A fund managed by Magna Hospitality has offloaded four New York City hotels for $489.8M.
The 374-key Motto by Hilton New York City Chelsea, one of four hotels in a portfolio that sold for almost half a billion dollars this week.
The 1,129-room portfolio that traded hands is composed of the 196-room Hilton Garden Inn New York Times Square North, the 320-room DoubleTree by Hilton New York Times Square South, the 239-room Fairfield Inn & Suites New York Midtown Manhattan and the 374-room Motto by Hilton New York City Chelsea.
The Hilton Garden Inn sold for $115.5M, the DoubleTree sold for $99.7M, the Fairfield sold for $52.2M, and the Motto sold for $222.1M, CoStar reported.
The Magna Hotel Fund VI, which closed in 2018 with $250M, sold the properties to unidentified “large institutional owners” and a separate Magna fund. Four lenders were also involved in the sale but weren’t identified. Gregory Weingart, an attorney with Eckert Seamans, signed for both seller and buyer in one of the deed records posted to the city register.
Magna built up the portfolio in the early days of the pandemic. It more recently acquired the Hilton Garden Inn at 237 W. 54th St. out of foreclosure from The Moinian Group.
The portfolio deal is the largest in NYC since the city council passed the controversial Safe Hotels Act last year.
TOP SALES
Bonjour Capital has acquired the 180-unit rental apartment portion of a 28-story Sheepshead Bay building for $75M from AvalonBay Communities, Commercial Observer reported. The acquisition of 1501 Voorhies Ave. is Bonjour’s second transaction within 30 days, following a late September deal for properties in Tribeca. Adam Spies, Dan O’Brien, Adam Doneger and Michael Collins of Newmark represented AvalonBay in the deal.
***
Ikea is building on its NYC footprint, with its parent company, Ingka Investments, buying 529 Broadway from Jeff Sutton for $213M. The retailer plans to open a 25K SF store on the two bottom floors of the 53K SF building and convert its upper four floors to office. Wharton Properties, A&H Acquisitions, Aurora Capital Associates and Thor Equities originally bought the SoHo building for roughly $147M in late 2012. Eastdil Secured advised Sutton on the deal.
***
Sotheby’s has sold its former HQ at 1334 York Ave., where it has been since 1980, for $510M. The buyer was Weill Cornell Medicine, which is committing to expanding its Upper East Side campus. Sotheby’s will continue to lease space in the building but also plans to relocate to the Breuer Building at 945 Madison Ave., which it purchased for $100M in 2023. Weill Cornell’s campus is just a block south from 1334 York Ave. JLL’s David Giancola, Geoff Goldstein and Steve Klein represented Weill Cornell Medicine, while Doug Middleton, Mary Ann Tighe and Lauren Crowley Corrinet of CBRE represented Sotheby’s, according to Bloomberg.
TOP LEASES
Courtesy of COOKFOX
A rendering of Terminal Warehouse, which has signed its first tenants after coming online with no leases signed at the start of this year.
L&L Holding Co., Columbia Property Trust and Cannon Hill Capital Partners have signed their first lease at Terminal Warehouse, the industrial-to-office conversion near Hudson Yards that came online earlier this year without any leases signed. Convene Hospitality Group has signed a 50K SF lease across three floors as a new special events space in the remodeled building. The event space will be named The Mallory after the building’s original 1890s architect, George Mallory. Convene will use the space for events, galas and special occasions as well as a conference space for office tenants. Fitness chain Equinox also signed for 50K SF, The Real Deal reported. Cushman & Wakefield’s Alan Schmerzler, Catherine Merck, Sean Moran, Steven Soutendijk and Patrick O’Rourke represented the landlord, while CBRE’s Rocco Laginestra repped Convene and Equinox was represented by Newmark’s Jeff Roseman.
***
The New York State Office of General Services has expanded by 66K SF at SL Green’s 919 Third Ave., bringing its total footprint in the building to 117K SF. The 15-year lease brings the 1.5M SF building to 100% occupancy, according to the landlord. Other tenants include law firm Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP and Bloomberg LP. The state was repped by CBRE’s Stephen Siegel, Liz Lash, Peter Larkin and Mark Bezold, while SL Green was repped by CBRE’s Robert Alexander, Ryan Alexander, Emily Chabrier, Taylor Callahan, Alex D’Amario and Nicole Marshal.
***
Bilt, a company that rewards consumers for making on-time rent payments with points and credits for everything from pharmacies to restaurants, has signed a lease for a new HQ in New York City. The platform signed a 15-year deal for 58K SF at Nuveen’s 837 Washington St., taking over the entire Meatpacking District building that used to be occupied by Samsung. Bilt, valued at nearly $11B earlier this year, plans to invest more than $50M in the HQ, backed by more than $6M in state tax credits. Nuveen plans to renovate the facility for 200 Bilt employees to move to in early 2026 with conference facilities, collaboration spaces and a rooftop lounge. The building was originally constructed by Taconic and leased to Samsung. It was sold to Nuveen in 2015.
