The following is a selection of media placements for Great Ink clients and a summary of each.
Marx Realty
November 20, 2020
By Daniel J. Sernovitz
Marx Realty has kicked off a $41 million renovation to the former Washington Herald Examiner building at 1307 New York Ave. NW in D.C. after acquiring it earlier in 2020. The finished product will include plenty of technology and other improvements to keep the COVID-19 virus from spreading via high-touch surfaces such as door handles or elevator buttons. But it is also turning to an older form of touch-free service many commercial real estate owners shifted away from years ago: a uniformed doorman. The Herald will be a “hospitality-infused office like no other.” The pandemic has accelerated many commercial real estate trends that were already in the works previously, including a shift toward hospitality and the need for building owners to create spaces that will stand out from the crowd.
Avison Young
November 19, 2020
Avison Young was named the exclusive leasing agent for a 650,000-square-foot, three-building office portfolio in Midtown comprised of 1156 Ave. of the Americas, The Club Row Building at 28 W. 44th St. and 25 W. 45th St. The properties are owned by APF Properties. An Avison Young team led by Brooks Hauf, senior director, along with associates Cole Chartash, Peter Johnson and Dominic Perkaj, will market the leasing opportunities. Leasing availabilities at all three properties range from 1,000 to 20,000 square feet. APF recently completed a high-end, pre-built program at the properties featuring polished concrete floors, exposed ceilings and columns and black metal finishes.
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
November 19, 2020
Fried Frank acted as counsel to a joint venture between Brookfield Office Properties Inc. and affiliates of the Swig Co. in connection with its now-completed $1.25-billion refinancing for the Grace Building at 1114 Ave. of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan.The refi includes a $750-million, single-borrower CMBS financing originated by Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Column Financial and DBR Investments Co. Limited, according to Kroll Bond Rating Agency.Constructed in 1974, the 490-story Grace Building spans 1.6 million square feet and is currently 94.8% leased to 38 office tenants. The refi is being used to retire $900 million in existing debt from a 2014 securitization by Deutsche Bank. The Fried Frank team included real estate partners Joshua Mermelstein and Nathaniel Lifschitz, and real estate associates Simon J. Elkharrat, Michael A. Turo and Kaitlin A. Gottlieb.
Thornton Tomasetti
November 18, 2020
By Jeff Rubenstone
After two years of development in Thornton Tomasetti’s CORE lab, the firm has launched T2D2, a computer-vision, machine-learning algorithm that can identify damage to building exteriors in photos or video. Not intended to replace the difficult work of facade inspections, T2D2 is instead seen as tool to find hidden damage that might go unnoticed, and speed along a tedious, difficult process.
Pembrook Capital Management
November 2020
By Georgia Kromrei
Stuart Boesky, chief executive officer of New York-based investment firm Pembrook Capital Management, is quoted in The Real Deal. The article focuses on the steadiness of the multifamily market, specifically rent collection and occupancy, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Turnbridge Equities
November 17, 2020
By Linda Lindner
Turnbridge Equities is nearing completion on the $10 million capital improvement program on the former Ballantine Brewery in Newark at 425 East Ferry Street. Turnbridge acquired the property in 2019 in a joint venture for $61 million and rebranded the site as the Ballantine Industrial Center. The property now features over a million square feet of industrial space. The new Ballantine Industrial Center has already proven successful from a leasing standpoint as 60,000 square feet of new leases were announced in September for the property, bringing 2020 leasing to a whopping 450,000 square feet. A true accomplishment as most of the deals have closed during the pandemic.
Avison Young
November 17, 2020
By Joshua Burd
Bobst, a global printing equipment company, has moved its North American HQ to 10 Waterview Blvd. in Parsippany, NJ where it’s leasing nearly 35,000-SF as part of a newly announced transaction by Avison Young. Bobst occupies the first floor of the three-story, 211,879 square-foot building just west of Route 202, which has benefited from recent upgrades. Jeff Heller of Avison Young
represented the landlord, Waterview Investors LLC, alongside Senior Vice President Steven Geltzeiler. Bobst is one of the world’s leading suppliers of substrate processing, printing and converting equipment and services for the label, flexible packaging, folding carton and corrugated industries.
Marx Realty
November 13, 2020
By Rebecca Baird-Remba
The Commercial Observer takes us inside the midcentury modern renovation of 545 Madison Avenue, a 1950s tower that was Marx Realty took ownership of last year. Bringing in rounded edges to arches and furniture, textures and materials like velvet, bronze and walnut wood, Marx Realty CEO Craig Deitelzweig says, “makes everyone feel safe and like they’re cocooned…We want everyone to feel like they’re in a hotel.” 20,000-SF of prebuilt office suites are available on the third and 14th floors, and the 10th floor is also up for lease. Construction is expected to wrap up in Q1 of 2021.
Waterton
November 12, 2020
Waterton has acquired the Rosemont Square apartment property in Randolph, Mass. for $130.3 million. The Chicago investment manager bought the complex from LivCor, a Blackstone Group affiliate that had purchased it in 2015 for $84.8 million from The Praedium Group of New York. Rosemont Square, at 2 Chestnut West, was constructed in phases between 1982 and 2012. The 20- building property has a mix of one- and two-bedroom units with stainless-steel appliances, washers and dryers and patios or balconies. It also has a fitness center, swimming pool, playground and grilling area. Waterton plans on upgrading some of the units as well as the property’s common areas and amenity package. The property is Waterton’s first apartment investment ever in the Boston area. The company, owns three hotels in the Boston suburbs: the 202-room Courtyard in Marlborough, Mass.; the 223-room DoubleTree in Westborough, Mass.; and the 247-room Sheraton in Needham, Mass.