Middle Market Digest – The Northeast

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

Deal Tracker Daily

NEW YORK, NY—RKF arranged a 29,943-square-foot lease at 218 West 57^th Street in Columbus Circle with Feld Entertainment Inc. and Universal Brand Development, a division of Universal Studios. DreamWorks Trolls The Experience will be a live location-based entertainment attraction featuring Poppy Branch and other Troll Village characters. RKF’s Joshua Strauss and Grant Dunn represented NBC Universal and Feld Entertainment in the transaction. The landlord, GGP, was represented by Jason Maurer.

JERSEY CITY, NJ—A gourmet community market and deli will be the next retailer to add its name to the vibrant mix of neighborhood-centric shops, services, restaurants and conveniences in Jersey City’s SoHo West (south of Hoboken, west of New York City) community. Fresca Gourmet has signed a lease to occupy 5,000 square-feet of ground floor retail space at 300 Coles Street within the new and emerging community on Jersey City’s Hoboken border.  The popular market offers hot food, deli sandwiches, wraps, salads, prepared meals, and a host of everyday groceries. Scheduled to open in fall, 2018, Fresca Gourmet will join a list of prominent retailers already open and available to residents of the SoHo West Community, including an 8 Springs Studio, a Pilates and Yoga studio; Viaquenti Academy, a bilingual pre-school; Brewshot, a coffee shop/bar and restaurant, Cycle Mix, a spin cycle establishment, and Art House Productions, a non-profit arts facility that includes a 99-seat black box theatre.

ENGLEWOOD, NJ—NAI James E. Hanson brokered three lease renewals at the Van Brunt Business Center in Englewood, NJ. Marathon Enterprises renewed its 5,000-square-foot lease at 9 Smith Street, GNS Trading Corp re-signed for 5,000 square feet at 21 Smith Street and ForTec Medical renewed its 5,000-square-foot lease at 41 Smith Street. NAI Hanson’s Ken Lundberg, SIOR, Steve Pastor, and Patrick Lennon represented the landlord, West Forest Avenue Industrial, Inc. and the tenants in the transactions at 9 and 41 Smith Street. Young Lee of Eastern Realty represented GNS Trading Corp in their renewal negotiation at 21 Smith Street.  Marathon Enterprises is a major regional supplier of meats gourmet delicatessen products across the New York City metro area selling their products under the Sabrett brand.

QUEENS, NY—Seagis Property Group acquired six warehouse buildings totaling 68,000 square feet in the JFK Submarket of South Queens. Seagis now owns 52 buildings totaling over one million square feet throughout the Outer Boroughs of New York City. Seagis Property Group owns and operates more than 10 million square feet of industrial buildings in logistically driven locations along the Eastern Seaboard.

PARAMUS, NJ—NIA National Realty has arranged five lease transactions totaling 20,000 square feet at 66 Route 17 North in Paramus, NJ. 66  Route 17 North is a two-story, 40,000 square-foot mixed use retail and office building. Located at the intersection of Routes 4 and 17, the entire building recently underwent a million-dollar renovation that included a new facade and windows on the retail portion of the building and design upgrades throughout. Separately, NIA National Realty was appointed exclusive broker for 145 Route 4 West in Paramus, NJ.  The 23,000 square-foot single-story former Joyce Leslie women’s clothing store is fully renovated and has many top-of-the-line retail amenities. It is located in the best known suburban East Coast retail strips and boosts prime Route 4 frontage.  The property has immediate access from Route 4, is three minutes from the Garden State Parkway and Route 17, and is available for long-term lease.

BROOKLYN, NY—Cushman & Wakefield arranged the $11.5 million sale of 333-335 Irving Avenue, a significant mixed-use conversion opportunity located in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood. A Cushman & Wakefield brokerage team led by director DJ Johnston represented the seller, ‎Standard Tinsmith Supply, in the transaction. The property is being purchased by Cheskie Weisz, organized by Michael Wittow of CW Realty.

