Chelsea Lot Sold for $20.5M, Prime Development

Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services announced this week that it had arranged the sale of 140-144 W. 28th St., a 75,000-rentable square foot parcel for $20.5 million. Barbara Dansker and Shlomo Manne of Marcus & Millichap represented the buyer, Upper East Side-based Sovereign Partners LLC, as well as the seller, West 28th St. Partners LLC, in the transaction.

The property is located in the Chelsea area of Manhattan between Sixth and Seventh avenues. The 76.67-foot by 98.75-foot lot has a maximum FAR of 10 and the property's current zoning is M1-6. Development options for the parcel include commercial and hotel. "The great thing about the sale of this parcel is that it is an inherently valuable piece because it is presently zoned commercial," said Dansker in a GlobeSt.com article. "It could be used for a hotel, even though there [are] already hotels on the block."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Tech Companies in NY Set Up in Flatiron and Chelsea

A new article from the New York Times takes a look at the booming high-tech corridor, oft called "Silicon Alley", growing in Chelsea and the Flatiron district. Late last year Google announced that it would be purchasing an office building in the area for over $1.8 billion, effectively assuming ownership of an entire city block. But it's not the only internet-and-tech player in the neighborhood; companies like Mashable, Demand Media, Tremor Media and Bluewolf have all recently inked deals in Silicon Alley. An excerpt from the article:

Many companies have chosen Silicon Alley to be close to similar companies, which might be their clients, their suppliers, their competitors or a source of new hires. Mr. Dunn of Bonobos, for example, hired his vice president of merchandising from J. Crew, which is at 770 Broadway at East Ninth Street, and his vice president of marketing from the Gilt Groupe, at 2 Park Avenue, between 32nd and 33rd Streets, both nearby.

Prices are substantially lower than in Midtown and other prime office neighborhoods. Along Fifth, Madison and Park Avenues, rents can range from $50 to $75 per square foot, said Grant Greenspan, a principal of the Kaufman Organization. On the side streets, prices can fall to $26 or $27.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Google Considering $2B NYC Office Buy

A new article from the New York Post reports that Google is considering an incredibly large buy-in to the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City at a$2 billion price tag, a transaction that would value the property at $690 per square foot. The trophy building at 111 Eighth Avenue is only 18 stories tall but boasts 2,950,000 square feet of office space making it the second largest building in New York City. Google already leases over 550,000 square feet of the property with other tenants includig Nike, Sprint, WebMD, CCH Legal, Deutsch Advertising and Armani Exchange.

Taconic Investment Partners originally acquired 111 Eighth Avenue in January 1998 as part of a portfolio of assets that also included 95 and 99 Wall Street and 100 William Street. The company has since deployed a $50 million capital improvement program that overhauled vertical transportation, lobbies, common corridors, power plants and fuel delivery systems.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

DiamondRock Acquires NYC Hilton for $68.4M

DiamondRock Hospitality announced that it's entered into an agreement to purchase the Hilton Garden Inn Chelsea New York City for $68.4 million. The Hilton Garden Inn is a 169-room hotel recently constructed and opened in 2007 on West 28th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in New York City. The purchase price of $68.4 million represents a 12.9 multiple of the Hotel's 2010 full-year forecasted EBITDA of $5.3 million and better than a 7% capitalization rate on forecasted 2010 full-year net operating income of $4.8 million.

DiamondRock CEO Mark Brugger said in a Bloomberg BusinessWeek statement that the company wanted the hotel because the property has the "ability to charge essentially full-service room rates with a more profitable limited service cost structure as a result of its strong Hilton Garden Inn branding, access to Hilton Worldwide's powerful reservations system and traveler loyalty generated from the Hilton guest rewards program." DiamondRock retained the current hotel manager subject to a new, short-term management agreement.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.