established in 1987 to promote an inventive style of art/architecture.
“The Arakawa/Gins Building has a rich history of innovative art and architecture produced by the original owners and other artists including Bob Dylan, who used the ground floor as his private rehearsal studio,” Hauspurg said.
“Because the property was under the same ownership for 50 years, the building’s remarkable original architectural details remain intact.”
Schwartz said ,“This property will give the new owners a blank canvas that will allow them to come in and redevelop a unique space on one of the hottest commercial corridors in New York City.
“The building is located in a residential zoning district with commercial uses permitted on street level, making it ripe for multiple uses.”
In their long careers, Gins and Arakawa completed a park, office building, nine Reversible Destiny Lofts in Japan, and the Bioscleave house in East Hampton.
An exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum displayed 30 years of their work.
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Castle Lanterra
Castle Lanterra acquires apartment community
Castle Lanterra Properties (CLP) has acquired 1825 Apartments, a 455-unit community in Pflugerville, a suburb of Texas’ state capital of Austin.
CLP founder and CEO, Elie Rieder noted this is the third Austin acquisition for the N.Y.-based firm.
The community, named for State Route 1825 that fronts the property, consists of 60 buildings that were built in two phases: The 351-unit 1825 Place was completed in 2001, and the 104-unit 1825 Cottages was originally constructed in 1986.
Community features include a resort-style pool with a waterfall, a 24-hour fitness center, a business center with WiFi access, outdoor playground and petpark, carports, attached and detached garages, and a recently renovated clubhouse.
“The previous owner recently spent more than $2 million on capital improvements,” said Jim Brady, vice president of operations and property management.
“In addition to renovating the clubhouse, the effort included new roofs and siding at Cottages, exterior repainting, the installation of solar panels, and unit improvements. Our business plan calls for the continuation of upgrades to the units, as well as additional property beautification, upgrading the amenities already in place, and other proposed enhancements.”
The acquisition marks CLP’s third to date in the Austin residential market. In 2015, it purchased Stonegate, a 452-unit apartment community near downtown Austin, and earlier this year acquired Villas Tech Ridge, a 350-unit Class A apartment community located within the master planned development of Tech Ridge.
CLP managing director, Austin Alexander, who recently relocated to the city to oversee the firm’s operations in the southern region, said, “As a long term owner, we look forward to contributing to the continued growth of this market.”
