It looks like Boston Properties has finally roped another anchor tenant for 250 W. 55th St. Sources tell us that the law firm Morrison Foerster has signed a letter of intent for at least 200,000 square feet at the upcoming new building.
“It’s now a viable project,” said one industry source, rejoicing at the notion of a new office building coming on line. The 843,564 square-foot, 40-story glass walled tower-on-a-base was designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill. Plans call for 25,000 square feet of restaurants and retail, 22,000 foot floor plates, a roof garden on the third floor set back, and a fountain in its lobby.
The project was capped at its foundation when the market turned in 2009, but all permits have been kept up to date. Back then, the law firm Proskauer Rose scrapped talks to move into 400,000 square feet.
In 2010, Boston Properties, a real estate investment trust, paid $12.8 million to terminate a 200,000 square-foot lease signed by law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.
Ironically, Proskauer recently moved into the same amount of feet at the brand new 11 Times Square, which bravely bar reled on with its con struction during the downturn in the market.
Gibson Dunn has also since re newed and ex panded its lease for 20 years at the MetLife building at 200 Park Ave. As first reported in The New York Observer, 30 Rockefeller Plaza’s squeezed tenant, law firm Chadbourne & Park, is also negotiating for space at 250.
Just remember that a letter of intent is just a letter and negotiations can still break off before a full lease is signed.
The CB Richard Ellis team that represents Morrison Foerster declined to comment as did Boston Properties. Stay tuned.
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Yesterday, Norman Sturner staved off the upcoming foreclosure auction of the 400,000 square-foot 1180 Ave. of the Americas by mezzanine debt holder Shorenstein with a financial influx from a new Chinese investor.
Sturner’s company, Murray Hill Properties will continue to manage and lease the property.
Howard Michaels of the Carlton Group brought in the investor, whose name couldn’t be learned, just as he did last week at the larger One Park Ave.
Here, Carlton obtained a new mortgage and brought in Vornado Realty Trust to recapitalize the building by buying 95 percent..
Led by a Cushman & Wakefield team, NYU Langone Medical Center also completed a lease for an additional 180,500 feet to total 367,584 feet.
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Pantzer Properties, owned by Edward, Jason and Jordan Pantzer, and their 50/50 partners, Daniel Neidich‘s Dune Real Estate Partners, have bought the senior mezzanine slice of a $200 million loan on the Icon’s portfolio. The loan covers 36 prewar apartment buildings with 786 apartments and 12 retail stores.
Thirty-four of the buildings are in the Upper East Side area bounded by E. 55th St. and E. 89th St. and Third and York Avenues. The loan is current and was marketed by Eastdil Secured’s team of Douglas Harmon, Adam Spies and Jonathan Firestone.
Last week, Pantzer and Dune closed the $460 million purchase of the eight- property, 2,580 unit multifamily Magazine Portfolio in Washington, D.C. that was previously part of the Town & Country REIT.
According to Jones Lang LaSalle, whose Mid-Atlantic office brokered the transaction, the $460 million sale is the largest multifamily deal in the US since 2008.
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As The Post reported yesterday, Pier A is being restored and will be redeveloped by The Dermot Co. Yesterday, the Battery Park City Authority officially awarded the lease to Dermot and its partners, Harry and Peter Poulakakos, who will run a restaurant and an oyster bar at the 36,000 foot facility that will also have party space and a visitor center.
H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture has overseen the recent restoration design work on the 1880s era pier while the LiRo Group is the construction manager.
Stalco Construction is the general contractor on the $9 million job that will include a geothermal climate system and a LEED silver rating.
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Ivan Hakimian has opened his own brokerage sales office as Hakimian Properties. He was previously with Itzaki Properties. Hamkimian is known for his quiet, off market transactions such as the sale of Norman Sturner‘s 1414 Ave. of the Americas to Starwood earlier this year.
“Two Thousand Eleven is going to be a very active year and it seemed like the right time to branch out,” said Hakimian.
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Second-hand store Unique Thrift Store has inked a deal to move into a whopping 60,000 square feet at 162-10 Jamaica Avenue. The Queens building is also known as Gertz Plaza.
Jack Terzi of JTRE represented both the Little Canada, Minn.-based chain owned by Apogee Retail, as well as the building owners, Gertz Plaza Acquisitions. The asking rent was $1.5 million for part of the ground and the entire basement of the building.
Additionally, Terzi and colleague Albert Sultan of JTRE represented JEM International in its lease for the entire 11th floor of 12,500 square feet at 1 E. 33rd St.
Michael Joseph of Colliers International represented the ownership which had an asking rent of $35 per foot.
Sources in the industry told us that Terzi, who is an owner as well as a broker, is about to make the deal of his life.
When we contacted Terzi, he explained that to complete a once-in-a-lifetime merger, he has only one question that needs to be answered from a regular Between the Bricks reader known as “Lottie.”
Jack wants to know: “Will you marry me?”
Stay tuned. [email protected]
