Steve Wiktoff paced back and forth in a conference room at his partnership’s New York City office, eager to talk about his latest endeavors, but just as eager to tackle the other 10 commitments that had come his way over the course of the first of several interviews with The Mortgage Observer. Read More
Leasing activity in the first quarter of 2013 totaled 7.15 million square feet, a 30 percent increase from each of the last two quarters of 2012. However, peeling back the layers reveals that 46 percent of these lease transactions were renewals. Yes you read that correctly—almost half of the square footage leased in the first quarter was renewals. Seven out of the top 10 transactions were large tenants opting to remain in place; this is a big contributor to the trend. Read More
It seems like the perfect storm: investors are paying record prices to acquire residential rental apartments in metropolitan areas. And at the same time, financial institutions—especially regional and local commercial and savings banks—are offering the lowest rates for long-term financing for this asset class. Ramping up the competition, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, insurance companies, CMBS and conduits are all offering borrowers low rates, with terms we have not experienced in decades. Read More
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
To cap off 2012, The Mortgage Observer spoke to M&T Bank’s Peter D’Arcy, a 17-year company veteran who was recently promoted to regional president for New York City. Mr. D’Arcy spoke about his years with the bank, his new role and M&T’s plans to build its middle-market and health care lending presence. Read More
Everyone wants to operate a business in New York City. Companies from around the world travel to the Big Apple to expand their presence in the global market by staking out space here.
While the costs of operating a business in the city and in the region can be astronomical, the rewards can make it well worth it. So despite the challenges, each year a number of financial institutions from around the globe decide that it’s time to expand in New York in order to capitalize on companies’ desires to open shop or expand their operations here. As 2012 draws to a close, a number of new entrants from regional and national banks are elbowing in to gain market share in the New York tristate area by offering financing for commercial real estate. That means new hires. Read More
Doug Stern had a real estate dream. In his early 40s, after years in private equity and managing his family’s commercial real estate properties, he longed for a career change and a development project on his own. His mission became clear in Bayonne, N.J., where, he said, he fell in love with the former headquarters of the intimate apparel company Maidenform. Located two blocks from the Hudson-Bergen light rail 22nd Street station, the four-story, 94,000-square-foot brick complex—over 100 years old—was familiar to generations of Bayonne residents, many of whom had worked there until the company moved to Iselin, N.J. in 2007. Mr. Stern saw the potential for the historic, vacant property into a Brooklyn-style 99-unit residential building.
Although he could buy the building, he figured that he needed upward of $20 million in construction financing to redevelop it. Read More
M&T Bank said Monday that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Hudson City Bancorp for $3.7 billion in stock and cash. The acquisition will see Hudson City merge into an M&T subsidiary—giving M&T access to 135 new branch locations in New Jersey, New York and Fairfield County, Conn. The deal would make for the largest bank merger of 2012 so far. Read More
Ariel Property Advisors has brokered the sale of five Upper Manhattan properties totaling $5.85 million. The properties include a four-story parking garage in Morningside Heights and a series of vacant lots in East Harlem.
The vacant lots, located at 1840, 1846, 1854-1856 Park Avenue and 61 East 126th Street, sold for $1.35 million in an all-cash transaction, according to Victor Sozio, a broker at Ariel. Mr. Sozio represented both the seller and the buyer, along with colleagues Shimon Shkury and Michael Tortorici. Read More
The Middlesex Logistic Center, a 570,100-square foot warehouse and distribution center in Edison, N.J. due to be delivered in 2013 by developer JG Petrucci Co., has received $41.2 million in construction financing and joint venture equity. Read More
Eastern Union Commercial has arranged $34 million in refinanced loans for a portfolio of skilled nursing facilities located in southern New Jersey and an unnamed New York City borough. Meanwhile, the commercial mortgage brokerage reported that its loans closed during the first quarter of 2012 had increased by 110 percent compared to the same period a year ago.
Financing for the nursing facilities was provided by M&T Bank and was negotiated by Abe Bergman, a managing partner at Eastern Union. It was tricky, Mr. Bergman told The Commercial Observer, due to the properties being in different stages of construction and initial loans that were coming due at different times. Read More
Fleet of foot, with a concentration on maintaining its focus on community banking and an ownership mentality, M&T Bank’s performance during the financial crisis might give competitors pause. Now, with May 2011’s acquisition of Wilmington Trust, the bank is branching out, providing high-wealth owners of real estate in New York and elsewhere with wealth management and services.
In New York, the bank’s real estate portfolio has grown significantly over the past few years. Executives cited, between 2009 and 2011, an increase of $1.1 billion—up to $5.6 billion. Read More
