From left: Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan, vice chairmen of CBRE, and 4 New York PlazaThe 1.1 million-square-foot office tower at 4 New York Plaza is being marketed for a sale by a Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan-led CBRE Group team, according to the New York Post.

The building, at 115 Broad Street near Water Street, is 95 percent occupied, thanks largely to an 800,000-square-foot lease held by JPMorgan Chase that runs through 2025. The New York Daily News and American Media are also tenants of the building.

The building is owned by Virginia-based Harbor Group, which purchased the building for just $108 million — a recession-friendly price, according to the Post — in January 2010. [more]

Clockwise from left: Neil Rubler, head of Vantage Properties, William Mack, founder of Area Property Partners, Jordan Slone, CEO of Harbor Group International, 3489 Broadway, 610 West 163rd Street, 548 West 164th Street and 519 West 143rd Street

The global private real estate firm Harbor Group International partnered with Great Neck, L.I.-based Jadam Equities to take control of a four-building, rent-regulated portfolio in Hamilton Heights from owners Vantage Properties and equity partner Area Property Partners.

Harbor Group International, based in Norfolk, Va. and led by Chairman and CEO Jordan Slone, won control after buying the mezzanine loan secured by an ownership interest in the 214-unit portfolio and holding a nonjudicial foreclosure. Vantage, run by President and CEO Neil Rubler, and the William Mack-led Area bought the four-building Esquire Portfolio in 2007 for $31 million.

It was Harbor Group’s first acquisition of a multi-family building in Manhattan, even as it owns about 9.8 million in commercial property and approximately 20,000 apartment units internationally. The company owns an interest in 4 New York Plaza in Lower Manhattan and 1412 Broadway in Midtown. [more]

Atlanta-based global investment firm Invesco and its operating partner, Adellco, signed a contract to buy Gramercy Park residential building the Elektra for $125 million, two industry sources said.

Invesco and Adellco agreed in January to buy the 32-story high-rise from a partnership that also includes Adellco and is led by a J.P. Morgan Investment Management fund, the sources said. J.P. Morgan bought the building in 2006 for $92.5 million. This past December, investment sales firm Holliday Fenoglio Fowler began marketing the 166-unit building located at 290 Third Avenue, between 22nd and 23rd streets, which it said was 97 percent occupied, an article from commercial trade publication Real Estate Alert said. [more]

From the March issue: Although they may be just beguiling mirages that will fade upon approach, there are some submarkets where asking rents have jumped in the past months, a trend that runs counter to the dour predictions from Manhattan leasing brokers that taking rents won’t rise for more than a year.

In the Meatpacking District, for example, Charles Blaichman’s CB Developers High Line building that remains under construction at 450 West 14th Street has asking rents above $100 per square foot. The space was added to the availability list in January, driving up average rates in the district, the most recent figures from commercial firm Jones Lang LaSalle show.

And in the Union Square submarket, the average asking rent rose by 14 percent with the addition of space at 300 Park Avenue South, commercial firm CB Richard Ellis’ latest report said.
[more]

JPMorgan Chase is in contract to sell 4 New York Plaza for $108.9
million, or $99 per square foot, the Post reported. The buyers of the
23-story, 1.1 million-square-foot building are Harbor Group
International, a real estate company based in Norfolk, Va., and Josh
Zamir’s Capstone Equities, which owns and operates more than 8 million
square feet, including 14 Wall Street and 156 William Street. An e-mail
written by Zamir and obtained by the Post revealed that JPMorgan, which
had also been previously looking to sell One Chase Manhattan Plaza,
would lease back 75 percent of the building at Broad and Water streets
for 15 years. The bank is hoping to collect $1 billion total on the
sale of a portfolio of 23 office buildings in eight states. [Post]