Blackstone Makes Pref Equity Investment in JEMB Realty’s Herald Towers

Labor Day weekend is officially over, and the scent of freshly sharpened pencils — and new deals — is in the air. 

Blackstone is recapitalizing JEMB Realty’s Herald Towers with a preferred equity investment in the Manhattan retail and residential property, Commercial Observer has learned. 

The size of the structured equity investment couldn’t immediately be gleaned, but sources familiar with the deal said it’s “less than $100 million.” 

Newmark’s Adam Spies, Adam Doneger and Michael Collins arranged the transaction, which was bid via a competitive process, sources said. 

Herald Towers is a 25-story, 1-million-square-foot building at 50 West 34th Street in Herald Square that was built in 1912 as the Hotel McAlpin. JEMB Realty acquired the building in 1999, converting the hotel rooms to apartments and renaming it Herald Towers. Today, the property consists of 691 apartments and 102,000 square feet of retail space. 

The building is currently 97 percent leased across both residential and retail components, sources said, and the signing of a major retail lease earlier this year certainly can’t have hurt the recap.  

In May, Old Navy, the largest brand in Gap’s portfolio, signed a 15-year lease for 55,000 square feet across two floors at the property, as Commercial Observer previously reported. The deal at the time marked the biggest retail lease in New York City this year, and moved Old Navy one block east from its former location at 150 West 34th Street.

JEMB Realty recently invested more than $13 million in renovations to Herald Towers, including unit upgrades, enhancements to its amenity package, and energy-efficient improvements to increase net operating income, sources said. 

The deal highlights the continued investor demand for high-quality, transit-oriented multifamily assets in Midtown South, one source said, as well as Blackstone’s conviction in New York City’s fundamentals. 

Blackstone and Newmark declined to comment. JEMB Realty didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

Cathy Cunningham can be reached at ccunningham@commercialobserver.com.