Photo: Savanna
Christopher Schlank and Nicholas Bienstock
Co-Managing Partners at Savanna
Last year's rank: 44
With $1 billion in New York City real estate either acquired or under contract in the past year and a half, Savanna remains a major player in office development, investment and leasing. Since last March, the firm has acquired seven office properties, including 521 Fifth Avenue, 360 Lexington Avenue and 24-28 West 25th Street. And earlier this month, it closed on the purchase of 1375 Broadway, a 27-story, 518,000-square-foot office tower near Bryant Park for $435 million. Anybody who can close that kind of deal in the middle of a global pandemic has earned a tip of the hat.
The firm also plans to complete construction on The Six, a 25-foot-wide, 26-story boutique office tower along Billionaire’s Row in Midtown, later this year. In addition, Savanna recently started work on 141 Willoughby Street, a 400,000-square-foot office tower designed by Fogarty Finger in Downtown Brooklyn. On the residential side, Savanna is wrapping up construction on the Vandewater, a 32-story, 183-unit condo building at 543 West 122nd Street in Morningside Heights.
The office leasing business has been brisk at Savanna’s buildings, particularly One Court Square. The Long Island City office tower made headlines after Amazon abandoned a planned lease there in February of 2019, just as Citi began to move its workers out. Still, tenants have leased nearly half a million square feet of space in the 53-story building over the past year, including a 103,000-square-foot renewal with cable company Altice USA.
Savanna also leased 80,000 square feet at 110 William Street to flexible office space provider Knotel last year.
The company is still bullish on New York City, despite the dire economic impact of COVID-19 on the five boroughs and its employers.
“We believe that New York City has proven itself to be perhaps the strongest and most resilient single market in the world over the past 30 years,” Savanna Co-Managing Principal Nicholas Bienstock wrote in an email. “While we are in the heart of the pandemic right now, we believe that New York will recover strongly from this crisis as it has from so many others. But, given the population density and reliance on public transportation, it will probably take a little longer for New York to recover than many other less dense major markets.”—R.B.R.
