Here is a roundup of the latest leases, sales and other transactions in the Northeast middle markets.

Deal Tracker Daily

NEW YORK CITY—Animoto, an online video creation application firm, recently leased 15,180 square feet of space at 440 Lafayette St. in New York City's Astor Place neighborhood. The company will continue to occupy the entire second floor of the building as its headquarters. Colliers International's Sheena Gohil and Jack Senske represented Animoto in the transaction.

The lease is a new commitment for space Animoto has occupied for the past five years. Animoto expects to house up to 100 employees at the building by the end of next year.

VALHALLA, NY— Reckson, a division of SL Green Realty Corp. announced it has signed an 11-year, 65,000-square-foot lease with Ascensia Diabetes Care US Inc., a global diabetes health management company, and a 16,442-square-foot lease with Exelon Generation Company, an American Fortune 100 energy company, at The Summit—a three building, 700,000-square-foot Class A office complex in Valhalla.

John Barnes, SL Green SVP and managing director of its suburban division, says the Summit is now home to four Fortune 500 companies and is currently 93% leased.

Ascensia will occupy space on the top two floors of 100 Summit when it moves into the building in the fourth quarter of 2017. Exelon is expected to move to the property in July 2017 and has committed to space on the first floor of 500 Summit.

Steve Rotter and Conor Gill of JLL acted on behalf of Ascensia. Exelon did not have tenant representation. Reckson was represented in-house on both transactions. CBRE's Brian Carcaterra and Jacqueline Novotny represented SL Green.

NEW YORK CITY—RFR has announced a 3,915-square-foot retail lease with TD Bank at 90 Fifth Ave., a newly repositioned, 140,000-square-foot office building located in the heart of the Midtown South submarket.

Jordan S. Claffey, EVP, RFR Retail handled the negotiations directly with the tenant. Earlier this year, technology-driven real estate company Compass expanded to fully occupy the office space at 90 Fifth Avenue. Compass leased two additional floors, expanding its footprint by 25,000 square feet, and will now occupy 115,000 square feet on floors 3 through 11. The firm has more than quadrupled its presence at 90 Fifth Ave. since signing its initial lease in the summer of 2014.

NEW YORK CITY—NKF Retail reports the completion of a lease for 21,000 square feet of retail space with Union Fare at the base of a mixed-use development located at 282 11^th Ave. at the corner of 28^th Street in West Chelsea. Union Fare has leased the space with plans to develop a unique multi-concept program that will offer a mix of food and beverage, along with a lounge; a bakery; and a gallery. NKF Retail's executive managing director Ross Kaplan represented both the tenant and the landlord, AvalonBay Communities Inc., in the transaction.

LYNDHURST, NJ—Locally-based brokerage firm Team Resources reports it has brokered two recent lease deals. SVP Glenn Evans leased a portion of 63-35 Route 46 in Lodi, NJ to Happy USA Inc. Evans represented both the landlord, Garden State Tire, and Happy USA in the 12,325-square-foot 10 year transaction.

Team Resources also reports that Advanced Comprehensive Laboratory has signed a new five-year lease through VP Jeffrey Volpi and Alex Rosenberg, sales associate, for 5,700-square feet at 67 East Willow St. in Millburn, NJ. Ken Rubin represented Bleeker Fidelco Associates, the landlord in the transaction. Team Resources represented the tenant.

NEW YORK CITY—Brokerage firm Avison Young has announced that Giaronomo Productions, a movie advertising and trailer production company, has signed a new long-term, 7,620-square-foot lease at 1501 Broadway. The Paramount Building is an iconic, 33-story office property located between 43rd and 44th streets in the heart of the Theater District and Times Square.

Avison Young represented both the building owner and the tenant in the negotiations. The Avison Young team representing ownership included principal and Tri-State president Arthur J. Mirante, II, principal Michael Gottlieb, senior director Anthony LoPresti, director Matthew Hoffman and associate Joseph Gervino. Giaronomo Productions was represented by principal Michael Leff and associate Francis Santangelo, along with principal Scott Steuber from the firm's Los Angeles office.