***
SuperFresh has signed a 23K SF lease at BRP Cos.’ 166-20 90th Ave., a 614-unit, 12-story mixed-use development in Jamaica. The supermarket is expected to open at the development, known as Ruby Square, in spring 2026. The property is a mixture of studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments, and it has 185 units reserved as affordable housing. Ripco Real Estate’s Hymie Dweck repped SuperFresh, while the landlord repped itself.
***
Design and tech company Huge Inc. has signed a deal for 17K SF at Adams & Co.’s 53 W. 23rd St., bringing the 12-story building to full occupancy. Huge will take the entire eighth floor of the Class-B tower for 10 years. Asking rents were roughly $65 per SF. Jeff Buslik, Brad Cohn and Alan Bonett of Adams & Co. represented the landlord, 23 R.P. Associates LLC. Savills repped Huge.
***
The parent company of Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Buccellati has signed a 138K SF office lease at Oxford Properties and Crown Acquisitions’ 645 Fifth Ave., Commercial Observer reported, citing Savills’ third-quarter office report. The tenant, Richemont, has been in the 21-story building since 2001, when it first signed for 43K SF, according to previous reporting from the New York Post.
***
Asset management company BlackRock has expanded its NYC HQ at Related Cos.’ 50 Hudson Yards to more than 1.2M SF, Commercial Observer reported. BlackRock has subleased 194K SF from Meta, which had been looking to shrink its footprint by 250K SF since December 2022. BlackRock previously added more than 50K SF to its space in July 2024 to occupy just over 1M SF at the 77-story tower, one of NYC’s largest. Peter Riguardi, Matthew Astrachan, Joseph Messina and Hannah Bernstein of JLL brokered the deal.
***
Versant signed a lease for 165K SF for temporary office space at Columbia Property Trust’s 229 W. 43rd St., Commercial Observer reported. The company, a corporate cable channel spinoff from Comcast, is still seeking a more permanent location but has set up camp in the former New York Times building for the time being.
TOP FINANCING DEALS
The Westin New York Grand Central Hotel at 212 E. 42nd St.
The Westin New York Grand Central Hotel, at 212 E. 42nd St., has scored a $216M refinancing deal. A joint venture from Smith Hill Capital and Bain Capital provided the financing to the hotel’s owner, Davidson Kempner Capital Management, CO reported. The 774-key hotel also has 19K SF of meeting and event space as well as a restaurant, a fitness center and valet parking.
***
RXR’s freshly launched Gemini Office Venture recapitalized 1211 Sixth Ave. for nearly $1.45B, CO reported. The 45-story, 2M SF tower is 88% occupied and has a tenant roster that includes News Corp. and Fox News. RXR acquired a 49% stake in the office building in January from Ivanhoé Cambridge, which now goes by La Caisse and continues to hold the majority stake in the asset. The deal reportedly includes a three-year extension on the debt of just less then $1.04B originated by Apollo Global Management. Roughly $250M to $400M of equity will be supplied by Gemini’s new investors: Baupost Group, King Street Capital Management, Criterion Capital, Abrams Capital and Liberty Mutual. Newmark‘s Adam Spies, Doug Harmon, Marcella Fasulo and Adam Doneger brokered the deal.
***
Legion Investment Group and AVRS Partners LP netted a $155M construction loan for an 83-unit, 23-story condo project at 550 W. 21st St. The financing came from Eldridge Real Estate Credit, the real estate investing strategy of Eldridge Capital Management. The West Chelsea development is slated for completion in mid-2027 and expects to launch sales next year.
***
Affinius Capital originated two loans for residential developments in Brooklyn. The first was a $46M loan to The Dome, a 70-unit multifamily at 210 Greenpoint Ave. owned by The Jay Group. The second was a $36M loan to refinance 1885 Atlantic Ave., an 89-unit building in Stuyvesant Heights. The Jay Group plans to use the funds to lease the properties to stabilization. Henry Bodek of Galaxy Capital arranged both deals.
***
Vanbarton Group landed a $300M loan from Brookfield to finance the acquisition and redevelopment of 6 E. 43rd St., which the developer plans to turn into a 400K SF, 441-unit residential building. The building was previously owned by the Milstein family’s Emigrant Savings Bank. The developer will set aside 111 units as affordable housing to qualify for the 467-m program and expects to start construction immediately. Move-ins are expected to start by spring 2027.
***
Vanbarton Group also notched a $280M refinancing deal for its office-to-residential conversion at 160 Water St., Commercial Observer reported. The developer will turn the 26-story, 525K SF office building into a 588-unit luxury rental building known as Pearl House. The financing is a combination of a senior loan from AllianceBernstein and a mezzanine loan from Brookfield. Grant Frankel and Ethan Pond of Eastdil Secured brokered the deal. Vanbarton has owned the property since 2022 when Brookfield provided it with a $272M acquisition loan.
***
A joint venture between Bungalow Projects and Bain Capital has closed a more than $300M deal to finance two film and television studio developments in Bushwick and Red Hook. The majority of the financing is a commercial property assessed clean energy financing mechanism known by the acronym C-PACE, which offers low interest rates in exchange for sustainability commitments. The $156M slug of debt is the biggest C-PACE loan on record in New York. CounterpointeSRE, a MassMutual portfolio company that focuses on sustainable lending, signed as the lender.