Imperium Capital

NYC firm buys outdoor storage space near DFW airport

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 16:04:47 GMT

The 9-acre site has small, 28,000-square-foot warehouse

A New York firm has expanded its footprint in the Dallas industrial sector with its latest acquisition.

IG Logistics has acquired the nine-acre industrial outdoor storage facility on 104 E Trinity Boulevard in Grand Prairie, one of the largest suburbs in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The financial teams were not disclosed.

This marks the firm’s fifth industrial purchase in the DFW metro within the last two years, and the company has plans to further expand its reach in the city as its commercial sector continues to see rapid growth.

“This is a super rare, best-in-class industrial outdoor storage property in one of the top industrial markets in the U.S.”, said Daniel Glaser, managing partner and co-founder of IG Logistics. “They rarely trade and are very hard to buy.”

Other companies have invested big in Dallas industrial real estate over the past few months in suburban corridors like southern Dallas, and the market for industrial real estate is slated to continue expanding. Data from CBRE earlier this year shows that the Dallas industrial market is experiencing record-low vacancy rates, construction, and demand as more companies come and build out new spaces.

The E Trinity Boulevard property itself is mostly open space, with the main warehouse occupying only 28,000 square feet of the nine acre site. IG specializes in acquiring industrial properties with large outdoor storage space to serve industries that rely on e-commerce and transportation, according to a press release.

The property is very close to the DFW International Airport and has direct highway access, putting it in an ideal spot for transit-oriented businesses.

“Industrial outdoor storage is one of the hottest sectors in real estate right now,” Glaser said. “Having a warehouse does add value but the outdoor storage is really driving the value on this site.”

A comparably sized 10-acre industrial park is currently in construction near the DFW Airport as well and will include over 429,000 square feet of commercial and warehouse space.

The IG warehouse itself is low-coverage with a large concrete outdoor storage yard, and is currently leased to Beacon Roofing Supply, which uses the space to store materials and equipment. Glaser said that while the company has no current plans to build other warehouses on the site, the large unbuilt space leaves the potential for further development in the future.

The company has purchased over 25 outdoor-storage industrial properties, including those in Texas, and Glaser says many are being considered for future development sites.

SOURCE LINK

Rare 27-Acre Industrial Land Asset in Central Denver Sells for $19M

Fri, 02 Sep 2022 17:17:59 GMT

New York-based IG Logistics LLC and Meadow Partners , an institutional middle-market real estate investor, have acquired a ±26.7-acre industrial storage yard/trailer site in central Denver for $19 million. Located at 409 West 66th Avenue, the vacant property is zoned for outside storage and includes a 10,000-square-foot freestanding industrial building with ±6,500 sf of office space, two drive-thru service bays, and 14 feet of clear height.

IG Logistics LLC, Imperium Capital’s industrial platform, is an owner/operator of industrial properties that have a large outdoor storage or transportation component. The company specializes in acquiring and developing infill assets in high barrier to entry, urban growth markets where demand for logistics real estate is driven by e-commerce. The company’s strategy focuses on last mile facilities that are mission-critical to the supply chain.

Following the acquisition, IG Logistics LLC and Meadow Partners hired Cushman & Wakefield’s Matt Trone , SIOR, and Joey Trinkle to lead marketing efforts. The property can accommodate a single user or may be divided into a variety of layouts beginning at ±4 acres to accommodate multiple users.

The property provides a great central Denver location near the confluences of I-76, I-25, I-270, US 36 and I-270, and is also proximate to the BNSF Intermodal Facility and UP Intermodal Facility.

“This is a rare and very attractive piece of property readily able to meet the needs of the transportation industry by providing a large, ample area for outdoor storage and trailer parking, or other potential industrial uses,” said Managing Director Matt Trone. “Due to an aggressive push over the last few years to develop infill locations, we are seeing high demand with tenants being displaced and need this type of asset for their operations. This site presents an exceptional option for those tenants needing a location to serve the Denver market or proximate markets.”

Source: https://milehighcre.com/rare-27-acre-industrial-land-asset-in-central-denver-sells-for-19m/

IG Logistics expands Pompano Beach industrial portfolio with $12M acquisition

Fri, 18 Feb 2022 12:07:00 GMT

Industrial arm of Imperium Capital bought two outdoor storage facilities

In a pair of off-market deals totaling $12 million, IG Logistics acquired two outdoor storage facilities, beefing up its Pompano Beach industrial portfolio.

Affiliates of New York-based IG Logistics paid $5.5 million for a 3.2-acre industrial site at 1377 Hammondville Road, and $6.5 million for a 4.7-acre property at 1750 Powerline Road, according to records.

Ted Konigsberg with Infinity Commercial brokered the Hammondville Road property deal.

The seller of that property is Stephen Miron of Fairfield, Connecticut, whose family acquired it for $148,200 in 1996, records show. The site, which has a 2,500-square-foot building, is leased to Sunbelt Rentals.

Annalou, an entity managed by Blake and Louise Lewend of Deerfield Beach, is the seller of the Powerline Road property, records show. Annalou bought the site for $1.2 million in 1996. The current tenant is Florida’s Ultimate Heavy Hauling & Rigging.

In November, IG Logistics also picked up a 6.5-acre industrial property in Pompano Beach for $8.5 million.

The company is the industrial arm of Imperium Capital, a real estate investment firm founded by Daniel Glaser and Sam Schneider. IG Logistics has invested $50 million in South Florida industrial properties over the last decade, according to a press release.

Established in 2010, Imperium Capital’s commercial real estate portfolio spans more than 1.2 million square feet with a total market value of more than $2 billion, the release states.

Pompano Beach is one of the most active industrial markets in South Florida. This month, Equus Capital Partners paid a record $239.2 million for Pompano Business Park in a deal that surpassed the biggest industrial sale of 2021. Prologis sold the 1 million square feet of warehouses.

SOURCE

Industrial site near downtown sells for $8.25M

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 19:18:16 GMT

New York-based IG Logistics makes initial purchase in Nashville

New York-based private real estate company IG Logistics has paid $8.25 million for a 20-acre last-mile logistics property in South Nashville, the company’s initial foray into the city.

Located at 131 West Express Drive about one mile southeast of downtown and near Trevecca Nazarene University, the property is home to Intermodal Cartage Inc., a trucking and container drayage company.

According to a release, IG Logistics co-founders and real estate industry veterans Daniel Glaser and Sam Schneider describe the site as ideally located near downtown and Nashville International Airport.

“We are excited to acquire this large-scale, low coverage site within such close proximity to downtown Nashville,” Glaser (pictured), managing partner of IG Logistics sister business Imperium Capital, said in the release. “There is tremendous demand from tenants in the e-commerce and logistics sectors for this type of asset, and it also has significant future development potential.”

The seller was a partnership that paid $1,925,000 for the property in 2005, according to Metro records.

Bill Hawkins, president of Nashville-based Charles Hawkins Co., brokered the deal, the release notes.

IG Logistics, which focuses on last-mile facilities, has in one year of operations gotten about $100 million worth of industrial real estate under contract. It plans to buy real estate with for a collective approximately $250 million over the next 12 months in Denver, Dallas, Savannah, South and Central Florida, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Baltimore/Washington D.C.

Imperium Capital was founded in 2010 and offers a portfolio of assets comprising more than 1,200,000 square feet and approximately $2 billion in total market value.

SOURCE

Deep Dive: Phoenix vs. Dallas

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 19:11:44 GMT

Imperium Capital’s Daniel Glaser compares two very different—and thriving—southwestern markets.

Elevated demand and low supply are driving industrial growth across the country. As of the third quarter, the industrial vacancy rate hit a record 3.9 percent and rents increased 7.1 percent quarter-over-quarter, according to Prologis. While the supply chain has experienced some disruptions, substantial e-commerce and retail sales continue to drive the need for industrial space.

“There has been approximately five years of e-commerce growth packed into one to two years,” Daniel Glaser, managing partner at Imperium Capital, told Commercial Property Executive.

Imperium Capital recently launched its new vertical, IG Logistics, an industrial platform focusing on infill industrial assets in high barrier to entry markets with robust logistics growth driven by e-commerce. The New York-based company plans to invest more than $250 million into industrial assets over the next year.

In the interview below, Glaser talks about the company’s strategies and key industrial markets like Phoenix and Dallas. He sheds light on some of the key differences and similarities between Dallas and Phoenix and reveals why these markets are a must-have for a strong industrial portfolio.

A surge in e-commerce is driving demand for warehouse and last-mile facilities across the entire U.S. How is the industrial sector currently holding up in terms of supply and demand?

Glaser: Currently, demand is quite robust for industrial real estate and for infill industrial real estate, both of which are crucial to the supply chain. At this moment in time there is more demand than supply, so owners of any last-mile facilities are in relatively good positions.