News & Notables

RUTHERFORD, NJ—Newmark Grubb Knight Frank has won the United Way Commercial Real Estate Network 2017 Impact Award for its work on Allergan's headquarters relocation in the summer of 2016 to 431,495 square feet of space at 5 Giralda Farms in Madison, NJ. Each year, the network selects one team within the commercial real estate industry for the Impact Award, recognizing work on a development project, sale, lease, or other real estate transaction that is considered to have had the most positive impact in the region. NGKF was also nominated for its transactions at 56 Livingston Ave. in Roseland, as well as Daiichi Sankyo's new United States headquarters in Basking Ridge. The winner was announced at the network's Legacy Luncheon on May 19^th.

Landlord Lincoln Equities Group was represented by NGKF vice chairman and COO of New Jersey Operations David Simson, executive managing director Tim Greiner, director Jamie Ragucci and associate director Harrison Russell in the Allegran transaction. The move consolidates three of Allergan's existing New Jersey offices in Parsippany, Bridgewater and Jersey City into one location.

NEW YORK CITY—The JDRF Real Estate Games are coming back to New York City on Thursday, June 15^th to raise money for JDRF, the leading global organization funding Type One diabetes research, through an afternoon competition among top real estate companies at Chelsea Piers.

Jim Whelan, EVP of the Real Estate Board of New York, serves on the JDRF New York City Chapter's Board of Directors. His teenage son Jack was diagnosed with T1D four years ago. Whelan and others organized the first local fundraising games in 2016, which raised more than $80,000 for T1D research. The JDRF Real Estate Games originated in the Washington, DC area 26 years ago.

Prior to the event, participating teams will engage their entire company in a fundraising challenge for an opportunity to win additional prizes and accolades. On June 15^th, the more than 20. 10-person teams from some of New York City's top real estate companies will compete in six sporting events including: dodgeball, hot shot basketball, a relay race, and a rock climbing relay race, in addition to speed stacks and the pass, catch and end done dance competition. Participating teams include AECOM Tishman, Brookfield Properties, The Carlyle Group, Douglaston Development, The Durst Organization, Eastdil Secured, Glenwood Management, Hines, JDS Development Group, JLL, L&M Development Partners, Langan, REBNY, Savills Studley, Silverstein Properties, SL Green Realty Corp., Tishman Speyer, TF Cornerstone, and Two Trees Management Co.

BLUE BELL, PA—The Goldenberg Group foundation's initiative to design and build dressers for families living in a Philadelphia homeless shelter has earned the developer the International Council of Shopping Centers' Foundation Eastern Region U.S. Community Support Award for 2017.

For more than five years, The Goldenberg Group and its People Helping People Foundation have volunteered with Stenton Family Manor, the largest family shelter in the City of Philadelphia and one of the only facilities that doesn't separate families based on the genders of parents and children. During a major renovation of the shelter's computer lab, library, bedrooms, preschool classroom and outside landscaping in 2015, the Goldenberg Group recognized a basic need: residents had no place to store their belongings as they worked to piece their lives back together.

Money Moves:

NEWTOWN, MA—MassHousing has provided $9 million in financing to the nonprofit Newton Community Development Foundation for the renovation and preservation of 30 affordable housing units at NCDF's Houghton Village community. The MassHousing financing package will enable major renovations at the 50-unit townhouse development and resolve expiring affordability challenges at the property by extending affordability on site and creating 10 new workforce housing units.

MassHousing provided NCDF with a $7.4 million construction and permanent loan and $1.3 million from the agency's Opportunity Fund, which provides financing for MassHousing's Workforce Housing Initiative and 13A Preservation Initiative.

