The jumbo loan backed by Times Square Plaza, an office tower in the heart of Midtown, transferred to special servicing this month for imminent maturity default after its owner failed to lock down new financing.
Longtime landlord The Tamares Group started shopping for debt in January to replace the $365 million loan coming due in October at 1500 Broadway, according to Morningstar Credit.
London-based investment firm Night Squared is crossing the pond to set up shop in New York City.
The firm signed a five-year lease for 3,874 square feet for a new office on the 21st floor of The Moinian Group’s 3 Columbus Circle, according to Spaces Commercial Real Estate’s Lance Leighton, who brokered the deal for the tenant. Leighton declined further comment.
Manhattan notched 120 contract signings for $428M.
New development sales withered in the July heat, falling below pre-pandemic levels for the second straight month.
While July typically sees less contract activity than its preceding months, last month also fell short in comparison to prior years and pre-pandemic averages. The 217 contract signings was a nearly 14 percent decrease from last year, and a 9 percent drop from the 2015 to 2019 July average, according to Marketproof’s monthly report.
Total deal volume last month was $570 million, with a price per square foot of $1,746. Contrast this with last July’s numbers, with a deal volume at $613 million with a median price per square foot of $1,682.
BlackRock is getting bigger at Related Companies’ 50 Hudson Yards.
The asset manager is set to expand its New York headquarters with additional office space of 50,000 square feet at the coveted 50 Hudson Yards tower, Bloomberg reported. BlackRock already leases close to 1 million square feet across 15 floors.
The behemoth asset manager agreed to relocate its headquarters there before the project was even finished, with the swanky address winning out over other potential locations.
Vornado Realty Trust is cashing in on some of its preferred equity in a Uniqlo-anchored Midtown property.
The REIT’s joint venture is selling a portion of the Japanese retail store’s US flagship store in Manhattan to Uniqlo for $350 million, Commercial Observer reported.
The deal will net an estimated $340 million, which will likely be used for returning Vornado’s $390 million of preferred equity, according to the announcement.
The joint venture holds a fee condominium interest in 17,295 square feet (6,477 square feet at grade level) of Uniqlo’s 90,732 square feet space at 666 Fifth Avenue. Vornado has a 52 percent interest in the venture.
The pass-through leases between the office condo owner and the retail joint venture will be terminated, Vornado said. The joint venture will continue to own 23,832 square feet of retail space with 7,416 square feet at grade level. Tenants include the Abercrombie & Fitch and Tissot stores.
Music streaming service Spotify (SPOT) shed three more floors at 4 World Trade Center.
Ticketing resale platform StubHub signed a sublease with Spotify for 103,000 square feet at the 72-story tower developed by Silverstein Properties, according to subtenant broker Savills.
Tech firm PubMatic is doubling its presence at 498 Seventh Avenue while civil engineering firm Hazen and Sawyer signed a 10-year extension in the same building.
PubMatic is moving from a sublease to a 60,000-square-foot lease to remain on the 18th floor and to move to the 19th floor as well. The lease also includes an 18th-floor terrace, per the New York Post, which first reported the deal.
Midtown is having a moment.
A few big deals boosted the leasing market last month, and the six largest were in Midtown, according to a new Colliers office report.
Leasing volume grew nearly 60 percent from the previous month and surpassed the 2019 (pre-pandemic) monthly average of about 3.5 million square feet.
Shopping mall mogul Igal Namdar’s bravado about his plans to turn around distressed Manhattan offices might not be fully warranted.
Namdar Realty Group and Empire Capital Holdings are in talks to hand back 345 Seventh Avenue to collateral manager Benefit Street Partners, three years after the firms purchased the century-old office building, Commercial Observer has learned.
SEE ALSO: Multifamily Distress Jumps 100 Basis Points in JulyThe property is “in the process of being returned to the lender,” a lawyer for the building’s owners wrote in a June 17 email to the 32BJ Service Employees International Union, which represents five cleaners at the building. “A specific date has not yet been set.”
U.S. office markets are suffering from soaring vacancy rates, a record amount of available sublease space, and rising defaults. But curiously, office rents are holding steady or even climbing.
Average U.S. asking office rents are $35.24 a square foot, compared with $34.92 in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to data firm CoStar Group.
Higher asking prices are a reflection of the seemingly oddball way the commercial real-estate market works. Rents are a critical metric used by lenders and others to determine the value of a property. Owners will do everything they can to avoid cutting them, even if it means keeping space vacant because the rental prices deter prospective tenants.
Landlords who cut rents significantly to fill empty space “would significantly reduce the appraised values of their buildings,” said David Bitner, the head of global research for Newmark Group, a commercial real estate services firm. “This in turn could lead to a covenant default on their loans or at minimum would make it harder for them to refinance.”