How has the health crisis changed the nature of logistics systems, and how is it affecting supply chain expansion?

Glaser: Largely due to the current pandemic there has been approximately five years of e-commerce growth packed into one to two years. This has made it necessary for logistics companies and other e-commerce groups to expand their footprint and their facilities to address and keep pace with the surge in demand.

The top industrial markets in the U.S. as well as the biggest cities, such as South Florida, Nashville, Dallas and Denver, have a limited supply of industrial land and facilities, which is why IG Logistics is so bullish on those markets. If we can enter these markets and acquire some of these properties this will outweigh the supply. Essentially, it’s important to focus heavily on land-constrained markets.

Imperium Capital targets facilities in Dallas and Phoenix as well. Why are these markets a must-have for a strong industrial portfolio?

Glaser: We are incredibly focused on high growth markets in the U.S., and we view Phoenix and Dallas as two of these markets. In our eyes, high growth markets constitute land-constrained areas where both job and population growth are increasing rapidly. Each of these cities is currently seeing a strong uptick in businesses and people relocating there, and so we feel strongly that they are excellent areas for long-term investments.

How do these markets fit your investment strategy?

Glaser: Right now, we’re focused on purchasing last-mile facilities in high growth markets across the U.S. The indicators of a high growth market are tremendous job and population growth. These are cities we see real potential and opportunity in in the long-term. Both Dallas and Phoenix are attracting a lot of relocating businesses, especially Phoenix, as many California-based companies seek to find areas with lower tax rates. This provides strong evidence to us that these markets present a solid investment opportunity.

What are some of the key differences and similarities between the Phoenix and Dallas industrial markets?

Glaser: Regarding similarities, there are a lot of different businesses from California, and other states, in the process of moving their headquarters to both markets. Additionally, both are booming cities with large job and population growth. In terms of last-mile facilities, there is also more demand than supply in these locales.

Despite sharing these similarities, though, there are some differences, namely the drivers for each market. For example, Dallas is a much bigger market. The industrial real estate that we focus on in Dallas predominantly serves the Dallas market. Phoenix, on the other hand, serves more than just the city itself. Industrial real estate in this city services surrounding markets as well, and so IG Logistics is less focused on industrial real estate in downtown Phoenix and is instead more interested in real estate along Interstate 10, which essentially connects the city to California.

The most exciting part of Phoenix is its proximity to the west coast, namely Los Angeles, and so our interest falls on all of the surrounding markets, in addition to Phoenix itself.

Between Phoenix and Dallas, where is competition stronger and why?

Glaser: Truthfully, competition is quite strong in both markets. Dallas and Phoenix represent two of the best markets for industrial real estate investment in the country. That said, in terms of the types of properties that we focus on—outdoor storage and truck parking—there is more specific competition for that specific asset class in Dallas because there are a lot more of those types of properties there. We’ve witnessed firsthand a lot of institutional capital on the hunt for these specific assets in Dallas.

What can you tell us about the hottest areas of these two markets? In what parts of Dallas and Phoenix do most investors want to be?

Glaser: All the e-commerce tenants in Phoenix want to be in the city’s southwestern submarket, which is south of I-10 and west of downtown. This is due to the proximity of this area to all of Phoenix. It also has that connectivity to California and Los Angeles. There are a lot of goods that travel to Phoenix from a Los Angeles port along I-10, whereupon they enter Phoenix. If an e-commerce tenant’s goods can be delivered from California to a facility in this southwestern corner, they can then transfer the goods to people’s homes in Phoenix with relative ease. This southwestern submarket is where most of the warehouse and industrial properties are currently located, and where all the industrial development is happening.

Regarding Dallas, the Dallas Fort-Worth Metroplex is so large that industrial facilities are in many different pockets , unlike the southwest concentration in Phoenix. Last-mile facilities can really be found anywhere in Dallas where there exists good highway access and a relatively close proximity to the city. Those two elements equal a great location.

Currently we’re in contract to purchase two outdoor storage sites in Dallas. We’ve already bought and sold several sites in the city, including a 20-acre industrial site at 4001 Irving Blvd., which is truly the best location for outdoor storage and truck parking in all of Dallas. However, we ended up selling the site to one of largest trucking companies in the country after we were approached with an unsolicited offer earlier this year.

Do you expect a slowdown in industrial demand in the near future? Why or why not?

Glaser: We do not expect a slowdown in industrial demand in the near future. E-commerce has grown exponentially in the past several years. A huge number of individuals are now ordering goods online that had never done so in the past because they were forced to during the current pandemic. Now that these individuals have seen how easy online shopping is, they’re doing it more and more. To keep pace with this growth in e-commerce, tenants must expand their industrial footprint to address the top markets, where there is currently more demand than supply.

SOURCE

New York investment firm snags Pompano Beach truck repair shop site for $9M

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 03:30:51 GMT

IG Logistics’ 6.5-acre property has two repair shops spanning over 12K sf

Pompano Beach has some new industrial investors.

New York-based IG Logistics, the industrial platform for Imperium Capital, bought a truck terminal and repair shop site at 2407 Hammondville Road for $8.5 million, according to records. The seller is J.T.R. Real Estate Enterprises, a Florida corporation linked to John and Tammy Ragno.

IG Logistics, founded in 2010 by Daniel Glaser and Sam Schneider, used a Delaware LLC for the purchase, records show. A spokesperson for IG Logistics said the deal was completed off-market.

The 6.5-acre site is paved and fenced with two repair shops spanning over 12,000 square feet. It’s positioned between the Florida Turnpike and I-95.

The property last sold for $300,000 in 2000, changing hands from Worldwide Truck Sales to J.T.R. Real Estate. Worldwide Truck Sales was also registered to Tammy Ragno. John Ragno was added to Worldwide Truck Sales in 2003, corporate documents show.

This latest deal adds to Imperium’s holdings in South Florida. In 2014, the company purchased 643-657 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach for $33 million.

The South Florida commercial real estate market has boomed in recent months — and shows no signs of slowing.

his month, Oakbrook, Illinois-based CenterPoint Properties bought a Medley warehouse for $8.6 million , after buying a Pompano Beach distribution facility for $10 million in October.

In December, Rosemurgy Properties sold a Pompano Beach shopping center for $10.1 million . A company managed by Nicolas and Isabella Mattos — the children of Carlos Mattos, founder of car importer Hyundai Colombia Automotriz — bought the retail center at 2350 to 2390 North Federal Highway.

Source

New York-based IG Logistics makes second Jax real estate purchase

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 20:24:58 GMT

A New York-based investment group recently purchased its second Jacksonville-area property.

IG Logistics said it acquired a 12-acre property at 5703 Commonwealth Ave. and 1142 Peavy Road

in an off-market deal for $3 million.

IG Logistics is associated with investment and development company Imperium Capital and

previously bought 11075 Blasius Road in Jacksonville earlier this year.

"We are very excited about our second purchase in Jacksonville," said Sam Schneider, managing

partner and co-founder of Imperial Capital. “It is a market we are very bullish on and plan on

being very active in. 5703 Commonwealth is in the premier submarket for outdoor storage and

logistics that we believe will benefit long term from the continued growth of e-commerce."

The site is leased to school bus company First Student, where it does repair and maintenance.

The group said it plans to buy more than $250 million worth of last-mile logistics-related facilities across the U.S. next year.

It's one more example of how logistics and e-commerce are having a huge impact on industrial real estate.

Source

Imperium Capital's IG Logistics Takes Big Aim at Outdoor-Storage Sector

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 16:08:45 GMT

Investment manager Imperium Capital has quickly moved into the industrial outdoor-storage facility sector, a long-overlooked niche, and is aiming to make more than $250 million of investments in the sector in the coming year.

The New York company, through its IG Logistics operation, already has completed roughly $75 million of investments and has another $100 million of deals under contract. Most recently, it paid $3.5 million for a four-acre truck terminal site at 3200 South 70th St. in Philadelphia. The site is near Philadelphia International Airport and Interstate 95. Before that, it paid $1.75 million for a four-acre site at 32 Mincey Blvd. near the Port of Savannah in Savannah, Ga. That was the company's first investment in Savannah.

Industrial outdoor-storage properties, often called laydown yards, are exterior sites with few structures that are used to store tools, material, heavy equipment as well as construction and other types of large vehicles. They're also often used to store shipping containers. They're most often owned by the companies that use them, while some are owned by local investors. That's where the bulk of investment opportunities lie, as those mom-and-pop owners often decide to sell for estate-planning or other reasons. The companies that use them seldom sell. When they do, it's typically because they need a larger facility.