NEW YORK, NY—SL Green Realty signed UNTUCKit, an apparel retailer, to an 11-year, 14,793-square-foot lease at the SoHo Building, also known as 110 Greene Street. The apparel company is expanding its corporate headquarters by 3,109 square feet. The 13-story, 220,000-square-foot class-A office building is located in the center of SoHo, attracting fashion and media office tenants. The boutique office building is situated on Greene Street between Prince and Spring Streets. Other major tenants include Nylon Magazine, Manhattan Portage and Brant Publications. Cushman and Wakefield’s Daniel Organ represented UNTUCKit on the transaction.

VOORHEES, NJ—Wolf Commercial Real Estate helped the Kingsway Learning Center & Services consolidate its Moorestown and Haddonfield campuses into a new site in Voorhees. The school leased the 73,000 square foot building at 1000 Voorhees Drive, with plans to relocate its pre-school, elementary, and secondary programs for its 175 students to a single site starting with the 2018-2019 school year. Previously WCRE exclusively represented the buyer of 1000 Voorhees Drive during its acquisition of the property. Then the firm’s educational and institutional client services group secured Kingsway as the tenant.

PERTH AMBOY, NJ—The New Jersey office of Duke Realty has leased ePort 1000, its 354,250-square-foot warehouse at 1000 High Street in Perth Amboy, to 4PX Express USA, a 3PL focused on ecommerce fulfillment and logistics solutions. Duke Realty acquired ePort 1000 in November 2017 as part of a 3.1 million-square-foot New Jersey industrial portfolio purchase that includes six completed buildings and two development sites located along the I-95 corridor. 1000 High Street is one of three new industrial buildings known as the ePort Logistics Center that Duke Realty owns just off NJ-440 (I-287) and east of I-95 in Perth Amboy. The building features 36-foot clear height, 44-foot-6-inch x 55-foot column spacing, 63 dock doors, and two drive-in doors. Outside of the building is a 130-foot truck court and parking for 218 automobiles and 117 trailers. Ken Lundberg with NAI Hanson and Julie Huang with ACJ International Realty represented 4PX Express in the lease, while Duke Realty was represented by Ben Rosen and Caitlin English and its listing agents Thomas Monahan, Stephen D’Amato and Larry Schiffenhaus with CBRE.

Money Moves

JERSEY CITY, NJ—Brad Domenico, partner at Progress Capital, negotiated a $26.25 mmillion construction-to-permanent loan, secured by two parcels of land for construction of a new nine-story mixed-use, residential and retail building on Summit Avenue in Jersey City. At present one parcel of land is vacant, while the second is improved by a vacant three-story brick hospital building formerly known as the Fairmount Hospital. The parcels of land encompass two corner properties, one at the intersection of Summit and Fairmount Avenues and the other adjoining at the intersection of Clifton Place and Fairmount Avenue. Purchased in 2015, the new development (see rendering) will consist of a 159,861 square-foot mixed-use elevator building containing 99 luxury residential units including 24-hour concierge, fitness center, residential lounge with conference room, rooftop terrace/garden and one 2,240 square-foot street level retail unit with a 75-space below grade parking garage.

Executive Moves

NEW YORK, NY—ATCO Brokerage Services named industry veteran William W. Carr as Managing Director. Carr, a seasoned professional with more than 20 years of experience in landlord and tenant representation, will serve as the exclusive leasing agent for two buildings in ATCO’s Midtown South office portfolio, which includes 373/381 Park Avenue South. In addition, he will provide outside tenant representation services. Before joining ATCO, Carr served as an associate real estate broker at Douglas Elliman Commercial, where he focused on landlord and tenant representation, and the integration of Williamson, Picket, Gross into the firm’s commercial division.

NEW YORK, NY—Sanford Herrick, founder and managing principal of Case Real Estate Capital, will participate on the “Untapped Real Estate Markets: Alternative Lenders” panel at the upcoming Mortgage Bankers Association of New York’s “Fourth Annual Strategic Real Estate and Lending Summit.” The “Building a Better New York”-themed event will take place on Tuesday, June 19, at Fordham Law School with the Alternative Lenders session starting at 2:45 p.m.