Larry Gluck’s Stellar Management has finalized a plan to partner with tenant Erez Shternlicht and replace a loading dock in Gluck’s Meatpacking District office building at 450 West 15th Street with a prime retail storefront.

The retail addition, that will sit just west of luxury clothing retailer Jeffrey New York on West 14th Street between Ninth and 10th avenues, is part of a larger approximately $60 million sale and lease transaction Milk Studio’s Shternlicht executed in two separate deals including the sale of the neighboring Mobil gas station.

Shternlicht said the extremely complicated deals would unlock millions of dollars in value for the Stellar Management building and influence the area by adding retail on 14th Street all the way to 10th Avenue. [more]

The 62-unit rental building at 111 Kent Avenue is more than 50 percent leased after hitting the market last week, according to aptsandlofts.com, the exclusive marketers of the project. The building, between North 7th and North 8th streets in Williamsburg, was originally built as a condominium but was converted to rentals after Stellar Management purchased it from Garrison Investment Group for $43 million in March. Streeteasy.com shows asking rents are slowly beginning to rise on some of the listings, which currently start at $2,705 per month for a 728-square-foot one-bedroom. – Adam Fusfeld [more]

Laurence Gluck’s Stellar Management made a deal with special servicer CW Capital Asset Management to extend the $265 million senior mortgage on Independence Plaza in Tribeca by two years, the Wall Street Journal reported, giving it time to see how a rent-stabilization lawsuit plays out. It’s the second such deal Stellar has made with creditors on the 1,332-unit complex.

Stellar partnered with Westbrook Real Estate Partners to purchase the complex at 80 North Moore Street in 2003 with the intent to raise rents by removing it from the Mitchell Lama program. The firm initially took out just a $66 million mortgage, but used more debt to make building improvements. [more]

The final tower in the Columbus Square development at 805 Columbus Avenue and 100th Street is now open and available for lease, according to a statement released today by the Chetrit Group and Stellar Management.

The 15-story tower with 63 apartments is one of the five rental buildings that make up the Columbus Square development. The other towers are at 795 Columbus Avenue, 808 Columbus Avenue, 801 Amsterdam Avenue and 775 Columbus Avenue, with 710 rental units in total. The development also includes 500,000 square feet of retail and community space.
– Miranda Neubauer
[more]

The Williamsburg property at 111 Kent Avenue has now hit the market as a rental, Brownstoner reported.
Asking rents at the building, between North 7th and North 8th streets, range from $2,705 to
$4,519 a month. In 2009, the building was on the
market as a condominium, and prices ranged from $575,000 to $1.1 million. It
was converted into a rental after being purchased by Laurence Gluck’s
Stellar Management this March. The waterfront property also features an outdoor
swimming pool, roof deck and courtyard.
[Brownstowner] 

Commercial real estate brokerage Holliday Fenoglio Fowler has closed a $98.25 million loan sale secured by the leasehold interest of 1140 Sixth Avenue to affiliates of investment firm the Blackstone Group, they announced today.

Earlier this year, Blackstone beat out 30 other bidders to grab the building, at that point owned by Stellar Management and Rockpoint Group, at auction. The approximately 191,000-square-foot building has a value of around $523 per square foot, The Real Deal reported in March. TRD [more]

Laurence Gluck-led Stellar Management requested to transfer its debt on Independence Plaza to a special servicer in an effort to extend the mortgage. Independence Plaza is a mixed-use complex in Tribeca that consists of 1,328 apartment units across three 39-story towers with 73,000 square feet of retail space and a 230,000-square-foot commercial parking garage. A spokesperson for Stellar Management said that the deal will not affect residents of the buildings, and that ownership still has a firm grasp on the property. TRD Comments

From left: Blackstone CEO Stephen Shwarzman, Laurence Gluck, 1140 Sixth Avenue, Andrew Scandalios, and Rockpoint head Pat Fox

Private equity firm Blackstone was the winning bidder in the highly competitive process to buy the $116 million non-performing note for the leasehold on the entire building at 1140 Sixth Avenue, which is owned by Stellar Management and Rockpoint Group, sources said.
Blackstone will pay something close to — but a little bit less than — $100 million for the note held by German lender Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg, sources said, but the precise figure could not be obtained. In addition, the owners have an agreement to transfer the leasehold to Blackstone, a source said, but it was not clear if Blackstone would pay for the title, or when the exchange would happen. [more]

Laurence Gluck and 111 Kent Avenue

Laurence Gluck’s Stellar Management has purchased the stalled Williamsburg condominium project at 111 Kent Avenue for $24.6 million and plans to revive the property as a 62-unit rental. According to Crain’s, Stellar partnered with Largo Investments in the acquisition from Garrison Investment Group, which paid $43 million to take it off the original developers’ hands this past November. The developers had defaulted on their $1.3 million loan two years ago after listing the condo units for between $575,000 and $1.1 million apiece. [more]

Columbus Square general manager Jeffrey Davis and the development at 808 Columbus Avenue

A five-building, 710-unit rental complex on the Upper West Side is nearing completion, according to the Wall Street Journal, and, despite the premium price tag on many of its units, the development at 808 Columbus Avenue near 100th Street is drawing plenty of interest from renters. The $650 million Columbus Square residential project, which includes several big box stores, including a Whole Foods, Modell’s and TJ Maxx, as well as two private schools, has already leased out all the units at two of its buildings. The third, which just recently opened, was 20 percent leased after a week and a half on the market. [more]