Other institutional investors have been drawn to the asset class. Last year, for instance,

JPMorgan Asset Management created a venture with Alterra Property Group of Philadelphia to buy what could be $1 billion of industrial outdoor storage properties. But still, the sector remains niche.

"These are crucial properties," explained Daniel Glaser, managing partner and co-founder of Imperium. "They were overlooked (by the investment community) for a long time." He noted that most investors that pursue industrial properties tend to look for warehouses and distribution facilities. But over the past couple of years, the outdoor-storage sector has become "red hot ... there's almost no vacancy."

Values benefit from the fact that supply is very limited, while most properties sit in markets with very high barriers to entry. Most sit along industrial corridors or near major distribution hubs, like airports or ports. In addition, most municipalities frown upon outdoor-storage properties because of the truck traffic they might generate, so few land parcels get approved for such purposes. Investors also typically have an option to redevelop: take what amounts to a largely vacant parcel and build it out as a warehouse or distribution facility.

"Deal-flow is our number-one challenge," Glaser said. "If you have that, there's plenty of capital that wants to be in this space."

IG Logistics is pursuing properties in nine markets: Denver, Dallas, Savannah, South and Central Florida, Nashville, Tenn., Philadelphia, Phoenix and the greater Baltimore/Washington, D.C., area. Each of those markets are squeezed for supply, and what land is available typically is acquired for development into warehouses or distribution facilities.

The company's existing portfolio is concentrated in the Denver area, where it owns about $45 million of properties. It recently paid $21 million for a 34.4-acre site at 6045 Lipan St. that's leased to a number of tenants, including Freeman Expositions, an event-services provider; System Transport, a flatbed-trucking company; and Mesilla Valley Transportation.

Glaser said that IG underwrites its potential investments on an as-is basis - what's the property worth given existing income and the credit-quality of its tenant or tenants. But it also will consider the property's development potential. However, he said, "we're not building anything."

Imperium, which Glaser and Sam Schneider had founded in 2010, also invests in built-out industrial properties, office, retail and multifamily properties. Among its investments is the 798,555-square-foot One Soho Square office property in lower Manhattan that it owns with Stellar Management. The company also operates a venture with Greystone through which it originates agency loans against apartment properties.

Glaser and Schneider launched its IG Logistics platform specifically to pursue outdoor-storage facilities. The company funds its investments internally, raising capital from its network of high net-worth investors and institutions as needed. It also places financing on its investments. Lenders, Glaser noted, "have gotten sophisticated with this product."

Source : Link

New York firm pays $3.5M for Philadelphia truck terminal as it scours market for more opportunities

Mon, 13 Sep 2021 10:55:31 GMT

A New York real estate firm bought a truck terminal in Philadelphia for $3.5 million, marking the company’s first acquisition in the city as it plans to quickly expand its industrial holdings here.

Imperium Capital’s IG Logistics bought 3200 S. 70th St., a four-acre property that had been owned and used by XTL Inc., a transportation company that continues to lease the site. The off- market transaction was arranged by Larry Bergen of Colliers.

Nearly five years ago, Imperium, which has accumulated a portfolio of retail, office and apartment properties, branched out into buying industrial real estate and established its IG Logistics division to pursue deals. Outdoor storage and transportation-related properties located in urban markets with a high barrier to entry, where e-commerce is driving demand for industrial and last-mile real estate, is of particular focus.

The firm wants to buy more than $250 million of that property type in markets across the country
including Philadelphia, Denver, Dallas, Savannah, South Florida, Central Florida, Nashville, Phoenix and the Baltimore-Washington area.

“Our bet is on e-commerce and infill land that are irreplaceable and crucial to supply chain,” said Sam Schneider, managing partner at Imperium, which he formed a decade ago with Daniel Glaser.

The 70th Street property is ideal, Schneider said. “They don’t come up for sale that often especially in urban areas like this,” he said. "We're bullish on Philadelphia."

Competition for this type of real estate has increased over the last couple of years. In early 2020, Philadelphia-based Alterra Property Group formed a partnership with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to spend $300 million to buy industrial outside storage sites across the country.

“We’re used to competition,” Schneider said. “We’re willing to pay up for things we believe in.”
The company has two more properties in Philadelphia under contract, one of which is another truck terminal.

SOURCE: https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2021/09/09/new-york-firm-pays.html

Adams County industrial property and its empty parking lot sells for $21 million

Tue, 10 Aug 2021 17:13:42 GMT

The Lipan Street Industrial Park has room for new development, but it’s also willing to just house trailers, vans or heavy equipment

One person’s vacant parking lot off the interstate is another person’s real estate score as a $21 million property sale in Adams County demonstrates.

IG Logistics purchased the Lipan Street Industrial Park for that sum earlier this summer, according to Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate firm that worked with the buyer.

The roughly 34-acre property is near the Pecos Street interchange with Interstate 76, part of an area that has become a hotbed for new industrial development and leasing as consumer demand for speedy deliveries increases in the e-commerce age.

For its money, IG Logistics takes on a property with a handful of long-term leases locked in, but there is also a vacant 14,000-square-foot office building and an unoccupied 11-acre parcel on site.

Cushman & Wakefield representatives are marketing the vacant land for industrial users that might want to commission a built-to-suit logistics or warehouse facility, but leaving it vacant might not hurt its rental prospects either.

“It’s important to highlight that this property is extremely unique,” Cushman & Wakefield broker Joey Trinkle said, noting that it is fenced in, paved and lit, ideal for stashing fleets of vehicles. “There is really nothing like it for people who need trailer parking and want to stay in the central Denver submarket.”

IG Logistics is a subsidiary of Imperium Capital, a New York City-based real estate investment firm. Imperium has mostly been focused on acquiring office space, multifamily housing developments and retail space in Manhattan and other major markets. It launched IG Logistics as an industrial real estate platform last year, managing partner Sam Schneider said. A big reason for that: The firm saw how logistics and industrial real estate users were siphoning off business from retailers.

“We are focused on industrial submarkets that are crucial to e-commerce and distribution,” Schneider said.

The Lipan property could serve a range of industrial outdoor storage uses in Schneider’s view.

“Whether it is truck parking, or van parking or even heavy construction equipment storage, the place is crucial to the supply chain,” he said.

With a recent track record of strong population and job growth, Schneider and his company is high on Denver. IG Logistics is already closing in on acquiring three other properties, he said, with more likely to follow.

Trinkle and fellow Cushman & Wakefield brokers Steve Hager and Matt Trone, have been active in the industrial market north of I-70 and south of I-76 and I-270. With central I-70 under construction , the area has become a target for tenants who need to be close to Denver’s core for delivering goods and services and don’t want to be in Aurora near Denver International Airport, Trinkle said. That’s brought interest and more high-dollar deals from developers and investors.

“We have seen local developers but we have also seen a lot of out-of-state industrial developers and investors that have called us in recent years looking to get into Denver, explicitly in this pocket,” Trinkle said.

Source Link

In Positive Sign for New York's Troubled Office Market, Hudson Square Complex Snags Big Refinancing Loan

Tue, 20 Jul 2021 22:32:34 GMT

One SoHo Square Secures Loans Worth $905 Million

In another encouraging sign for New York’s beaten-down office market, One SoHo Square in the Hudson Square neighborhood is getting a $905 million refinancing loan.

The total loan amount from lenders Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Bank of Montreal includes a $785 million seven-year fixed-rate loan and a $120 million mezzanine loan, according to a report from rating agency DBRS Morningstar. One SoHo Square, comprising two mid-rise office buildings separated by an adjoined 19-story glass tower at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and Spring Street, will serve as collateral, according to the report.

CoStar data lists Stellar Management and Imperium Capital as the property's owners. Imperium declined to comment, while Stellar didn't immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

With New York’s office market still battling what CoStar data shows as a record-high vacancy rate of 11.8%, the new financing reinforces recent glimmers of hope for the beaten-down sector. Recent market reports from various real estate firms have pointed to improved leasing volumes and a slowdown in sublet activity from the first quarter despite continued challenges ahead.

“The overall outlook for the Manhattan office market is considered to be positive as companies begin moving back into offices,” DBRS reported, citing an appraisal.

The rating agency also has a “generally positive view of the credit characteristics of the collateral," adding the property is in a desirable location and has “investment-grade” tenants including health tech company Flatiron, MAC cosmetics, Warby Parker eyewear and beauty brand Glossier that use the location as their headquarters with long-term leases. Other tenants include health insurer Aetna.

More than 92% of the 786,891-square-foot property is geared for office use, with the rest for retail and storage use, DBRS said. Retail tenants include grocer Trader Joe’s, drugstore chain CVS and beauty brand Aveda.

“These factors are critical as the cash flow will be less susceptible to revenue swings, making it more resilient during economic downturns,” according to the rating agency. A case in point: DBRS said only one retail tenant, representing less than 1% of the complex’s total rent, had requested rent relief during the pandemic. None of its office tenants asked for assistance.

