NYC’s biggest 5 portfolio deals of 2020

Warehouses, retail, multifamily and film studios combined for $1B worth of sales

Silvercup Studios (Getty, iStock)
Silvercup Studios (Getty, iStock)

The list of 2020’s biggest portfolio deals in New York showed some diversity.

The top 5 deals, comprising warehouses, shopping centers, multifamily and even film studios, totaled about $1 billion worth of sales. The tally was roughly 38 percent off from last year’s figure of $1.6 billion — which itself was half the total from the previous year.

Here are the five largest portfolio sales of 2020:

1. Silvercup Studios | $482M

Buyer: Hackman Capital, Square Mile Capital Management
Seller: Stuart and Alan Suna
Brokerage: Eastdil Secured

Hackman Capital and Square Mile Capital Management’s latest studio acquisition has been home to productions including “Mad Men,” “Sex and the City,” “The Sopranos” and “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Hackman and Square Mile, which had previously teamed up on two big studio buys in 2018 and 2019, paid $482 million for Silvercup Studios in Astoria. The studio includes three campuses in Long Island City and the Bronx for a total of 10.4 acres with 23 soundstages spanning more than 240,000 square feet and 265,000 square feet of office and production space.

2. Orbach portfolio | $196.27M

Buyer: Black Spruce Management
Seller: Orbach Group
Brokerage: Rosewood Realty Group

The largest multifamily portfolio to close in 2020, the Orbach Group’s 48-building portfolio spans 675 units on the Upper West Side and Harlem.

Buyer Black Spruce Management started negotiating on the deal before the pandemic hit in March, and one source said the final sale price was influenced by the Covid-era market. Orbach had pieced together the portfolio in several different deals starting around the time of the Great Recession through the past few years, including some properties bought around the multifamily market’s 2015 to 2017 peak.

3. Brooklyn shopping portfolio | $164.8M

Buyer: Urban Edge Properties
Seller: Infinity Real Estate and Nightingale Properties
Brokerage: N/A

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Real estate investment trust Urban Edge Properties made an unsolicited offer to buy this 340,000-square-foot portfolio in an off-market deal.

The portfolio consists of two separate centers: the 230,000-square-foot Kingswood Center at 1630 East 15th Street — which is home to T.J. Maxx, New York Sports Club and the Visiting Nurse Service — and the 110,000-square-foot Kingswood Crossing about three blocks away at 1715 East 13th Street, where tenants include Target and Marshalls.

Midtown-based Infinity Real Estate teamed up with Nightingale Properties in 2014 to buy the shopping centers for $89 million.

4. Brooklyn warehouse portfolio | $133M

Buyer: CenterPoint Properties
Seller: Rentar Development
Brokerage: DY Realty

Illinois-based CenterPoint Properties broke into the New York City market with a massive, 1 million-square-foot buy.

The company bought the leasehold interest on a portfolio of three buildings spanning 925,411 square feet and is 100 percent leased to 13 different tenants — its first deal in the Big Apple.

The properties are at 101-01 Avenue D, 103-00 Foster Avenue and 101-10 Foster Avenue, along with a one-acre lot on East 105th Street between Avenue D and Foster Avenue.

5. Bruman portfolio | $122.5M

Buyer: KKR, Dalan Management
Seller: Bruman Realty
Brokerage: Cignature Realty, Rosewood Realty Group

When all is said and done, Dalan Management and KKR could make one of the biggest multifamily purchases ever in Brooklyn.

The two teamed up to buy a portfolio of 14 rental buildings spread across the borough from Joseph Brunner and Abe Mandel’s Bruman Realty. The total purchase price is said to be $860 million, but the deal is closing in separate stages.

So far, Dalan and KKR have closed on five of those buildings, for a total of $122.5 million.