The Starrett-Lehigh Building

From the October issue: In December 2007, less than a year before the fall of Lehman Brothers and as the vise of the credit crunch was tightening, SL Green Realty closed on one of the biggest deals of the decade: $1.575 billion for 388 and 390 Greenwich Street, the 2.6 million-square-foot office complex then occupied largely by Citigroup.

But SL Green, New York’s biggest commercial landlord, did not act alone in the $598-a-square-foot purchase. It had a little help from some loonies, or Canadian dollars. The REIT’s minority partner on the deal, taking a 49.4 percent stake, was SITQ, the real estate investment wing of Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, a Montreal-based pension fund. (SITQ has since merged with Caisse’s other real estate subsidiary, and now goes by the name Ivanhoe Cambridge.) [more]

From left: Broadway Partners CEO Scott Lawler, 280 Park Avenue and 450 West 33rd Street

Recapitalizations are driving the Manhattan commercial real estate market as investors try to better position debt of properties acquired during the boom. Crain’s reported that one-third of all commercial transactions by dollar volume, and seven of the 10 largest office transactions, were recaps. In total, $5.4 billion worth of recapitalizations have occurred thus far in 2011, compared to $2.6 billion in all of 2010.

Two of the largest such transactions involved properties Broadway Partners acquired during the boom, Crain’s noted. In April, Brookfield Office Properties took responsibility for $517 million worth of debt Broadway Partners had at 450 West 33rd Street, a 1.6 million-square-foot office building Broadway bought in 2007, and earned a majority stake in the property. [more]

Fresh off his joint $136 million purchase with SL Green of 1552 Broadway, the Times Square commercial property that houses TGI Friday’s, Jeff Sutton has become one of the most prominent retail landlords in the city, The New York Observer said. According to the profile, in which Sutton declined to participate (as he did for a recent story by The Real Deal on his Manhattan activity), the Gravesend, Brooklyn-native started his march to the top in the early 1990s with a risky strategy: he would get the lease first, and then buy the space with the lease money. He used the strategy first with Payless Shoes and then CVS, before landing his big break in 2002, signing American Girl at 609 Fifth Avenue.
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Jeff Sutton and 1552 Broadway

SL Green Realty and Jeff Sutton are in contract to purchase the landmarked I. Miller Shoe Building at 1552 Broadway for $135 million from the Riese Organization, the Post reported. The joint venture, which is slated to close on the purchase by summertime, is likely to shutter the building’s iconic TGI Friday’s, a source said, and replace it with “a use that no one has thought of.” The 15,000-square-foot property comes with some air rights as well as two billboards that can be upgraded to LED signs and the approvals necessary to build a third sign. [more]

SL Green Realty has bought out its joint venture partner in Times Square’s 1515 Broadway, giving the city’s largest office landlord full ownership of the property in a transaction valuing it at $1.21 billion, the company announced today. SL Green had owned the 1.75 million-square-foot building with SITQ, a subsidiary of Canadian investment fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, one of several joint ventures for the pair throughout the city. TRD [more]

From left: Joanne Podell, 521 Fifth Avenue and 1515 Broadway

After an overall strong second quarter, Manhattan’s prime shopping corridors showed mixed results last quarter with rents falling or remaining flat and vacancy rates climbing in more than half the districts tracked, a new rep [more]

It looks like 2010 is going to turn out to be another year when Canadian pension fund [more]

It looks like 2010 is going to turn out to be another year when Canadian pension fund [more]

EEmerge, an office business center subsidiary of SL Green Realty, has just moved into the 11th and 12th floors of SL Green-owned 1515 Broadway, the famous Times Square home of Viacom and site of MTV studios. The 54-story, 1.9 million-square-foot building, which counts Viacom as its main tenant, will now serve as eEmerge’s main headquarters. The affiliate group, which focuses on flexible and short-term office space, will be utilizing a total of 65,000 square feet in the 72 percent occupied building. TRD
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From left: SL Green CEO Marc Holliday, 1515 Broadway, the Graybar Building

It has been “a very busy, satisfying seven weeks,” for SL Green Realty, CEO Marc Holliday said in a conference call with investors today to discuss the company’s fourth-quarter earnings results. The company last spoke to investors at its annual conference Dec. 7.

SL Green posted a $5 million loss for the quarter yesterday, down from
a $76 million gain for the fourth quarter of 2008, but Holliday was
nonetheless optimistic about 2010′s prospects.
Strong leasing activity will better-position the city’s office landlords to attract tenants without the generous concessions seen in 2009, he said.
“The general consensus amongst owners is that we’re going to
see concessions tighten up this year,” Holliday said, adding that
security deposits and lease lengths were likely to increase.
The city’s largest landlord saw average starting rents fall by
30 percent to $33.05 per square foot in the fourth quarter, pushed
downward in part by a 227,782-square-foot lease renewal by BMW of
Manhattan at 555 West 57th Street. Starting rents averaged $47.31 per
square foot in the third quarter of 2009. [more]