The complex’s $268 million in renovations and other capital spending over the last few years also “often play a significant role in retaining existing tenants and attracting new tenants,” DBRS said.

While the now pervasive remote-working trend creates uncertainty around the future demand for office space in gateway markets like New York, the property and the Hudson Square market it sits in should fare better because of their access to transit options, DBRS said. The property is also near “major demand drivers like the Hudson River Park and Google’s expansion project,” it said.

The Hudson Square market “is strong and has demonstrated strong demand, especially from the tech employers, in leasing momentum in the past five years,” DBRS said.

The area, like most of Midtown South clusters in Manhattan, has attracted tech and creative firms over the past decade, highlighted by Google’s $1 billion investment in Hudson Square to create a campus-like setting that would double its employees in New York to 14,000, according to a CoStar analysis. Disney also has bought property in the area and plans to use the space as a home base, DBRS said.

However, the property isn't risk-free. For instance, two of the tenants, Flatiron and e-cigarette maker JUUL, have 18% and 100% of their respective spaces marketed for sublease, according to the rating agency.

"As more firms spend time exploring remote work and revisiting their space needs during the pandemic, New York City office recovery will surely be among the markets to face this challenge," DBRS said.

Source: Link

Local firm acquires Neiman Marcus warehouse in Irving, plans expansion

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 17:50:18 GMT

In this roundup of the latest industrial transactions in North Texas, two local companies acquire warehouses in Dallas and Irving, another local company buys land for a new warehouse, and two large leases are extended. The following is a summary of those deals, listed from largest to smallest.

Neiman Marcus completes sale of Las Colinas warehouse

Provident Realty Advisors has acquired a 491,308-square-foot warehouse in Las Colinas that is currently occupied by Neiman Marcus, according to Dallas County deed records. Neiman Marcus, which sold the facility, recently told the Business Journal that 420 people work there. The company plans to occupy the facility through fall 2022.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Dallas-based Provident Realty recently told the Dallas Morning News that it plans to add 250,000 square feet to the back of the building. The facility currently includes 400,000 square feet of warehouse space and about 90,000 square feet of office space.

“We will begin construction after Neiman’s leaves the facility, and the construction and renovations will take 10 to 12 months,” Provident Realty’s John Bunten Jr. told DMN earlier this month.

Joint venture picks up large Dallas warehouse

A joint venture between Dallas-based CanTex Capital and New York City-based Imperium Capital has acquired a 135,000-square-foot warehouse at 4001 Irving Blvd. in Dallas, according to a press release.

JLL's Capital Markets debt placement team representing the joint venture in secure financing for the purchase. The JLL team was led by Jarrod McCabe and Campbell Roche. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The property was sold by an entity connected with Trinity Industries.

“We are seeing high demand for large infill land sites across the Dallas-Fort Worth market,” said Romit Cheema, CEO of CanTex, in a prepared statement. “It is rare to find an industrial property of this size and proximity to downtown Dallas. A site like this also offers long-term redevelopment potential.”

Not only has CanTex been an active investor in North Texas over the last 18 months, but Imperium says its also eyeing more opportunities in the region.

“4001 Irving is the first of many industrial acquisitions in Dallas for Imperium Capital,” said Sam Schneider, managing partner of Imperium, in a prepared statement. “We are very bullish on the entire DFW market and look forward to being very active there.”

Local investor buys land for future warehouse project

Dallas-based Frontier Equity bought 9.77 acres of land at 850 Railhead Road in north Fort Worth, according to a press release. The company plans to build a future warehouse on the site. Adam Graham of Lee & Associates represented the buyer while the seller, JMCR Railhead LLC , was represented by Transwestern.

LEASES

Little Raymond's Print Shop has signed an extension on its 230,400-square-foot lease at 850 N. Lake Drive in Coppell. Newmark represented the tenant while Stream Realty Partners represented the landlord.

WNA Cups Illustrated Inc. signed a 90,000-square-foot sublease extension at 1221 Centre Park Blvd. in DeSoto. Gary Lindsey of Newmark represented WNA Cups, a Lancaster-based plastics manufacturer. CBRE represented the sublandlord.

Source

Flatiron Health and E-Cigarette Startup Juul Take Space at One Soho Square

Fri, 21 Jun 2019 21:04:42 GMT

Fast-growing health care technology company Flatiron Health will nearly double its space at One Soho Square while e-cigarette maker Juul Labs signed on for a new office.

Flatiron Health, which focuses on cancer research, signed a 10-year lease for another 122,068 square feet in the 13-story west tower of Stellar Management and Imperium Capital’s One Soho Square, which has an alternate address of 233 Spring Street, Bloomberg first reported.

The renewal and expansion brings Flatiron’s presence in the development to 252,452 square feet over nine full floors of the two-building development between Spring and Vandam Streets, according to the landlord. Asking rent was $102 per square foot, a source with knowledge of the deal said.

Flatiron, which was founded in 2012, first moved into its 130,384-square-foot offices in One Soho Square’s 15-story east tower—which has an alternate address of 161 Avenue of the Americas—in January 2018, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

The firm’s team has since grown from 500 to 800 employees after it was bought by Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche for $1.9 billion last year, according to the tenant’s broker Savills.

Savills’ Zev Holzman, Brad Wolk and Herman Dodson brokered the deal for Flatiron while Brent Ozarowski, David Malawer, Andy Peretz and Brian Waterman of Newmark Knight Frank represented the landlords. The NKF brokers declined to comment.

“Finding large blocks of space in Soho [and] Hudson Square is nearly impossible because the area is in high demand,” Holzman said in a statement. “Through careful planning and diligence, we were able to identify the only large block expansion opportunity in the neighborhood and craft a transaction that will deliver space on the tenant’s timeline and meet Flatiron’s needs for years to come.”

Separately, e-cigarette juggernaut Juul inked a deal for 54,000 square feet in the west tower of One Soho Square, The Real Deal first reported.

Juul signed a long-term lease for the eighth and ninth floor of the west tower of One Soho Square, sources said. Asking rent was $124 per square foot, according to the sources.

Colliers International’s Eric Ferriello handled the deal for Juul while NKF’s Malawer, Peretz and Waterman represented the landlords. A spokesman for Colliers declined to comment.

E-cigarette maker Juul currently has about 75 percent of the vaping market, but has come under fire for its early advertisement campaigns critics said targeted teenagers, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company denied it was trying to appeal to teens.

Despite the criticism, Juul had its valuation increase to more than $38 billion in May when mutual fund Capital Re bought shares on the secondary market, The New York Post reported. And even as San Francisco gears up to be the first city in the country to ban vaping, Juul bought a 28-story office tower there this week for an estimated $400 million, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The two leases come less than a month after Stellar and Imperium sealed a $900 million refinance of One Soho Square, as CO previously reported.

Source

Stellar, Imperium lock down $900M CMBS refi for One Soho Square

Fri, 31 May 2019 20:13:00 GMT

Goldman Sachs refinanced Stellar Management and Imperium Capital’s One Soho Square with a $900 million, five-year CMBS loan.

The debt will soon be securitized, which works for the size of the loan, Stellar’s principal Ryan Jackson told Commercial Observer. “It’s a very good time to be a borrower,” he added.

Commercial Mortgage Alert first published the news.

A Cushman & Wakefield team negotiated the debt.

One Soho Square is a 92-percent-leased office-and-retail project made of two combined buildings: 15-story-tall One Soho Square East, which was built in 1904, and 13-story-tall One Soho Square West, constructed in 1927. The complex’s tenants include beauty brands MAC Cosmetics, Aveda and Glossier, eyeglasses company Warby Parker and Trader Joe’s.

In August, insurance company Aetna inked a deal to take on 100,000 square feet of space in the eastern building.

That building only has one more floor left to lease, Jackson said.

Stellar, founded by Larry Gluck, in 2016 bought out its former partner in the 750,000-square-foot complex, Rockpoint Group, which held a 25 interest. The deal valued the project at $650 million. Imperium holds a minority interest in the property.

Stellar acquired the two buildings in the complex — 161 Sixth Avenue and 223 Spring Street — in 2012 for $200 million, then invested $50 million into the properties to create a joint lobby. [CO] — Mary Diduch

Stellar, Imperium lock down $900M CMBS refi for One Soho Square

The post Stellar, Imperium lock down $900M CMBS refi for One Soho Square appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Stellar Taps CMBS Market for $900M Refi of One Soho Square

Wed, 29 May 2019 13:55:00 GMT

Stellar Management and Imperium Capital have sealed a $900 million refinance of One Soho Square, officials at Stellar told Commercial Observer. The deal closed on May 23.

