From left: the groundbreaking and a rendering of 18 Park
A new Jersey City, N.J. mixed-use development — 18 Park — broke ground today with Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy in attendance, a statement from the developers said. The 422-unit luxury rental building will sit atop a new state-of-the-art facility for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Hudson County and is being developed by Ironstate Development and Kushner Real Estate Group. [more]
From left: 200 Lafayette Street, a rendering of 510 West 22nd Street and 100 Fifth Avenue (credit: PropertyShark)
It’s clear that technology firms have flocked to Midtown South to be close to their industry counterparts, but Crain’s noted that how such firms choose their specific space is not so clear. Thanks to the varying size, focus and age of tech firms it’s practically impossible to predict where they’ll choose space. [more]
After various delays and discussions, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted this morning to approve a highly scaled-back version of Kushner Companies’ proposed penthouse additions to the landmarked Puck Building at 295 Lafayette Street, it was announced today.
The approved additions are now 20 feet shorter, according to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which fought against the original proposal, and the size has been reduced by about 1,500 square feet. While the original proposal was prominently visible for many blocks to the north, east, and west of the building, much of the new version is practically invisible from the west, the society said.
News of the proposed rooftop extension broke in August and has been rejected several times by Landmarks since, largely on the basis of its original scale. – Katherine Clarke… [more]
Jared Kushner’s Kushner Companies has completed a refinancing of its mammoth tower at 666 Fifth Avenue with Vornado Realty Trust, Bloomberg News reported. Vornado is injecting $80 million of equity into the project in return for a 49.5 percent stake in the tower, while Kushner will also contribute $30 million to the refinancing.
Under the agreement, the tower’s senior debt will be reduced to $1.1 billion from almost $1.22 billion, a source with knowledge of the deal told Bloomberg. The equity contributions will cover the costs of leasing the 30 percent of the building that’s currently vacant, the source said. … [more]
Jared Kushner, a principal of the Kushner Companies, and the Puck BuildingThe Landmarks Preservation Commission again did not approve Kushner Companies’ proposal for a penthouse on top of the historic Puck Building at 295 Lafayette Street in Soho. The commission said it wanted further revisions to the scale and visibility of the rooftop addition to the 203,000-square-foot, mixed-use building between Houston and Jersey streets. The commission had previously rejected an even larger version of the proposal last month.
Though the LPC noted that it is open to an addition on the building, Chairman Robert Tierny said, “some rethinking is in order.” – Adam Fusfeld… [more]
Kushner Companies CEO Charles Kushner, the owner of 666 Fifth Avenue and father of New York Observer publisher Jared Kushner with a checkered past, has put his Livingston, N.J. home on the market for just less than $2 million, Curbed reported. The two-story mansion at 30 Fawn Drive has 18 rooms in total, including seven bedrooms and five plus two half bathrooms, and sits on a 30,550-square-foot lot with a two-car garage, according to the Prudential New Jersey listing. … [more]
Jared Kushner intends to transform Soho’s landmarked Puck Building into luxury penthouses, the Post reported, with a private lobby and entrance on Lafayette Street.
The Kushner Companies principal has planned six units at the Puck Building at 295 Lafayette Street that will range in size from 5,000 square feet to 8,500 square feet and range in price from $15 million to $50 million, along with a small rooftop addition still to be approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Post said.
“They are designing six, very customized high-end homes with great finishes, big closets and layouts planned as if they were moving in themselves,” a source said.
A portion of the Puck Building’s ground and lower levels are being renovated for a new 39,000-square-foot outdoor gear store set to open in November.
Other floors are currently leased to office tenants. [Post]… [more]
For Jared Kushner, the 30-year-old owner of the New York Observer and 666 Fifth Avenue, 2011 will be a defining year, according to the New York Times. Personally, Kushner’s wife, Ivanka Trump, is pregnant and poised to give birth to his first son. Professionally, Kushner is working to modify the loans on the $1.8 billion purchase of 666 Fifth Avenue he and his company, Kushner Companies, made at the height of the bubble, and to ensure that the Observer remains relevant through its third editor-in-chief in two years. Kushner, the story notes, was born into real estate through his father Charles. He began making deals of his own as an undergraduate at Harvard University buying apartment buildings throughout Boston. … [more]
The large office and retail landlord Vornado Realty Trust is negotiating with Kushner Companies to buy a stake in 666 Fifth Avenue’s equity and is talking with representatives of the building’s lenders to cut its debt, several industry sources said.
The real estate investment trust Vornado would pay an undefined “nine-figure” sum (meaning something between $100 million and $999 million), according to a source, for a piece of the building.
Sources gave conflicting accounts of how far along any deal was. Several said no deal was finalized, and one said Kushner was talking with multiple potential partners such as funds. But it was clear that Kushner was actively pursuing investors in the building.
In the spring of 2010, Kushner asked that the $1.2 billion in securitized loans on the 1.5 million-square-foot building located between 52nd and 53rd streets, be put into special servicing with LNR Partners, so that the debt could be restructured…. [more]
A new tenant for the high-profile Takashimaya building at 693 Fifth Avenue will likely pay a ground-floor rent higher than the $2,000 per square foot that Swatch recently signed for in a space nearby, property owner Joseph Sitt, chairman and CEO of Thor Equities, said in an interview with Insights from The Real Deal (see video above).
Swiss-based Swatch inked a 15-year deal that starts at about $2,000 per square foot in the retail condo at 666 Fifth Avenue owned by Carlyle Group, Kushner Companies and Crown Acquisitions.
Sitt said there was “no question” he would get rents in the range of $2,500 per square foot. He added there were six tenants looking seriously at the space in the 20-story building.
In addition, Robert Knakal, chairman of commercial brokerage Massey Knakal Realty Services, told Insights that the first quarter sales for retail property in Manhattan nearly reached the $586 million figure for all of 2010…. [more]
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