By Al Barbarino 4/24 8:00am

Sales Beat

(Credit: GID)

Upper West Side Residential Towers Sell for Record-Breaking $400 M.

A joint venture led by The Carlyle Group has sold two newly-developed residential towers on the Upper West Side for a reported $400 million to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.

Completed in 2010, the The Aldyn and The Ashley, 38 and 23 stories-high, respectively, include a mix of rental and condominiums for a total of 345 units and a mixture of studio, one-, two-, three-and four-bedrooms that average roughly 1,000 square feet.

The Sacramento-based pension fund, also known as Calpers, made the purchase through Boston-based GID Investment Advisers LLC, its real estate manager for residential transactions.

“The Ashley and Aldyn provide GID an opportunity to expand our exposure in New York City in a single transaction,” said Bill Chiasson, senior vice president and director of eastern region acquisitions for GID, in a statement.  “Manhattan is a market that has historically provided consistent revenue growth versus the national average and where valuations hold up better over time versus other core, U.S. markets.” Read More

By Damian Ghigliotty 3/26 12:00pm

Mortgage Observer

NJ Multifamily Harvest

New Jersey Lenders Locked in Competition for Multifamily Assignments

The Garden State has become fertile ground for developers, and commercial real estate lenders both large and small are looking to get in on the action, while others are looking to retain and expand the market share they already have.

Competition among lenders is quickly growing as more people look to rent in New Jersey, the most urbanized state in the country, 94.7 percent of whose population is centered in urban areas, according to 2010 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. That abundance of multifamily properties just west of the Hudson River coincides with university expansions, new retail and office properties and other large real estate projects throughout the state.

Brian Whitmer, a senior director in investment sales for the New York tristate area at Cushman & Wakefield, works out of northern New Jersey and went through the pipeline of multifamily developments he sees in the works there. Of the 22,968 units he found in the pipeline in northern New Jersey, 59 percent, or 13,538 units, are in the Gold Coast—areas along the Hudson River like Jersey City, Hoboken and Weehawken. Read More

By Alessia Pirolo 1/11 12:08pm

Mortgage Observer

Zach_Montoya_Eurocrisis2012

Making Waves: European Banks Exit, Asian Banks Sail On

Last fall, a group of lenders—including debt funds, insurance companies and international banks—competed for the $80 million assignment to refinance Lehman Brothers Holdings’ On The Ave Hotel on New York City’s Upper West Side.

Ultimately, the borrower tapped Singapore-based United Overseas Bank, which in the last two years has been behind several large office loans in New York and hotel loans on the West Coast, but which was essentially a newcomer to the city’s hotel lending scene. UOB inked the deal during the same late November week when Bank of China closed a $465.9 million loan on the iconic Plaza Hotel, after having refinanced the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for $170 million earlier in 2012. Read More

By Carl Gaines 1/08 12:33pm

Mortgage Observer

Messrs. Fisher and Braddish.

CBRE Debt and Equity Team Talks Trends

For CBRE’s Keith Braddish and Mark Fisher—the two elder statesmen in the firm’s capital markets debt and equity finance division—the more fractured lending environment that has arisen out of the collapse of the CMBS market and the concurrent economic malaise has meant the opportunity to dazzle and shine. Read More

By Carl Gaines 10/31/12 7:30am

Mortgage Beat

Greenwich Place.

Greenwich Multifamily Properties Refinanced

HFF has arranged $96 million to refinance two multifamily properties in the New York City metro area. The properties—located in Greenwich, Conn.—include a total of 396 apartment units. The financing was arranged on behalf of LCOR, which was acquired by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System earlier this year. Read More

By Alessia Pirolo 10/16/12 2:24pm

Mortgage Beat

3336 Wisconsin Avenue.

Northwestern Mutual Provides $91 Million Construction/Permanent Financing on D.C. Development

A joint venture between Giant of Maryland and the Bozzuto Group secured $91 million in construction and permanent financing for Cathedral Commons, a 264,272-square-foot, mixed-use development in Washington, D.C.

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company originated the 13-year, fixed-rate loan, a spokeswoman with HFF confirmed. HFF represented the borrower on the deal. Read More

By Alessia Pirolo 9/12/12 11:52am

Sales Beat

320-324 Elizabeth Avenue, Newark, N.J.

Hampshire Self Storage Sells 10 Facilities to Extra Space Storage

HFF has announced that it has closed on the sale of 10 self storage facilities located throughout New Jersey and New York on behalf of the seller, the New Jersey-based Hampshire Companies, a full-service, private real estate investment firm.

Extra Space Storage, a real estate investment trust based in Salt Lake City and the second largest operator of self storage in the U.S., purchased the portfolio, which totals more than 7,433 units and 740,822 square feet. Read More

By Carl Gaines 5/01/12 9:00am

Mortgage Beat

1515 Broadway.

A Blockbuster Lease, Loan for SL Green

Viacom’s lease renewal and expansion at 1515 Broadway, which will lead to the company taking the entirety of the building’s leasable space, was preceded by one of the largest commercial mortgage loans the city has seen recently.

The Bank of China’s penchant for Class A Manhattan office buildings, and its history at 1515 Broadway, led to the blockbuster loan. The $775 million first mortgage that the bank provided recently will allow owner SL Green Realty Corp. to replace previous $447 million financing that had been in place since 2009—also from the Bank of China. According to SL Green, the difference will be used to pay for the transaction and “for general corporate purposes.”

Simon Cices, a partner in the New York office of Atlanta-based Troutman Sanders represented the Bank of China, in both the 2009 loan and this most recent refinancing. He told The Commercial Observer that the loan was negotiated both with and without Viacom in mind. Read More

By Carl Gaines 4/10/12 4:30pm

Mortgage Beat

Wells-Fargo-Logo

At Over $60 Billion in Originations, Wells Fargo Again On Top

The Mortgage Bankers Association last week released its annual ranking of loan originations. The data is broken into several metrics—such as originations for third parties and originations by investor group. However, for several categories, including total originations, Wells Fargo once again came out on top.

The bank’s commercial real estate originations for 2011 hit $60.2 billion, putting it way ahead of the other institutions in the top five. HFF came in at two on the list, with $20.6 billion, followed by Meridian Capital Group, CBRE Capital Markets and PNC Real Estate with $17.3 billion, $16.5 billion and $15.8 billion, respectively.

Alan Wiener, group head at Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital, told The Commercial Observer that the bank’s volume of originations in the New York City area for 2012 will continue apace. Read More

By Carl Gaines 4/02/12 1:44pm

Sales Beat

321 East 22nd Street.

321 East 22nd Street Sells for $31 Million

Benedict Realty Group has purchased 321 East 22nd Street for $31 million. HFF marketed the property for the seller, GID Investment Advisors, LLC. The building is a 117-unit, six-story multifamily property with an average unit size of 441 square feet. Commercial space at the building is currently occupied by Synergy Fitness. Read More