Goldman Sachs provided the five-year CMBS debt, as first reported by Commercial Mortgage Alert. The loan will soon be securitized in a single-asset, single borrower CMBS transaction.

“Goldman was a good fit because they were already one of the lenders on the asset and we knew they had the best economics,” Ryan Jackson, a principal of Stellar Management, told CO. “Their reputation gave us assurance of their certainty to close in our desired timeframe.”

CMBS offered the best execution for a deal of this size, Jackson said. And, with the debt markets hot to trot, “it’s a very good time to be a borrower.”

The Gensler-designed Class A property sits on the border of Soho and Hudson Square, and consists of the 15-story One Soho Square East and the 13-story One Soho Square West.

Tenant amenities include an exclusive rooftop deck and private outdoor terraces. The property also features a new, glass lobby and nine new passenger elevators.

The building is roughly 92 percent leased to a roster of tenants that includes MAC, Glossier, Warby Parker, Aveda and Trader Joe’s. In October, CVS inked a 13,266-square-foot deal to open a new location in One Soho Square’s base.

The robust leasing activity played into the refinance’s timing. “[It] did play a role as we only have one floor left to lease,” Jackson said.

“As evidenced by the forward-thinking and name brand companies that have offices here, One Soho Square continues to set the standard for office space in Manhattan’s most desirable submarket,” Adam Roman, Stellar Management’s chief operating officer, added in prepared remarks. “Our team has done a terrific job molding these buildings into something really special that appeals to companies looking for one-of-kind space that their employees will love.”

Larry Gluck’s Stellar acquired the former stand-alone pre-war buildings—at 223 Spring Street and 161 Sixth Avenue—for $200 million in 2012 before joining them with an elongated common core and two-story lobby. Stellar bought out former partner Rockpoint Group’s 25 percent interest the 750,000-square-foot project in 2016 for $260 million, as reported by Crain’s New York Business.

Jackson said that “to an extent,” the landlord’s vision has since been realized for One Soho Square.

“We’re always striving to improve and provide our office users a leading-edge experience every day they come to work,” he said. “The property will always be where it is, but we need to make sure it always gets to where tenants want to go.”

Cushman & Wakefield’s Steve Kohn, Alex Hernandez, Alex Lapidus and Noble Carpenter negotiated the financing together with C&W’s Adam Spies.

“Both the domestic and international capital markets were eager to participate in such a bespoke offering as One SoHo Square,” Hernandez said. “The quality of the property, amenities, tenancy and location make it a truly one of a kind financing opportunity.”

While Jackson offered no tidbits regarding upcoming financings, “getting large marquee transactions like this one done is going to be a continued theme for 2019,” he said. “As mentioned earlier, it’s a good time to be a borrower.”

Stellar Taps CMBS Market for $900M Refi of One Soho Square

The post Stellar Taps CMBS Market for $900M Refi of One Soho Square appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Stellar, Imperium set to revamp Midtown South office

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 18:30:00 GMT

Stellar Management and Imperium Capital, which recently acquired a leasehold interest in 220 Fifth Avenue in New York, are planning a major capital improvement campaign for the Midtown South property. The duo paid about $800 per square foot for the property and has tapped NGKF to handle leasing for six vacant floors. Dino & Sons Realty Corp. was the seller.

The partners were attracted to the property due to its location and value-added potential. “The Sixth Avenue corporate corridor is no longer where people want to office,” said Matthew Lembo, a principal at Steller. “[This property] is evidence of a migration to prewar buildings in Midtown South.”

As part of its capital improvement program, the partners will renovate the lobby and update the building systems. The partnership is also completing custom pre-builds for turn-key office space. “We’re going to renovate the lobby to restore its pre-war charm and make it feel like it did when you walked in 100 years ago,” Lembo said. “Pre-builds for individual spaces are compelling for this size tenants.”

Each of the vacant floors has about 9,000 square feet of rentable space, with 54,000 square feet in total available. “From a physical perspective, the building is of the Gothic French renaissance style – its multiple friezes contain the images of both the iconic American bald eagle and the French fleur de lis,” Lembo said. “5 ^th Avenue is a wide street, so light pours into the building providing views of Madison Square Park from every floor.”

http://realestatefinanceinvestment.com/news/stellar-imperium-set-to-revamp-midtown-south-office/

The post Stellar, Imperium set to revamp Midtown South office appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Stellar, Imperium near deal for 220 Fifth Ave. leasehold

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 18:29:00 GMT

Larry Gluck’s Stellar Management and Imperium Capital are close to entering contract to acquire the leasehold interest for the 21-story mixed-use building at 218-220 Fifth Avenue in NoMad, sources told The Real Deal.

The 150,900-square-foot building at the corner of East 26th Street mostly holds offices – 125,000 square feet – but also has small residential, retail and storage components, records show.

Sources familiar with the building pegged the value of the leasehold at around $800 per square foot, or in the $120 million-to-$150 million range depending on the square footage of leasable space included.
Sources said Stellar and Imperium are expected to sign a contract by year’s end. There are no brokers, though Progress Capital Advisors’ Kathy Anderson is serving as an adviser on the deal.

The deal would result in the creation of a leasehold for the building. Dino Tomassetti Jr.’s Brooklyn-based Dino & Sons Realty Corporation has owned the property outright since 1991, records show. In 2014, Tomassetti secured a $35 million loan from New Jersey-based Investors Bank, as brokered by Progress Capital.

Anderson declined to comment, as did Stellar. Imperium and Dino & Sons could not be immediately reached.

Office tenants include law firm Weiner Millo Morgan & Bonanno, pharmaceutical news publication Chain Drug Review and real estate investor Atit Jariwala’s Bridgeton Holdings. Belgian Beer Café occupies the retail space on the bottom two floors.

Public policy organization Demos recently vacated a three-floor, 13,860-square-foot spread for a space at 80 Broad Street in the Financial District. The company had the largest footprint in the building, according to CoStar data.

Asking rents for NoMad office space are in the $50s and $60s per square foot.

The building, constructed in 1912 and formerly known as the Croisic Building, is part of the Madison Square North Historic District.
Stellar and Imperium previously partnered on the 750,000-square-foot office-and-retail project One Soho Square, a merging of two buildings they bought for $200 million in 2012. In August, Stellar bought out Rockpoint Group’s 25 percent stake in the project, thus valuing it at $650 million.

Elsewhere in NoMad, the Schwalbe family is looking to sell the land beneath its 12-story office building at 149 Madison Avenue, near East 32nd Street.

https://therealdeal.com/2016/11/29/stellar-imperium-near-deal-for-220-fifth-ave-leasehold/

The post Stellar, Imperium near deal for 220 Fifth Ave. leasehold appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Next Generation Of Real Estate Leaders’ View of the Market

Thu, 20 Oct 2016 04:14:00 GMT

The post Next Generation Of Real Estate Leaders’ View of the Market appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Stellar buys out Rockpoint at One Soho Square in $650M deal

Mon, 15 Aug 2016 09:38:00 GMT

Larry Gluck’s Stellar Management has bought out former partner the Rockpoint Group and brought on a new investor at One Soho Square in a deal that values the office-and-retail project at $650 million.

Stellar TRData LogoTINY purchased Rockpoint’s 25 percent interest in the 750,000-square-foot project, giving the Boston-based firm $260 million for its interest, according to Crain’s. Imperium Capital is also a minority partner in the project, which is comprised of two neighboring buildings at 223 Spring Street and 161 Sixth Avenue. A representative for Imperium refused to comment.

Eastdil Secured’s Adam Spies, Doug Harmon and Adam Doneger brokered the deal.

Stellar bought the two buildings for $200 million in 2012 with the intention of combining the neighboring structures. The developer reportedly poured $50 million into the buildings, creating a new shared lobby. Last year, tenant Springer Science + Business Media, which occupies 100,000 square feet at 223 Spring, filed a suit against the developer to fight eviction.

Last week, marketing consulting firm DoubleVerify inked a five-year lease for 32,000 square feet at One Soho Square. The asking rent was $80 per square foot. Other tenants include Managed by Q, Warby Parker and Aveda. [Crain’s] — E.B. Solomont

http://therealdeal.com/2016/08/15/stellar-management-buys-out-rockpoint-at-one-soho-square-in-650m-deal/

The post Stellar buys out Rockpoint at One Soho Square in $650M deal appeared first on Imperium Capital .

New York players enter Surfside market with $5M purchase

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 12:05:00 GMT

Imperium Capital and RWN Real Estate Partners, both New York-based investors, closed on two retail buildings in Surfside on Thursday for $5 million.

Rowe Properties LLC sold the properties at 9415 and 9569 Harding Avenue, Imperium’s Dan Glaser told The Real Deal. Glaser said the area has a lot of growth potential, citing high-end residential development and the nearby Bal Harbour Shops.

