Office offerings are starting to make their way into the 2012 market as a new gem bubbles up in Hudson Square.
This 10-story building at 325 Hudson St. is being pitched by Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan at CBRE, who are also out with 4 New York Plaza and recently completed contracts for the sales of 10 E. 53rd St. and 33 Maiden Lane.
Now, Stacom and Shanahan expect to fetch around $500 a foot for the 240,000-square-foot, 1965-era building, which was gut renovated in 2001 by owners Young Woo, and Bristol Group, a private-equity firm from San Francisco.
“There is a fuel farm and cool office space and lots of infrastructure,” said Stacom. “It’s sexy. It’s the right size deal with office and technology tenants.”
The building is 95-percent leased to tenants that include SUNY Empire College, Verizon, Level 3 and Frog Design. Pearson has also leased some space while its new building across the street at 330 Hudson is being constructed.
The CBRE team also kicked off 2011 with the $485 million 100-percent sale of 750 Seventh Ave., but CBRE was not credited in the sales graphic that appeared in last week’s Post Commercial Real Estate Special.
Many 2011 sales and recapitalizations completed by brokerage firms were complicated with debt that was worth more than the property and capital “stacks” that had to be negotiated with multiple parties.
“You don’t get fee simple and you don’t get free and clear of debt [much anymore],” said Stacom, referring to the upcoming sale of 325 Hudson.
Shanahan noted that “4 [New York Plaza] is also fee simple and clear of debt,” adding that they will take bids on that at the end of February.
Ten E. 53rd St., which is being purchased by SL Green Realty Corp., had an unusual contract signing.
Stacom and Shanahan declined to discuss it, but sources previously told us that the sellers asked for — and got — two entirely different contracts with one reflecting the sale of the stock of the company that owns the building for $252 million, and the other an outright sale for $266 million.
“The sellers decided to go with the stock transfer,” said our source. SLG also declined comment.
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While her sister, Tara Stacom of Cushman & Wakefield, made it back to the Big Apple in time for the Real Estate Board of New York banquet, Darcy Stacom held down the Florida fort with their dad, Matt Stacom, a former CW honcho, who is recovering from a spill. Matt, we all know you’ll be up and walking again soon.
During the REBNY VIP cocktail hour, Ivanka Trump and her hubby, New York Observer publisher and real-estate owner Jared Kushner, kindly showed off cute baby photos to me and REBNY President Steven Spinola. Arabella definitely has her mom’s cheeks.
Finance Commissioner David Frankel took us to task for blaming the late tentative property-tax assessment roll on a “computer glitch.” Frankel said it was “human error.”
“Someone pushed the wrong button,” he said.
Frankel is keeping the roll open for Classes 2, 3 and 4 until March 5 and until March 19 for Class 1 homeowners as the deadline for filing applications to protest the tentative assessments. Those hearings will be held by the Tax Commission, whose president, Glenn Newman, was also in attendance.
We also chatted with former Finance Commissioner Fred Cerullo, who now heads the Grand Central Partnership, and City Council members Mark Weprin and Leroy Comrie. Mayor Mike Bloomberg congratulated Howard Rubenstein on receiving the Harry B. Helmsley Distinguished New Yorker award, while Council Speaker Christine Quinn is looking svelte for her wedding and confided to attendees she has already picked out her dress.
Among the other 2,200 in attendance — and please forgive me for not listing everyone — were: Vornado’s $64 million man, Michael Fascitelli; Jimmy Kuhn of NKF, which was bought by BGC; Bruce Mosler of Cushman & Wakefield, whose colleague David Green was the Young Real Estate Man of the Year; Burt Resnick; Glenwood’s Lenny Litwin and Gary Jacob; Related’s Jeff Blau; the George M. Brooker Management Award winner, Gerard Schumm of RFR; Woody Heller of Studley; Bill Rudin and his daughter, Samantha and Daniel Brodsky.
Also on hand were Douglas Durst, who accepted the Bernard H. Mendik Lifetime Leadership award; Hal Fetner; Leslie Himmel; Pamela Liebman, who took home the Kenneth R. Gerrety Humanitarian Award; and of course, Mary Ann Tighe, CBRE and REBNY chairman, and her husband, Dr. David Hidalgo, the city’s top repairs and maintenance man.
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The Chrysler Building has now signed a direct lease for 43,000 square feet with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, which was previously a subtenant of Wachovia.
The new long-term lease for the entire third floor had an asking rent of $65 a foot.
Mark Weiss, vice chairman of Newmark Knight Frank represented the hospital, while the Chrysler’s ownership was represented by Tishman Speyer Properties in-house.
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The number of sales that are now reflecting different parties, different stakes, equity interests, percentages of debt in capital stacks and even sales over periods of time, has complicated the listing and vetting of sales records and caused confusion among various parties — thus putting folks like me in the middle.
The industry desperately needs to figure out a playbook so we can properly credit who sold what for whom, when and for how much. Like us, Real Capital Analytics is trying hard to keep the stats kosher. Can the folks at REBNY now discuss?