Adelaide Polsonelli
By Sarah Trefethen
Investment sales brokers have been busier than Santa’s elves this holiday season, as investors hustle to close deals before incurring increased federal capital gains taxes in the new year.
“It’s insanely busy right now,” said Adelaide Polsinelli of Eastern Consolidated. “I have piles of paper on my desk – I wish I had time to get to all these deals.”
Some deals are moving from contract to closing in under a week, she said, and lawyers, bankers and appraisers are all working around the clock to accommodate the accelerated schedule.
Polsinelli just closed on 72-76 Greene Street, which sold for $41.5 million to Chicago-based L3 Capital with partner Washington, DC-based ASB Capital Management.
The transaction equates to $1,186 per square foot. She has been working on the transaction for the past three years, according to Eastern Consolidated. “This was a very significant transaction for Soho, Eastern Consolidated, and me, personally,” Polsinelli said in a statement.
“This iconic building set a record price for a side street sale. In addition to Eastern Consolidated’s hat trick of selling this three times, after two previous failed transactions, I was able source the ultimate purchaser, an out of state buyer, who performed as promised and without a hitch. Fortunately, the seller Tom Hong, managing director of BSJ SoHo, an affiliate of Bear U.S.A. remained convinced that I would find the right buyer for his off-market trophy property.
“It was a nail-biting transaction, especially since at the eleventh hour last minute offers came in aggressively trying to break my deal. Fortunately, my buyer and seller understood that no one else would really close the deal at this price, without conditions and by year end.”
Tom Gammino
Meanwhile, in a deal brokered by Massey Knakal, a joint venture of the Kaufman Organization and Lubert-Adler purchased the office building at 27-35 West 24th Street, between Broadway and Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan’s Midtown South, in an all-cash transaction valued at $55.5 million.
Massey Knakal’s Thomas Gammino, vice president of sales, exclusively handled this transaction with John Ciraulo and Craig Waggner.
The purchasers were represented by Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP partner Thomas D. Kearns and counsels Hyman Kindler and Martin Cooper. Lubert was separately represented by Shep Federgreen and James Petrucci, directors of Gibbons P.C.
Signature Bank was the lender for the deal.
In New Jersey, HFF announced it has closed the sale of Avalon at Aberdeen Station, a 290-unit, Class A multi-housing community in Aberdeen.
HFF marketed the property on behalf of the seller, AvalonBay Communities, Inc. MFREVF Aberdeen Urban Renewal, LLC purchased the asset for $66.25 million or $228,448 per unit.
The HFF investment sales team representing the seller was led by senior managing directors Jose Cruz and Andrew Scandalios, managing directors Kevin O’Hearn and Jeffrey Julien and associate director Michael Oliver.
On Long Island, Onyx Equities LLC purchased the Atria West, a 235,000 s/f, Class-A office building in Garden City, one of the largest office transactions of 2012 on the Island,
Onyx purchased the building from CAF Realty, which acquired it in 2008 from Brookfield Asset Management.
Matthew Keefe of HK Group represented the buyer and seller in sale, which reportedly hit $29 million. Matthew Keefe, president of HK Group, was the sole broker in this transaction.
Atria West contains 250,000 s/f of Class A office space of which 75% is leased to JP Morgan Chase.
Onyx has tapped The Rochlin Organization of Jericho as its exclusive leasing agent and said it will begin a capital program to upgrade the public areas of the Atria West, which is also known as 900 Stewart Avenue.
Architect Marc Spector, a principal of the Spector Group, which designed the building, is designing the renovations.
According to Rochlin currently there are 77,452 s/f available for lease,