New developments in the area include the Fendi Chateau Residences, a high-end luxury hotel developed by an Israeli-Turkish partnership and the Surf Club Four Seasons.

The buildings total 6,000 square feet, which breaks down to $833 per square foot. The lots total 7,500 square feet, according to county records. Glaser said he and his partners, Sam Schneider of Imperium and Ari Shalam of RWN, plan to hold onto both parcels in the long term.

“The tenants have several years left on their leases. We’ll see what the future holds,” he said.

Robert Rowe of Wesley Chapel, Florida, manages the seller’s LLC.

In September, an LLC paid $5.75 million for a 13,500-square-foot building at 9553 Harding Avenue. The retail strip is about a block away from Bal Harbour Shops, which has plans for $400 million-plus renovation and expansion. The Whitman family owns the luxury retail development, and plans to add a new entrance, wider sidewalks, a new canopy, landscaping. Barneys New York will join the mall, as well as bigger stores for Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Imperium owns property on Lincoln Road, which it acquired in January 2014, according to Miami-Dade County records. Imperium and Centurion Realty paid $33 million for 643-657 Lincoln Road at the time.

http://therealdeal.com/miami/2015/11/20/new-york-players-enter-surfside-market-with-5m-purchase/

The post New York players enter Surfside market with $5M purchase appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Investment firms bet on Brooklyn Heights Montague Street as the next Spring Street

Mon, 18 May 2015 12:01:00 GMT

Imperium Capital and Centurion Realty paid $8.5 million for the five-story Brooklyn Heights building with hopes that rent on the corridor will rise.

Imperium Capital, along with Centurion Realty, is betting that Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights will become the city’s next hot little shopping corridor.

The pair has acquired 142 Montague St., a five-story residential building with six rental apartment units and two levels of retail, for $8.5 million. Imperium, a firm founded by two young real estate investors, Daniel Glaser and Sam Schneider, has been investing in prime retail spaces in neighborhoods that are experiencing a run-up in rents. In recent years, the pair has purchased retail space in SoHo and Williamsburg.

Now they see an upside in Brooklyn Heights, a neighborhood that has long been known as one of the city’s most scenic and exclusive residential enclaves. Given the areas demographic of wealthy residents, Messrs. Glaser and Schneider see an opportunity for more luxury retail.

“It will transition in the future,” Mr. Schneider said. “Luxury retailers can pay higher rents and still make money.”

One of the reasons Montague Street is so attractive is that many of the buildings there have two levels of retail. Retail rents on the street are in the $150s per square foot, according to Mr. Schneider, adding that he sees that rising in the near future.

At 142 Montague St., the women’s footwear store Aerosoles and a sushi restaurant, which occupies the second level, are leasing the property. But Mr. Schneider said the retail scene is going upscale. The high-end skin-care shop Kiehl’s recently opened on Montague Street. And the Bossert Hotel is expected to open at 98 Montague St., adding to the increasingly luxury-oriented streetscape with its planned retail space.

“The residential has always been good in Brooklyn Heights,” Mr. Schneider said. “Now the retail is catching up.”

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20150518/REAL_ESTATE/150519880/investment-firms-want-brooklyn-heights-to-be-the-next-soho

The post Investment firms bet on Brooklyn Heights Montague Street as the next Spring Street appeared first on Imperium Capital .

The 2014 Commercial Observer Owners Magazine

Wed, 08 Oct 2014 12:07:00 GMT

New York’s landlords Sound off on Mayor de Blasio, Infrastructure and the Future of Commercial Real Estate Sam Schneider, Co-founder & managing partner, Imperium Capital

What’s your real estate prediction for 2015?

I believe real estate cap rates and fundamentals will hold relatively steady in the coming year.

Where in New York is there still untapped potential for real estate development?

Brooklyn is still an untapped market. I do not believe it has reached its full potential in terms of market growth.

What area in New York is “overdeveloped”?

There is so much demand it is hard to say anywhere in New York City is overdeveloped. The eastern part of the Upper East Side may come closest to being an overdeveloped or oversupplied neighborhood.

Is the New York market reaching another bubble?

So many properties are being purchased with large amounts of equity. The debt is not becoming overly aggressive in terms of LTV [or loan-to-value]. I do not see a bubble happening anytime soon.

Will Queens, Staten Island or the Bronx ever experience the sort of boom Brooklyn has recently enjoyed?

They have a chance to see a fair amount of growth, but I do not think they will experience the boom that Brooklyn has experience. Brooklyn has become an international brand.

What about areas just outside the city like Jersey City or White Plains?

I believe they do have a chance to see growth, but not at the same rate as Brooklyn.

What are the odds of a refigured Midtown East rezoning being approved in the next year?

I don’t think any of us know when or if that will take place.

Which area of the city is most in need of infrastructure improvements?

North of Hudson Yards on the West Side, as development continues in that area.

Which overseas real estate market do you think has the greatest potential?

We don’t invest overseas and can’t comment.

What’s your favorite local restaurant?

ZZ’s Clam Bar in Greenwich Village.

Which fellow owner do you admire most?

Stephen Ross of Related.

Outside of the boardroom, what’s the best place to bond with fellow owners?

Dinner and drinks at a local New York restaurant.

Will space apps and listing sites become the standard for smaller deals and create more direct-to-tenant deals?

I believe so much of what we do in real estate is based on relationships, and face-to-face time will remain important.

Is Mayor de Blasio helping or hurting the New York real estate industry at this point in his tenure? Please explain why.

Mayor de Blasio has done a good job since beginning his term. I believe he truly wants to see positive change for the city in all forms.

https://commercialobserver.com/2014/10/owners-magazine-profiles/#2014-owners-magazine

The post The 2014 Commercial Observer Owners Magazine appeared first on Imperium Capital .

A new era for the evolving Lincoln Road

Sun, 15 Jun 2014 08:34:00 GMT

Stroll down Lincoln Road and, as you shop, dine and people-watch, you’ll find an urban metamorphosis taking shape.

New York-based institutional investors are buying up properties at record prices, and tenant rents are skyrocketing. Major national and international retailers are setting up shop, with a huge, two-story Gap store about to open on Friday, and Athleta and Intermix alongside it. New sites are under construction for Apple and Zara. Soon, Lululemon will open, as will Zadig & Voltaire and Kiko Milano, an Italian cosmetics brand. Bebe, Kiehl’s and Melissa Shoes will move to new spots. And more eateries will emerge, like the Las Vegas-based Sugar Factory and the Argentine gelateria Freddo, while Laduree, the fancy French macaron shop, will add an ice cream champagne bar with outdoor seating.

Insiders say other prospective national tenants like Nike, Abercrombie & Fitch and Old Navy have been circling the promenade, hoping to land a spot. The British brand Topshop may not be far behind as retailers and restaurants pour out to side streets, expanding the corridor that runs from Alton Road to the ocean, into a broader district.

Lincoln Road is in transition after decades of ups and downs dating from its 1920s origins. Through the early 1950s, elite department stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Bonwit Teller lined the street and women paraded by, dressed in fur coats. After falling into decline, the street has been on an upswing since the 1990s. Now, with a resurgence of investors and tenant interest, Lincoln Road is evolving into a new phase – and booming.

“It is squarely in the sights of every major, exciting retail operator around the world, and the demand for locations on Lincoln Road has never been higher,” said Stephen Bittel, founder and chairman of Miami Beach-based Terranova Corp. Since December 2010, Terranova has bought several properties on Lincoln Road in a joint venture with New York-based Acadia Realty Trust, making it the street’s largest owner of retail property.

In the realm of commercial real estate Lincoln Road has taken its place among the most regaled “high streets” of the world, experts say.

“It’s our Champs-Elysees,” said Steven Gombinski, president of the Lincoln Road Property Owners Association and owner of 900 Lincoln Road, a corner building he has restored to its original historical design. Formerly the site of Pasha’s, it will become Bebe’s new flagship store in November.

And if you wonder what other retailers are coming in the future: “Look at Aventura Mall’s tenant list and see who is not here,” said Miami Beach-based commercial real estate broker and developer Michael Comras.

As South Florida’s economy benefits from a flurry of tourists, with a record 14.2 million overnight visitors to Miami-Dade County in 2013, Lincoln Road’s rise in value is taking place amid a retail explosion. Across the causeway, the Design District is transforming into a luxury shopping destination and Aventura Mall is expanding. Farther south, Dadeland Mall has recently added a new wing, and plans are unfolding for major complexes near downtown Miami – Brickell City Centre and Miami WorldCenter.

