News

February 25, 2015 | Real Estate Weekly | Linda Barr O'Flanagan

Fisher Brothers has bagged $11 million for a retail condo at 37 Warren just a few months after partner Winston Fisherʼs gym there shut up shop.

HUBB NYC, the firm previously known as Trevi Retail, bought the Tribeca retail condo – its second buy since the beginning of the year.

Neighborhoods: TriBeCa/ Agents: Guillermo Suarez

Cushman & Wakefield is pleased to announce the release of its exclusive fourth quarter 2015 Property Sales Reports. These unique, industry-leading reports provide a comprehensive study of the investment sales market by product type in the New York City area (Manhattan, Northern Manhattan/Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens).

After a record-breaking year in 2014, which saw an all-time high for properties sold, the New York City investment sales market hit yet another benchmark in 2015. In the past year, the aggregate sales consideration totaled $74.5 billion, exceeding 2007’s previous record of $62.0 billion. The year’s unprecedented dollar volume was anchored by several mega-deals, including the sale of Stuyvesant Town for $5.4 billion and a $3.8 billion investment into the Brookfield development project near Hudson Yards. Four of the city’s top six quarterly dollar volume totals of all-time have now occurred in 2015, a trend supported in large part by an increased prevalence of larger transactions. The average price per property hit an all-time high of $14.7 million in 2015, exceeding 2011’s previous high by 17.6 percent.

“2014 and 2015 were probably the two best years ever for the sales brokerage industry. Supply was strong, demand was excessive and market indicators were moving in the right direction,” said Bob Knakal, Chairman, New York Investment Sales.

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Cushman & Wakefield, on behalf of Fresh Property I, LLC., has sold the FreshDirect facility at 23-30 Borden Avenue, located between 23rd and 25th Streets in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens. The facility was sold for $48,000,000 in an all-cash transaction.

Bob Knakal, Chairman, New York Investment Sales at Cushman & Wakefield exclusively represented the seller along with Jonathan Hageman and David Chkheidze. "We were thrilled to represent FreshDirect in the sale of this tremendous asset in Long Island City,” said Knakal.

Scott Rosen, Principal at Akron Trotter Property Group represented the buyer, Atlas Capital. “Atlas has acquired a best-in-class asset with tremendous future upside,” added Rosen.

The property totals approximately 276,705 square feet on a 654’ x 329’ irregular lot, 90% of which includes state-of-the-art material management and refrigeration/freezer systems. 

Since acquiring the property in 1999, FreshDirect has completed substantial capital improvements and upgrades to a majority of the building systems.  Due to the current zoning designation the maximum FAR is 2.0 which translates into a total buildable square footage of 406,552 or an additional 129,847 square feet of development rights.

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Neighborhoods: Long Island City

Crain's | February 18, 2016 | Joe Anuta

The long-vacant RKO Keith's Theatre in Flushing, Queens, is up for sale—again.

The 1920s-era cinema at 135-35 Northern Blvd. has been gathering dust for 30 years as a series of developers have bought and sold the property without completing plans to convert it to apartments or hotel rooms. On Feb. 17, the latest firm to take a crack at redeveloping the property, JK Equities, announced that it is putting the former movie house up for sale. RKO Keith's Theatre is being marketed by Cushman & Wakefield.

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Neighborhoods: Flushing/ Agents: Stephen Preuss

Cushman & Wakefield has arranged a total of $6,622,500 in financing for two transactions exclusively arranged by Directors George Gnad and Jonathan Kristofich along with Associate Michael Winters.

A $4.5 million LP equity position was arranged on behalf of Arena Shoppes LLC for a retail building at 7300 West McNab Road, in North Lauderdale, Florida. The equity provider was an undisclosed U.K. equity source. The retail center, a former Walmart, contains approximately 92,596 square feet. The Sponsor is re-tentating the building, which will include a new tenant, Ross Dress For Less as anchor.

"I am truly proud to have been part of such a creative and professionally executed deal. Both sponsor and equity provider are perfect compliments for each other and I am confident that with their extensive experience and knowledge of the market, they will exceed expectations throughout the life of the project," said Gnad.

A $2.12 million loan was arranged to refinance a 28,600 square foot warehouse building at 59-71 Oak Street, Hackensack, New Jersey. The new loan features a cash out, reduction in interest rate and extended term for seven years.  The lender was Atlantic Stewardship Bank. The borrower was 59-71 Oak Street LLC.

"The refinance and cash out of 59-71 Oak Street, Hackensack reflects the strength of well-located buildings within the Bergen County warehouse & distribution market," said Kristofich.

"Through our extensive marketing approach, we solicited significant interest from many local lenders and negotiated a very competitive mixture of rate and term for our client," added Gnad.

Gnad and Kristofich are Directors at the New Jersey office of the Cushman & Wakefield Capital Services team. Over a 25 year career, Gnad has originated and structured in excess of $5 billion of capital on all major assets types and loan structures including bridge, value add, construction and term debt. Kristofich has evaluated and underwrote over 100 buildings from all asset classes with an aggregate value in excess of $250,000,000.

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February 1, 2016 | The Real Deal | Mark Maurer

New York City had a stellar year in 2015 for building sales — with massive properties like Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village and 11 Madison trading hands. But while it’s the buyers and sellers who normally make headlines, the brokers on those deals made out pretty well, too.

This month, The Real Deal ranked the top 30 investment sales brokerages for 2015 citywide and by borough.

What we found was that Eastdil Secured not only bested all other firms but also set a city record — $22.7 billion — for the most-ever closed sales in a year by a single brokerage.

The company was miles ahead of its rivals. The other firms in the top five were: CBRE with $8.8 billion, Cushman & Wakefield with $3.4 billion, Rosewood Realty Group with $3.2 billion and JLL and HFF tied with $2.9 billion.

The ranking — which included closed investment sales of $1 million and up, ground leases and leasehold interests — was culled from Real Capital Analytics and CoStar Group, as well as from the firms. Minority-stake deals were not included because they are not generally publicly recorded.

In the years since the mid-2000s boom, the neck-and-neck rivalry between Eastdil and its closest competitor, CBRE, has softened. The two firms are further apart in terms of dollar volume now more than ever...

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February 1, 2016 | Commercial Real Estate Direct | Josh Mrozinski

Gershon & Co. is offering for sale 55 Hope St., a 117-unit upscale apartment building with 6,200 square feet of retail space in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y.

The New York company has hired Cushman & Wakefield to market the four-year-old building, which could sell for $95 million, or about $805,085/unit.

The building's apartment units are 97 percent leased, while its retail space is fully leased by restaurant Momofuku Milk Bar. Units include...

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Neighborhoods: Williamsburg/ Agents: Brendan Maddigan, Stephen Palmese

February 1, 2016 | Wall Street Journal | Emily Nonko

A developer who converted a stalled condominium development in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood into a rental building has sold it for a profit.

Ronny Ben-Dov sold the 38-unit, 53,124-square-foot building at 305 McGuinness Blvd. for $31 million, according to Brendan Maddigan, a director of Cushman & Wakefield. The buyer, according to public records, is Westchester-based investment firm GDC Properties.

Mr. Ben-Dov in 2010 bought the then-stalled condo project for $13.4 million, Mr. Maddigan said, and converted it into rentals. Mr. Ben-Dov declined to comment. The buyer has no immediate plans to change the building, Mr. Maddigan said.

Today, rents at the building average about $45 a square foot, according to Mr. Maddigan. “At that time, 305 McGuinness was a good example of a stalled condo project of the last downturn,” he said...

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Neighborhoods: Greenpoint/ Agents: Brendan Maddigan