Crown Acquisitions has sold a housing condominium for Long Island University students at 490 Fulton St. in Brooklyn for $62,742,225. The five-story building is just a block from the campus and the downtown Brooklyn shopping district.
The 120,000 square-foot upper unit, which consists of the top three floors, has 120 dorm rooms. The price comes to just under $500,000 per room.
Property records show the condo was purchased by an entity controlled by Stephen M. Gordon and Christopher Merrill’s Harrison Street Real Estate fund, based in Chicago. The property will be operated by the Houston-based Dinerstein Cos.’ Sterling University Housing division.
Stanley Chera’s Crown Acquisitions and Perella Weinberg Partners Asset Based Value Strategy bought the entire property in 2010 for roughly the same amount but will get to keep the lower two floors of 130,000 square feet of retail. Those spaces have been leased to Swarovski, Express, Planet Fitness, Seattle Coffee and Raymour & Flanigan.
The transaction was completed by in-house executives.
No one from any of the companies was available to comment.
***
Ad exec Donny Deutsch quietly renewed his office lease at 111 Eighth Ave. for 134,830 square feet after looking everywhere and deciding there’s no place like home — even if the landlord (Google) wanted him gone.
Rob Silver and Henry Kobrin of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented ad agency Deutsch, while Google was repped by a CBRE team. The renewal was highlighted in the CBRE quarterly report.
Since purchasing the property in December 2010, Google has tried to take over tenants’ spaces, but Deutsch, who has gorgeous, sweeping views, declined offers to buy him out.
Meanwhile, in December Google paid off its entire $467,947,418 Bank of America mortgage on the full-block Chelsea building that cost it $1.77 billion.
***
We hear several companies have jumped on AXA’s sublease opportunity at Vornado Realty Trust’s 1290 Ave. of the Americas that is being represented by a Jones Lang Salle team.
Right now, Morgan Stanley is examining two of the roughly 75,000-square-foot floors; Sirius Satellite has a lease out to expand to the 11th floor of 86,877 square feet; and Krug Remy Cointreau Amerique, already a building tenant, is closing in on a deal for the 52,811 square-foot 14th floor.
“It has big floors, a credit sub-landlord, is in move-in condition and furnished, and is priced right with the deals in the $40s per foot,” said one executive, who declined to be identified.
Post colleague Steve Cuozzo reported last month that State Street Bank will move to the 6th floor of 105,951 square feet after Microsoft relocates to 11 Times Square.
Vornado is also selling its Harlem Park development site at 1800 Park Ave. and East 125th Street for $65 million to Ian Bruce Eichner of Continuum Co., as we revealed last week.
All the permits for a 26-story office building with some retail and garage were recently renewed, but we hear Eichner is focusing on a 600-unit 80/20 so that more than 100 will be affordable.
We also hear Geoffrey
Newman of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank brought Eichner to the site.
The original land was purchased from the New York College of Podiatric Medicine.
Vornado has a right of first offer to buy its large adjacent site fronting East 124th Street until 2017, and it is unclear if Eichner’s purchase includes the ROFO.
Stay tuned.