Westchester & Fairfield Cheat Sheet: Elmsford warehouse sold for $70.25M, CBRE and NKF take office leasing market’s temperature … & more

Mack-Cali sells Elmsford Distribution Center for $70.25M
A six-building industrial park in Westchester has been sold by Mack-Cali Realty Corporation to Realterm Logistics for $70.25 million. The New Jersey-based real estate investment trust parted ways with the Elmsford Distribution Center on Warehouse Lane as part of a plan to shift its focus away from the flex-warehouse business. Tenants at the center, which is 98.3 percent leased, include the Barrie House Coffee Company, Pepperidge Farms and UPS, according to HFF, which marketed the center for Mack-Cali. An investment sales team at HFF led by Jose Cruz, Jordan Avanzato and Marc Duval represented the seller. In a statement, Mack-Cali CEO Michael DeMarco said the sale will allow the company “to pay down debt levels from investments we made in creating our multifamily platform.” [TRD]

NKF, CBRE analyze Fairfield, Westchester office leasing markets
Financial data and software company FactSet signed Fairfield County’s top office lease transaction of 2018, taking around 173,000 square feet of space at 45 Glover Avenue in Norwalk, according to Newmark Knight Frank’s fourth quarter office market report. Leasing activity in the county last year was down by 29 percent from 2017 “due to a shortage of large deals,” but smaller deals “grew significantly” in 2018, according to the report. Meanwhile, Westchester County’s office market saw around 500,000 square feet of leasing activity during the fourth quarter of 2018 — a 17.3 percent increase from the same time in 2017, per NKF’s most recent localized office market report. Fuji Photo Film USA had the top lease transaction in Westchester last year, the report said, with a renewal and expansion of a 122,119-square-foot lease at 200 Summit Lake Drive in Valhalla. CBRE found that office leasing activity in Fairfield was the highest it has been since 2015, ending 2018 with 2.6 million square feet of activity. Westchester’s office market also had its strongest quarter since mid-2017, according to CBRE, but annual leasing continued to diminish with just 907,000 square feet of activity at year-end, the lowest total in 10 years. [CBRE/NKF]

Bridgeport buildings bought by Time Equities for $21.7M
Time Equities is the new owner of three mixed-use properties in downtown Bridgeport, the Fairfield County Business Journal reported. The New York-based real estate firm purchased the trio of buildings, which comprise a total of around 100,000 square feet of space, from Ginsburg Development Companies for $21.7 million. The 11-story City Trust Building, the four-story Arcade Mall and the eight-story Golden Hill all house both residential and retail space, according to FBJ. Time Equities shelled out $7.9 million for the Bridgeport Innovation Centerits first property in Fairfield County — in November. HFF marketed the three Bridgeport buildings for Valhalla-based Ginsburg Development and brought in Time Equities as the buyer, the outlet reported. [FBJ]

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Stamford building home to H&R Block, law firms sold for $18.2M
A group owned by Stamford-based New England Investment Partners acquired a seven-story building in Stamford from Darien-based Forstone Capital for around $18.2 million, the Stamford Advocate reported. The approximately 93,000-square-foot office property at 600 Summer Street “is an impressive and well-located building, with a strong and prestigious tenant base” that includes H&R Block, Stamford Bank & Trust and several law firms, New England Investment Partners co-founder and principal Ari Yasgur told the outlet. Rhys, a Stamford-based commercial real estate firm that saw the bulk of its brokerage decamp for Newmark Knight Frank last month, marketed the property. Forstone, a boutique real estate investment firm that bought the building for $10.65 million in 2015 and renovated it before its recent sale, still owns a few other properties in Stamford. [Stamford Advocate]

Luxury Bronxville condo owner sues over mosquito and mold issues, other alleged defects
A $1.5 million condominium in Bronxville was supposed to “afford [its] owners and residents an elegant, pampered lifestyle” but ended up having an unusable patio and defective courtyards, according to a new lawsuit. The buyer of the Villa BXV condo slapped its sponsor, Greenwich-based developer Gateway Kensington, with a lawsuit last month in Westchester Supreme Court claiming that water doesn’t drain off her patio and courtyard decks properly, and instead ends up harboring mosquitoes, mold, parasites and bacteria, the Westchester County Business Journal reported. The condo owner, Sharon Herstein, also claims that the 53-condo complex at 15 Kensington Road has a number of other defects. In a statement, Greenwich-based condo developer Fareri Associates, which owns Gateway Kensington, said it was “unfortunate that despite our best efforts, we have been unable to satisfy one of our buyers.” [WBJ]

International distiller pays $3.2M for Putnam County development site
Just north of Westchester County, a Romanian spirits producer planning to build its first U.S. distillery at a development site in Carmel has officially bought the Putnam County property. Alexandrion Group, advised by the global law firm Shearman & Sterling, officially acquired the 12.75-acre hilltop site at 39 Seminary Hill Road from Hinckley Holdings and Covington Development for $3.2 million, according to Avison Young’s New York office, which arranged the sale. The property, formerly known as the Paladin Center Campus, includes an office and warehouse facility, as well as parking, and was “the ideal site, as it met our client’s economic and infrastructure requirements while providing close proximity to New York City,” said a statement from Avison Young principal and Tri-State president Arthur Mirante II. Alexandrion reportedly plans to invest $40 million into an 118,400-square-foot distillery, visitors center and tasting rooms. Last summer, the office of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo championed the deal in a press release, noting that the agreement could bring 102 new jobs to the region. [Avison Young]