On Lincoln Road, prices are now entering another stratosphere, reaching $5,000-per-square foot for building purchases, and $300 or more per square foot for rent, as New York-based buyers like Acadia, with Terranova, Imperium Capital, Crown Acquisitions and Vornado Realty Trust scoop up sites and sign leases with well-known national and international tenants. Amid demand for space, new stores are rising to two stories.

The influx signifies the next stage in a transition that began about 15 years ago, when major national tenants first started flocking to the road. Today, fewer than half the tenants are local brands.

HIGH-RENT DISTRICT

Over the past few decades, building prices have jumped from $27 a square foot in 1985, to $250 in 1999, to nearly $5,000 now – a 20-fold increase in less than 20 years. Rents have risen from $6 a square foot in 1985 to $18 in 1990 to $35 in 1999, and now, $300. That puts Lincoln Road rents on par with parts of Madison Avenue, though still far below parts of Soho and Fifth Avenue in New York, where rents can approach $2,000 a square foot, said retail consultant Cynthia Cohen, president of Strategic Mindshare.

“Those rents wouldn’t be able to go up if there weren’t the number of customers on the road,” Cohen said. “So it’s very symbiotic. You can’t just raise the rent because nobody will pay it if they don’t have the opportunity to generate high sales. Lincoln Road is very much a destination for residents as well as tourists.”

In fact, Lincoln Road’s average asking rent, at $271.56 per-square-foot last year, was up 34 percent from 2012, and it far surpassed that of Miami Beach’s Ocean Drive ($125) and Collins Avenue ($107.52) as well as Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue ($85.22), according to research by Terranova.

Momentum has escalated in the past four years, after the pedestrian-only stretch was extended a block west, and the Herzog & de Meuron-designed 1111 building and garage were completed, which now houses Juvia, Nespresso and various shops.

“The value of buildings is up tenfold in 15 years, and rents have followed suit,” said Comras, who has brokered deals for tenants and property owners on Lincoln Road for 16 years.

Yet not everyone believes Lincoln Road’s evolution is for the better. While new national stores like Urban Outfitters and American Eagle Outfitters have recently arrived, other local brands like Pink Palm, Van Dyke Café, Tasti D-Lite, TiramesU, Pasha’s and Score have left the street amid rising rents – sometimes landing on nearby roads or neighborhoods. Next, Sushi Siam is set to close, as its new property owner, New York-based Imperium Capital brings in Sugar Factory, sources say.

Some local mainstays remain, among them, Books & Books, Yuca, Rosinella, Base, Alchemist, Britto Central and ArtCenter South Florida.

Pink Palm, the card and gift shop, left its site at 723 Lincoln Road last July, when its lease expired and its new landlord tripled the rent from $15,000 a month to $45,000 a month, said co-owner Perry Martino.

He and co-owner Russ Root moved the shop, now called Perfect Gifts South Beach, to 1516 Washington Ave. But sales have dropped off.

“In a perfect world, I would rather be there [on Lincoln Road],” Martino said. “But in a real world, there’s no way unless you are corporate America to afford it.”

Many Miami Beach residents who have watched the evolution say they mourn the loss of the local mom-and-pop shops.

“It’s turned into a Middle American mall,” said Sara Leviten, a 66-year-old retiree whose memories of Lincoln Road date to the ‘50s. “I like some of the shops, but most are chain stores. It’s lost its funkiness and character.”

Daniel Ciraldo, historical preservation officer for the Miami Design Preservation League, is also wary of the changes. “Lincoln Road is becoming a victim of its own success,” he said. “We’re seeing a lot of mom-and-pop, unique stores being replaced by mass market chain stores, and it’s affecting the quality of the experience on that thoroughfare.”

Still, international tourists flock to the street by the planeful.

Lyle Stern, president of Miami Beach-based Koniver Stern Group, who has leased and owned buildings on Lincoln Road for more than 20 years, points to the assortment of hotels on track for South Beach, calling the tourist industry “one of the great underpinnings of Lincoln Road.”

In fact, a quick, random survey of pedestrians one day recently revealed tourists from France, Brazil, Germany and Canada.

“We love Lincoln Road,” said Anta Tsountas, who was shopping with her husband at John Varvatos, the high-end men’s store that opened its first store in the Southeast on Lincoln Road in April 2013. Originally from Greece, the two live in Montreal and own an apartment in Fort Lauderdale. During every visit to South Florida, they drive down to Lincoln. “It reminds us a lot of Europe,” Tsountas, 50, said.

Day and night, visitors amble along, kids in tow. Packed cafes serve up sushi and spaghetti to wide-eyed voyeurs taking in the French bulldogs, leggy models and shirtless bodybuilders on skateboards. On Sundays, a farmer’s market or antique and collectibles market often sets up stalls. And at night, mimes in white paint, saxophone players and singers draw large crowds.

Stanley Whitman, the 95-year-old founder of Bal Harbour Shops, recalls a different Lincoln Road, with ultra high-end shops like Saks, Bonwits, De Pinna and Jay Thorpe. His father had owned buildings on Lincoln until about 1950 and built the first theater on the north side of the street, Whitman said.

“In 1945 when I took over managing the buildings, we got $1 a square foot for rent,” Whitman said. “On the east side, they were getting $10 a square foot. I thought, ‘Someday, I hope I can get $10.’ ”

Commercial real estate broker Lyle Chariff, president of Chariff Realty Group, who has managed and leased as much as 600,000 square feet on the road, recalls raising rents to $35 a square foot in the mid 1990s. That’s up from $6 a square foot when his mother, Marcy Chariff, opened her shop, Diamonds and Chicken Soup, on Lincoln Road in 1985, he said, Chariff, who began his real estate career in 1993 by partnering with Doran Jason, at one point occupied office space above his mother’s shop.

Other local families also have held onto their sites for years and share a certain camaraderie. Robert Quittner, whose family first bought Lincoln Road properties in the late 1940s, is one of Chariff’s long-term clients and one of the longest-running property owners on the street. In the late 1950s, when his father, a dentist, was vice president of the Lincoln Road Association, its members included top-notch bankers and business people. “It was prestigious, it was the ‘who’s who’ of power people of Miami-Dade County,” said Quittner, whose family owns 532 through 560 Lincoln.

Ben Brody’s family began acquiring the 1000-1014 and 1020-1022 buildings on Lincoln Road in 1974. Brody, whose parents operated businesses in the building, said that when his father bought the property, American Express leased the space now occupied by the Spanish shoe store Camper. The rent: $750 a month or $5 per square foot. Today, Brody’s tenants include such high-end stores as Mayor’s and John Varvatos, as well as restaurants Balans and Quattro.

“I have been told by several national, prominent brokers that there is a lot of upside,” Brody said. “It’s great for us. It’s an incredible ride.”

Yet, despite the windfall of higher rents, some long-term property owners like Brody, along with many residents, lament that the current price inflation has priced out some restaurants, forcing them to pack up and retreat to side streets or other areas like Sunset Harbour, which has a burgeoning dining scene.

“We’re going to lose some of that vital mix and flavor and we think it’s vital to keep the flavor of Lincoln Road intact,” said Brody, managing partner of Excel Investment Corp. “That’s why older landlords like us have the flexibility to do under-market rents for the right restaurant. For us, mix is more important than rent.”

Gombinski, whose family first purchased 900 Lincoln Road in 1985, agrees on the importance of restaurants. But he believes that overall, the changes are creating a better Lincoln Road.

“Gentrification is not bad,” he said. “It’s what has developed cities, enhanced the tax base and provided vibrant communities.”

At the same time, rising sale prices and the onslaught of national and international tenants have also led landlords to invest in restoring properties, Gombinski said. As evidence, he cites his own building, as well as the Van Dyke and the Lincoln Theater, now occupied by H&M.

At the western edge of Lincoln Road, Robert Wennett’s high-profile development of the 1111 Building has spurred even more activity. Across the street, Landuree, a renowned 150-year-old Paris pastry institution known for its pastel-colored macarons, chose Lincoln Road for its first location in the Southeast United States, opened in February.

“The visibility is amazing for our brand,” said Pierre-Antoine Raberin, co-managing director of Laduree USA.

NEW YORK MONEY

In the past few years, New York investment interest has led the charge. Among the largest purchases: In July 2012, Vornado Realty Trust paid $132 million for the 253,168-square-foot 1100 Lincoln Road building, whose tenants include Banana Republic, Serendipity’s, Donaku, Anthropologie, Baire Grill and Regal Cinemas.

In January of this year, Imperium Capital, a privately owned real estate investment and development company, and Centurion Realty, a real estate investor – both are based in New York – acquired 643-657 Lincoln, for $33 million. Current tenants include French Connection, Runway Swimwear, Ricky’s Cosmetics and Sushi Siam.