NEWARK, NJ—NAI James E. Hanson arranged the sale of a 13,560-square-foot industrial building located at 65 Euclid Ave. here. NAI Hanson's Scott Perkins, SIOR, Chris Todd, Eric Demmers and Russell Verducci represented the seller, 65 Euclid Avenue, LLC, in the sale to Montique International, Inc., which was represented by Isaac Newman of Gramercy.

Montique International, a designer and manufacturer of high-end menswear based in Brooklyn, had been searching for a new location that offered them flexibility and ease of access to distribution networks to reach its customers. No financial terms of the transaction were released.

“We have seen a large number of businesses relocate from Brooklyn to locations on the west side of the Hudson River,” says Perkins. “Newark is a highly attractive location as it offers great accessibility with highly competitive property prices making it a good time for our client to sell the property and bring a new, growing business to Newark. Through our negotiations we were able to facilitate a lease-back to the existing tenant to enable the relocation of the current tenant and the new owner.”

METUCHEN, NJ—The Goldstein Group reports it has arranged the sale of 319-335 Lake Ave. in Metuchen, NJ.

The property consists of a 7,000-square-foot freestanding building occupied by DaVita Dialysis and a 7,125-square-foot strip center on 1.27 acres of land.

Neil Goldstein, principal of The Goldstein Group, brokered the transaction on behalf of the purchaser, Suburban Square LLC and seller, MacPherson Realty, LLC. No financial terms of the deal were released.

On the Market

SOMERSET, NJ—Colliers International Group Inc. has been named exclusive marketing agent for Tower 270, a 229,000-square-foot, eight-story office property in Somerset, NJ. A team led by Richard Mirliss, Michael Tesser, Alexander Vitro and Ryan Haggerty is bringing the property to market as an owner/occupier purchase opportunity, with 83,000 square feet of space also available for lease to a single user or multiple tenants.

Tower 270 offers plug-and-play units available from 2,800 square feet. The building features newly renovated lobby and common areas, and recently added convenience amenities including a café and shared conference center space. Tenants also benefit from covered parking and on-site property management.

“As availabilities begin to tighten, upward pressure is placed on rents,” Tesser says. “In fact, Central New Jersey's average asking rent closed the first quarter at $25.82-per-square-foot, up $1.05 per-square-foot year-over-year.”

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ—CBRE Group Inc. has announced that it has been named the exclusive leasing and marketing agent for an eight-property office portfolio, with buildings located in Cranford and Clark, NJ.

The portfolio is comprised of more than 821,000 square feet of space and includes: the 192,000-square-foot property at 100 Walnut Ave. in Clark, the 187,000-square-foot property at 20 Commerce Drive in Cranford, the 92,000-square-foot property at 11 Commerce Drive in Cranford, the 85,000-square-foot property at 65 Jackson Drive in Cranford, the 72,000-square-foot property at 10 & 12 Commerce Drive in Cranford, the 68,000-square-foot property at 25 Commerce Drive in Cranford, the 67,000-square-foot property at 14 Commerce Drive in Cranford and the 58,000-square-foot property at 6 Commerce Drive in Cranford.

The CBRE team of EVP Joseph J. Sarno Jr., SVP Jeremy Neuer and associates Matthew Wassel and Joseph A. Sarno will oversee leasing and marketing efforts on behalf of the portfolio's new owner, Signature Acquisitions.

NEW YORK CITY—Cushman & Wakefield has won exclusive designation to market the last remaining developable parcel of land along the waterfront in Bayside, Queens. The marketing team has set an asking price of $12 million.

Located on Little Neck Bay, 23-50 Water's Edge Drive is an empty lot measuring 44,255 square feet, equal to about one acre . The purchaser will gain the right to develop 72,140 buildable square feet for community facility use. Among qualifying usage categories are medical facilities, schools, senior care facilities, houses of worship, day care centers and other potential uses.

Instant Insights /

Middle Market Digest: This Week in the Northeast

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