Brooklyn Brewery Relocation, 25 Water Conversion Among REBNY Award Winners
By Mark Hallum June 15, 2023 12:30 pm
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Verada Retail, Savills and Newmark (NMRK) dominated the attention of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), taking home awards for what judges deemed to be the best deals of 2022.
The relocation of Brooklyn Brewery to 1 Wythe Avenue, Civic Hall’s lease at 124 East 14th Street and the office-to-residential conversion of 25 Water Street were the highlights of the 79th annual Commercial Sales Brokers Most Ingenious Deal of the Year Awards, held Wednesday night at 101 Park Avenue.
Nathaniel Mallon of Verada brokered the deal on behalf of Brooklyn Brewery, a brand that was struggling to find a space in its namesake borough for its kettles and tasting room. The tenant’s best bet to find a space that fit its complicated needs was in the Bronx.
But luck struck for the tenant, and Mallon was able to help the brewery move within North Brooklyn from 79 North 11th Street in Williamsburg to the 41,000-square-foot space inside the planned eight-story commercial building in Greenpoint, where the developer also needed an anchor tenant to secure financing for the project
Mallon won first place for the deal.
“Everyone had a win in this deal and that’s how we got it across [the New York City Planning Commission], zoning people, the landlord, the banks, the tenant,” Mallon said during remarks.
Ira Schuman of Savills took home second place for restructuring the lease terms for Civic Hall, a digital skills training center, which as a nonprofit would not otherwise be able to inhabit a space like 124 East 14th Street, also known as Zero Irving.
Instead of settling, Schuman was able to negotiate a 25-year lease for 85,000 square feet across six floors and 25 classrooms in the RAL Development Services-owned building by securing a tax exemption from the city and loans that would offset costs, and convincing the landlord to make contributions.
“It’s an amazing honor to win in an environment where the people that you compete with are just so creative, hardworking and smart,” Schuman said.
Third place went to Newmark’s Brett Siegel, James Kuhn and Evan Layne who helped secure a buyer for 25 Water Street, negotiating a deal that would make converting the office building into a 1,300-unit apartment building be financially viable.
That buyer, a venture between GFP Real Estate, Metro Loft Management and Rockwood Capital, landed a $535.8 million loan for the acquisition and redevelopment.
“It was a long journey because it started as a traditional investment sale, it included buying out a loan at a discounted price, and somebody having the conviction to take a million-square-foot office building and turn it into apartments,” Siegel told Commercial Observer. “We sold the vision, but [the buyers] saw the vision and they’re going to execute on it.”
Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.
