● time equities
Office condo sales booming
Time Equities Inc. (TEI) has sold out the office condominium at 131 West 33rd Street in Midtown, Manhattan.
The company actively marketed the condos to financial and creative firms, non-profit, associations and international companies.
BRANDON MADERIOS
“There is no longer a sense of educating the marketplace on the merits of office condominiums. Instead, there are an abundance of buyers with less and less product every day. This is particularly true in Midtown,” said Brandon Medeiros, director of office leasing and sales for Time Equities.
“During the past year, we have seen an over 10 percent increase in sales prices as inventory of new office condos decreases. We’ll be watching over the next year to see how the prices we set for office condos play out in the resale marketplace.”
Among the Time Equities office portfolio, buyers have included the New York State Nurses Association, the New York City Department of Hospital Workers #420, the Hemophilia Association of New York and Unity Church of New York.
In the fashion and accessories sector, buyers include Union Bay Clothing Company, Bodhi and various jewelry companies.
Time Equities also recently sold out of available office condos at 70 West 36th Street and expects an additional 40,000 s/f of space to come online at the building in the next couple of years.
“Our vision is to continue to grow our office condo portfolio and we are actively looking for our next acquisition in Manhattan,” said Medeiros.
“Over the past two years, we have seen prices rise by about 10 percent each year in our buildings and we are projecting Midtown prices to continue to rise at about 5 to 7.5 percent annually.
“With pricing on our side and the impact of the changing interest rates on building valuations, we may soon have both factors in our favor for a new acquisition.”
●cushman & wakefield
$15M data center deal
Leonia Data Center, a 67,000 s/f mission-critical facility at 2 ChristieHeights, has been sold in a collaboration between Server Farm Realty, a national data center developer and operator, and Carter Validus Mission Critical REIT.
The facility is 100 percent leased on a long-term basis to Infocrossing, Inc., a subsidiary of Wipro.
Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.’s Sean Brady and Grace Braverman represented Server Farm Realty in the property’s acquisition from Cole Realty Group, which was represented by CBRE.
The property was then acquired by Carter Validus, a Florida-based REIT, for a final sale price of $14.76 million, or more than $220 psf.
The two-story building includes first-floor data center space with more than 25,000 s/f of raised floor white space, and office space on the second floor. “This facility is on a great power grid, has great proximity to Manhattan and a good parking ratio,” said Brady, senior director and co-founder of Cushman & Wakefield’s Global Data Center Advisory Group.
“All of those reasons made the property a very attractive investment opportunity.”
● praedium group
Praedium cashes in on Midtown South, Florida markets
The Praedium Group and partner NorthEnd Equities have sold the leasehold interest in 16 West 36th Street to Kiamie Industries, Inc.
In a little over a year since acquiring the asset for $8.2 million, the partners sold the building for $12.9 million. After purchasing the building in February 2012, Praedium and NorthEnd implemented a strategic leasing and capital improvement program that enhanced the 13-story office and retail asset in the Midtown South neighborhood.
CHRIS HUGHES
“Midtown South is in great demand, and we’re seeing an influx of tenants from the fashion, technology, entertainment and media industries,” noted Chris Hughes, principal of The Praedium Group.
“With renovations to the lobby completed, we increased the building’s occupancy from 68% at acquisition to 95% in approximately a one-year period.”
Avison Young’s Neil Helman and Charles Kingsley, both principals and members of the firm’s Capital Markets Group, represented the sellers in the deal.
Praedium Group also announced that, along with partner Greystar Real Estate Partners, it has sold Aventine at Naples in Naples, Florida for $44.25 million.
That partnership bought the 350-unit multifamily property out of foreclosure in 2010 for $22 million then spent $4.3 million on a capital improvement program.
The buyer was Continental Realty.
● hamilton point investments llc
Old pals act working for
investment fund
Connecticut-based Hamilton Point Investments LLC has purchased Live Oak Trace, a 264-unit apartment property in Denham Springs, LA, a high-growth suburb of Baton Rouge.
The company purchased the property, which was built in 2002, from special servicer Ocwen Financial for $15.9 million. Ocwen has been running the property for Fannie Mae, which foreclosed on the asset last year.
This is the first acquisition in HPI Real Estate Opportunity Fund III, LLC, a fund targeting the purchase of $100 million of property from banks and CMBS special servicers that have taken back properties after the previous owners’ mortgage default and loss to foreclosure.
Live Oak Trace is the 20th property the company and its principals have acquired from CMBS lenders and banks since the real estate downturn. The company owns 3,500 apartment units in nine states and paid $157 million for the assets, which had defaulted mortgages totaling $220 million and market peak valuations of $270 million.
Hamilton Point Investments was formed in 2009 by managing principals Matthew A. Sharp and J. David Kelsey and has since grown to 85 employees involved in both fund operations and property-level management.
Both Kelsey and Sharp spent careers in real estate investment banking and commercial mortgage backed securities and formed Hamilton Point Investments to acquire assets from their former banking colleagues who had foreclosed on properties.
● SHVO
Luxury plan for Chelsea site
Former marketing guru-turned real estate developer Michael Shvo has closed on the purchase of a coveted High Line development site for $23.5 million.
Shvo, president and CEO of SHVO, and partner Victor Homes, paid a record $850 per buildable square foot for 239 Tenth Avenue, the highest amount ever paid for a residential development site in New York City, according to Shvo.
MICHAEL SHVO
Shvo is planning to build a luxury residential property on the 5,530 s/f site — currently occupied by a gas station — which offers 27,500 buildable square feet that can be increased to 41,000 s/f with the purchase of bonus air rights, according to James Nelson, a partner at Massey Knakal who represented the seller.
“This is truly a priceless property located at the nexus of the art world,” said Michael Shvo. “239 Tenth Avenue will bring together an unparalleled group of creative talent to craft a new level of ultra-luxury residences. ”
The site sites on the corner of West 24th Street, close to the Gagosian Gallery, Marianne Boesky, Gladstone Gallery, Luhring Augustine and Matthew Marks Gallery.
