APF Properties, the landlord that just acquired 28 West 44th Street from SL Green, is renaming the property “The Club Row Building” and moving into new office space there, more than doubling its size. According to the Observer, APF is taking 5,000 square feet of space at its 367,000-square-foot Club Row, named after the private Harvard, New York Yacht, Cornell, Princeton and Penn clubs that line the block. APF is also hiring two new staffers and, according to partner Kenneth Aschendorf, “we definitely plan on growing more… we’re eyeing all of the properties that are on the market now.” ” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

A joint venture of APF Properties and Prudential Real Estate Investors has signed an agreement to buy the 367,000-square-foot office tower at 28 West 44th Street for $161 million from SL Green Realty, the companies announced today. The building, which sits two blocks from Grand Central Station between Fifth and Sixth avenues and is 87 percent leased, is slated for $12 million in capital improvements under its new ownership. “We particularly like the building because it has the characteristics of a core asset, but is trading at a price reflective of its current state as a Class B building,” said Berndt Perl, a principal at APF. TRD [more]

Billy Macklowe and 636 Sixth Avenue

William Macklowe, son of troubled developer Harry, is set to close this week on his first building since the launch of his eponymous real estate company last year. According to the Wall Street Journal, Macklowe, who initiated the much talked-about split from his father and is attempting to start fresh with his William Macklowe Company, will acquire 636 Sixth Avenue for $45.2 million in a joint venture with ING Clarion Partners. They paid in cash to seller APF Properties, which bought the 82,000-square-foot office property for just $29 million in 2004. Comments

Darcy Stacom, vice chairperson at CB Richard Ellis, has been tapped to sell 636 Sixth Avenue, an 82,000-square-foot office building between West 19th and 20th streets, which was recently put up for sale by APF Properties, Crain’s reported. Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics, estimated that the Flatiron District building could get anywhere from $400 a square foot to $500 a square foot, for a price of around $32 million to $41 million. Stacom also beat out several brokers to market 1330 Sixth Avenue, a unit of a Canadian-government-owned pension fund, which Fasulo said could fetch between $500 a square foot to $600 a square foot, since it was recently refurbished and is in a desirable location. Stacom recently handled the sale of two of the largest transactions this year — 600 Lexington Avenue and 125 Park Avenue. She also just sold an owner’s 50 percent stake in 1540 Broadway and has been tapped to sell a hotel, in addition to a majority stake in 120 Broadway — a landmark tower co-owned by developer Larry Silverstein — for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System. [Crain's]

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From the January issue: They are not easily recognizable, but they are out there all around us, on the streets of Midtown and Lower Manhattan.
They are a growing breed of office towers, not quite alive but not
entirely dead either. They are New York’s City’s zombie buildings. And
within the commercial real estate world, once a building is tagged as a
problem site, it has a difficult time shaking off the negative label,
attracting tenants and finding rental income to nurse itself back to
health.
“It is a super-slow-motion thing that is occurring,” said Glenn
Markman, a commercial broker for Cushman & Wakefield, explaining
the vicious cycle that many Manhattan buildings have gotten stuck in
since the start of the downturn. more

While commercial real estate experts predict a rise in distressed securitized loans for New York City over the next year, new data shows the number of assets added to the tally last month actually fell. The quantity of loans transferred to special servicers dropped sharply last month, and those placed on servicer watchlists declined slightly, new data provided by financial tracking firm Trepp to The Real Deal shows. Only three New York City loans were transferred to a special servicer in September, down from 13 the month before, the figures indicate. At the same time, the volume of assets placed on a servicer’s watchlist fell slightly to 40 from 50 the month before. [more]