Developer Selected for WTC in New Orleans

Earlier this year, the City of New Orleans began negotiations with five developers competing to bring new life to the former World Trade Center building; this week, a winner was selected as a $364 million plan was picked as the city's top choice to sign a long-term lease for the vacant riverfront tower. A committee appointed by Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration picked the Four Seasons group for the 99-year lease, which plans to convert the property to a 350-room Four Seasons luxury hotel and condominiums.

Carpenter and Co., a Cambridge, MA-based real estate firm, partnered with New Orleans-based Woodward Interests to bring the Four Seasons to the city. Cascade Investment Group, a holding and investment firm founded by Bill Gates, is also an investor in the project. The Four Seasons team offered a $5 million deposit, rent of $3.25 million per year for the first 10 years and $3.75 million for the next decade. After that, rent would increase by inflation. The project is being financed with $238 million in debt, $86 million in equity and $40 million in private capital, according to a New Orleans Advocate article.

"The city of New Orleans has never in our history, not ever, seen a group of investors like this that represent the breadth of the best investors in the world that have come to our city because they think we are valuable," Landrieu said. "That means that not only are we back but that we can compete on the highest levels as we go forward."

Redevelopment plans for the vacant 33-story tower on the waterfront of the Mississippi River at 2 Canal Street also include a visitor attraction called "New Orleans: History at the Confluence of Cultures" along with a public observation deck. Developers say they predict 700,000 visitors to the exhibit every year. The design also calls for three new landscaped open spaces, including a newly built urban park at the corner of Canal Street and Convention Center Boulevard.

The Times Picayune outlined the complete Four Seasons plan for the World Trade Center building which you can review here. For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Savanna Finalizes 2 Rector St. Acquisition

Savanna, a real estate private equity firm run by Chris Schlank and Nick Bienstock, has acquired a controlling interest in 2 Rector Street. Savanna worked in partnership with Stellar Management to buy out Stellar's partners, including Lehman Brothers to secure a controlling interest in the property, according to a CoStar report. In 2010, Savanna became a part owner of the 464,000-square-foot, 26-story office building when it helped landlord Stellar Management restructure a loan. The building at the time couldn't make debt payments because it had lost its largest tenant, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

According to data from Real Capital Analytics, the first mortgage that Savanna bought in to was $100 million in CMBS, while the 2007 mezzanine loan was $10 million. "Our capital work will transform 2 Rector Street into a modern Lower Manhattan office tower located just steps from the World Trade Center development, complete with highly desirable office suites built to suit our tenants' needs," Andrew Fichte, a vice president at Savanna, said in a prepared statement.

A Jones Lang LaSalle team headed by Vice Chairman Mitchell Konsker, Senior Vice President Scott Cahaly and Vice President Brian Reiver will handle leasing at the building. Savanna is planning an an extensive capital improvement program, spending millions of dollars to upgrade the building's lobby, elevators, restore its exterior and modernize a number of building systems.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

World Trade Center Retail Taking Shape

A new article from The Achitect's Newspaper takes a closer look at the growth at World Trade Center, focusing on the retail plans for the neighborhood that will include the introduction of more than 635,000 square feet of retail space. According to the article, three new shopping centers are rising in the area that will be connected via underground transit hubs and pedestrian walkways.

The largest complex is being developed by Westfield Group which will be responsible for all retail at the World Trade Center, adding 365,000 square feet of retail space. The company has said it expects to finalize an agreement with the Port Authority by the end of the year. In its third quarter financial update this month, Westfield explained that the company had reached an "in principle agreement on the $1.3 billion joint venture" [with the Port Authority] of the retail premises at the World Trade Center in New York. Westfield invested in the retail concourse at the original World Trade Center six weeks before it was destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and sold its stake back to the Port Authority in December 2003.

Brookfield Properties is revamping 200,000 square feet at the World Financial Center, a $250 million investment to update the Cesar Pelli designed property and introduce new retail aimed at a fashion or luxury tenant. The plans for the property were originally announced in June declaring that construction was set to begin in October 2011 and would conclude in 2013. The broad-scope changes expand the retail offerings and include high-end fashion, a European-style marketplace, and waterfront dining. In addition, a dramatic glass pavilion on West Street will link the Center to Lower Manhattan’s new transit hubs and serve as the main entranceway to the eight-million-square-foot complex.

In late October, the MTA announced it would lease 70,000 square feet of retail at the $1.4 billion Fulton Street Transit Center to a single operator who will manage and rent out the space.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

WTC Site Update: 5 New Skyscrapers, Tallest Building in US Underway

The annual update on the progress of rebuilding the World Trade Center in New York City was given today as over 200 international reporters listened on to the reports from Gov. David Paterson, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and developer Larry Silverstein of Silverstein Properties. "Though we have had delays," Paterson said, "and unfortunately we have had conflicts of opinion, we are on the road, we believe, to a very great success." One World Trade, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, and Four World Trade have structural steel rising above ground level, with One World Trade already at its 36th floor, and over a dozen trees have been planted in the memorial park.

CNN.com offers a brief overview of the future plans from Brookfield Properties which includes a virtual tour of the new facilities, touting 5 new skyscrapers, one of which will become the tallest building in the United States. The New York Times has also posted a gallery of 20 images with photographs from Fred R. Conrad that provide an intimate view of construction at the site of the World Trade Center. Four of the towers are expected to be completed by 2014.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.