1440 Broadway

Macy’s will expand its footprint at 1440 Broadway near 40th Street, by 31,700 square feet, Monday Properties,the building’s owner, announced today, according to the New York Observer. This is the third expansion the 150-year old retailer has undergone in the building in two years, bring its total occupied space up to 197,000 square feet and giving it the complete 10th and 25th floors of the building.

Macy’s also extended its 11-year lease on the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and 13th floors of the 743,000-square-foot building. [more]

William Macklowe and 386 Park Avenue South

While his father is busy planning the city’s next tallest residential tower up the avenue, William Macklowe has entered contract to purchase the office tower at 386 Park Avenue South, according to Crain’s. The sale will reportedly net majority owner Savanna and minority partner Monday Properties between $110 million and $120 million.

The 20-story, 260,000-square-foot building, at East 27th Street, is just 60 percent occupied, but Crain’s speculated that the remaining space wouldn’t be too difficult to fill considering its Midtown South location. [more]

From left: 230 Park Avenue and 237 Park Avenue (credits: PropertyShark)

Just two weeks after L&L Holdings requested proposals for Park Avenue’s first new office tower in three decades, speculation is growing that a second new tower could rise on the avenue. According to the New York Post, now that Lehman Brothers Holdings has full control over 237 Park Avenue it is considering building a new tower on the property, near 45th Street. [more]

From left: 230 Park Avenue and Steven Soutendijk, senior director at Cushman & Wakefield

A large ground-floor and mezzanine retail space at 230 Park Avenue, the building just to the north of Grand Central Terminal, is available for rent.

The prime 10,000 square feet of real estate is now being marketed as restaurant space, the marketing materials for the space from Monday Properties, the building operator, said. Previously, the southwest corner of the massive tower was the Jean-Claude Biguine salon, which closed in September. That space has now been combined with three others, which had been a Sushi Express, a Fedex and a Scottrade, to create the resultant block of 10,000 available square feet, according to the marketing materials. While Monday Properties intended to combine the spaces, the tenants “agreeably vacated,” and weren’t kicked out, a source said. [more]

The volume of Manhattan office property sales has more than doubled in the second quarter to $5.5 billion, after lagging the rest of the commercial property sales market in the first quarter of 2011 and all of 2010, according to Eastern Consolidated’s office property mid-year report for 2011 released today. After stalling for more than nine quarters, the office sales market surged in the second quarter with 14 sales of $100 million or more, the report shows. Those included Paramount Group’s purchase of a minority interest in 1633 Broadway for $980 million and Monday Properties’ $760 million recapitalization of 230 Park Avenue through Invesco. These preliminary second-quarter results mark a large increase over the fourth quarter of 2010, when Google purchased 111 Eighth Avenue for $1.77 billion. That deal marked 46 percent of the $3.85 billion volume that quarter. – Miranda Neubauer … [more]

Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall real estate fund lost substantial money on Monday Properties’ recent recapitalization of 230 Park Avenue. According to the Wall Street Journal, Goldman is abandoning its stake in the building following the transaction, with the building’s valuation hundreds of millions of dollars less than what it was bought for at the height of the bubble. Goldman partnered with Monday Properties on the $1.15 billion purchase of the 34-story office tower near Grand Central Terminal in 2007, and admitted at the end of 2010 that the property’s value had sunk some $300 million…. [more]

Monday Properties has completed a $750 million recapitalization of the former Helmsley Building at 230 Park Avenue through Invesco, the company announced today. Monday Properties has managed the property since 1998, and in 2007 purchased the 34-story, 1.4 million-square-foot, landmarked office building for $1.15 billion, public records show. This transaction completes the repositioning of the building. It also marks the largest single-asset investment in Invesco’s $39.7 billion real estate investment portfolio. Invesco last appeared on the Manhattan real estate scene in April when it completed its $125 million purchase of the 166-unit apartment building at 290 Third Avenue. TRD… [more]

Real estate investment firms Savanna and Monday Properties are launching a $30 million capital improvement for a 20-story, 260,000-square-foot commercial building on Park Avenue South. The owners’ plan for 386 Park Avenue near 27th Street includes renovations for the building’s lobby, windows, elevators, restrooms and heating and cooling systems, and the property will undergo a new marketing and leasing program. The upgrades coincide with two new availabilities that Savanna and Monday are hoping to fill. There’s an 8,600-square-foot prebuilt space just completed on the eighth floor that’s ready for immediate occupancy and 65,000 square feet of available space across five contiguous floors in the building. TRD… [more]

Despite the improved lending market, one of the most active purchasers of
Manhattan office buildings last year, private equity firm Savanna, expects to
buy up to six properties in the city this year, founder and managing partner
Christopher Schlank tells Insights from The Real Deal (see video above).

“We have been seeing quite a good deal flow, so I would assume probably four,
to five to six deals this year, in New York City,” he says.

Nicholas Bienstock, also a managing partner, discusses why the firm prefers
quietly marketed deals, and how it won the bidding to buy Monday Properties’
386 Park Avenue South.

Midtown-based Savanna, founded during a previous recession in 1992, bought
four office buildings last year with 1.4 million square feet for just under $300
million. The most recent purchase was 1375 Broadway, in December, for $135
million.

The firm is closing its second fund, which reports say is expected to raise $500
million. So far about half the investors are foreign entities, sources said.
… [more]

Paul Formichelli, a senior vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle’s New York office, was elected as president of the New York chapter of NAIOP, a commercial real estate trade association for developers, landlords, owners and investors. Formichelli will serve a one-year term as head of the organization’s 2011 leadership team. Brian Robin, executive vice president and COO at Monday Properties, will serve as vice president of NAIOP. “I am deeply honored to have been elected,” said Formichelli. TRD… [more]