“Miami Beach made a lot of sense to us. It’s in close proximity to New York, and we think it’s an exploding market with a lot of South American money coming into the market,” said Dan Glaser, managing partner of Imperium Capital, which has acquired $1 billion of property, mostly in New York, since its inception in 2010. For the past two years, the firm has been focused on buying on Lincoln Road, he said.

“We believe it is the best retail street in Miami,” Glaser said. “We’re very bullish on Lincoln Road long-term, and bullish on Miami Beach long-term, and we’re definitely interested in acquiring more.”

Acadia and Terranova’s joint venture, which was at the forefront of the new surge in New York investment, now has a stable of five buildings on Lincoln Road and one of Lincoln Lane, Bittel said. Among the tenants are A/X Armani Jeans and the locally owned restaurant Khong River House.

One of the most visible changes on the road is the historic Van Dyke building at 846 Lincoln Road, which formerly housed the Van Dyke Café.

The building was purchased for $16 million by Crown Acquisitions in July 2012. It is now being restored, and Lululemon plans to open a flagship store there this fall. The company has commissioned local artist David “Lebo” Le Batard to paint a mural for the store, said Lululemon spokeswoman Renee Ascione.

Other recent acquisitions include 818 Lincoln Road, the site of Britto Central, which a Montreal-based investor bought for $34.5 million in May.

Amid it all, another new trend has emerged. With pent-up demand for larger space, landlords and retailers are looking upwards, creating two- and three-story stores for H&M, Forever 21 and the upcoming Apple and Gap stores, while staying within the 50-foot height limitation for the pedestrian mall.

And as the boom continues, more tenant moves are on the horizon. Sources say Anthropologie is expected to relocate, as will Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma, when their leases expire next year. And Old Navy is said to be eyeing a site near the soon-to-open Zara. Apple too will move, once its new building, developed by Comras and partners, is completed next year. Comras said he is “working on several deals” for Apple’s current space.

Meanwhile, not far away, a controversy is brewing surrounding Miami Beach Community Church’s grassy yard, which developer David Edelstein has agreed to lease, with plans to build a retail building with a space on top of community events. The Miami Design Preservation League has just appealed the city’s Historic Preservation Board’s approval of the lease, Ciraldo said.

GREATEST CHALLENGE

It’s all part of what Bittel says is Lincoln Road’s greatest challenge: “How do you grow a world-class High Street, in a manner that captures the essence of the local community and gives it the retail energy of the international stars, and do it in a way that serves the local community and visitors from around the world?”

About a year ago, the Property Owners Association was formed, which now counts nearly all property owners as members. Its first project was to hire landscape architect Raymond Jungles to design a landscaping plan, which the city implemented earlier this year, adding mature trees and low plantings to create more visibility from one side of the street to the other, Gombinski said.

Creating a business improvement district could be next, which would allow the area to market itself while maintaining and improving common areas, Bittel said. That could include painting, landscaping and code enforcement (for such nuisances as store employees hawking skin care products to passersby), and street work such as drainage.

To date, the city of Miami Beach has issued a request for qualifications for an international design firm to create a master plan for the road, which could lay the groundwork for millions of dollars or improvements.

Investors and brokers like Comras, Stern and Bittel hope the city will agree to develop its ground-level parking lots north of Lincoln Road with multilevel parking garages, adding more space for retail.

Stores and restaurants would spill out to side streets, connecting Lincoln Road to the area around it and creating a larger, vibrant district. The new Yard House on Lenox Avenue, for example, would be linked to Lincoln Road, as would the New World Symphony’s New World Center.

In 10 years, insiders say they envision the Lincoln Road district to include a new convention center, hotel, residential units and enhanced parking, with a busy promenade of people walking along the shops and restaurants from morning until night, enjoying a live-work-play lifestyle.

Lincoln Road, they say, has not yet reached its potential.

“There are still lots of old, tired stores that need to either upgrade and come into the modern era or go away,” Bittel said, “and they will be replaced with exciting brands from around the world.”

New arrivals

International and national retail brands that have opened on Lincoln Road in about the past two years include Laduree, Urban Outfitters, American Eagle Outfitters, AJ/Armani Jeans, Lacoste, Tesla, Fossil, John Varvatos, G-Star Raw, Custo Barcelona, Havaianas, Melissa Shoes, Lush, Superdry, Desigual.

Under construction

International and national brands with sites under construction on Lincoln Road include Zara, Gap, Athleta, Intermix, Lululemon, Apple.

Coming soon

More new national and international brands coming: Zadig & Voltaire, Sugar Factory.

Recent Sales

Some of the properties that institutional investors have purchased in the past two years:

643-657 Lincoln Road, Imperium Capital and Centurion Realty, $33 million, January 2014.

719, 801 and 826 Lincoln Road: Terranova Corp. and Acadia Realty Trust, $139 million, December 2012.

1100 Lincoln Road: Vornado Realty Trust, $132 million, July 2012.

846 Lincoln (Van Dyke Building), $16 million, Crown Acquisitions, July 2012.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/biz-monday/article1966425.html

The post A new era for the evolving Lincoln Road appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Firm buys up pricey properties

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 08:33:00 GMT

There’s an adage in the commercial real estate industry: What’s exorbitant today might look like a bargain tomorrow.

That’s what Manhattan-based Imperium Capital is betting on in its latest, and perhaps boldest, purchase in the four years since the firm was founded by principals Sam Schneider and Dan Glaser. Last month, it bought the ground-floor retail space at 123 Prince St. for $8 million-or a mind-boggling $12,300 per square foot for the modest 650-square-foot store. That may be an all-time record price in the area.

“We pay up for properties,” said Mr. Schneider, 36. “In world-class neighborhoods, even if we overpay, at some point the market catches up.”

A big part of Mr. Schneider’s success has been the savvy he has shown in rounding up the stable of well-capitalized partners necessary to buy properties in hot markets like SoHo and Williamsburg, where Imperium has focused.

“Our biggest skill is the deal side of the business,” said Mr. Schneider. “There’s tons of money out there but very few good deals.”

The two, who had been brokers at Eastern Consolidated, got their start as landlords in 2010, when they bought a 15,000-square-foot retail and residential building in SoHo, at 60 Wooster St. To help fund that transaction, they brought on equity partner Centurion Realty and raised their share from friends and family.

“Neither Sam nor I come from wealthy families,” said Mr. Glaser, who is 30.

They have tackled several big deals since, including 103 Prince St., which they bought in 2011 with partners Centurion Realty, Morgan Stanley Real Estate and Crown Acquisitions for $75 million.

“There’s no secret sauce-it’s about building relationships, working hard and being able to execute,” Mr. Schneider said.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20140610/REAL_ESTATE/306089988/firm-buys-up-pricey-properties

The post Firm buys up pricey properties appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Tiny SoHo retail space sells for record price

Mon, 19 May 2014 12:02:00 GMT

A pair of young investors who have been busy acquirers of SoHo real estate have struck again.

Daniel Glaser,30, and Sam Schneider, 36, two former investment sales brokers who started their own real estate investment firm called Imperium Capital have bought a small slice of what is considered one of the SoHo area’s premiere shopping corridors.

Imperium purchased the ground floor retail space at 123 Prince St., on the corner of Wooster Street, for $8 million. Though that doesn’t sound like much in an area where retail condos can fetch at least tens of millions of dollars, the space is a mere 650 square feet, which means the sale translates into a stratospheric $12,300 per square foot – a sale price in the area based on per square foot. Real estate investment firm Centurion Realty partnered with Imperium on the purchase.

Messrs. Glaser and Schneider were brokers at Eastern Consolidated before they struck off on their own in 2010 to buy properties. The duo were a part of investment groups that purchased other properties on Prince Street, including 103 Prince St., which houses an Apple store, and 120 Prince St. They bought those properties for more than $70 million in 2011 and a reported $20 million in 2012, respectively. The two have also been actively buying retail space in Williamsburg.

SoHo has blossomed into a retail powerhouse with rents for prime retail spaces cracking $1,000 per square foot, record square-foot rates for the area.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20140519/REAL_ESTATE/140519510/tiny-soho-retail-space-sells-for-record-price

The post Tiny SoHo retail space sells for record price appeared first on Imperium Capital .

New Yorkers Grab Lincoln Road Retail

Tue, 14 Jan 2014 08:09:00 GMT

MIAMI – New York investors are taking a piece of Lincoln Road. Imperium Capital, a New York City-based real estate investment and development firm, and Centurion Realty, a New York City-based real estate investor, grabbed 643-657 Lincoln Road for $33 million.

Lincoln Road is an eight-block long pedestrian walkway between Washington Avenue and Alton Road in Miami Beach, filled with shops, restaurants, and cafes. It is a major destination for South Beach visitors. Planned in the 1920s by the legendary Carl Fisher, one of the early developers of Miami Beach, Lincoln Road, is one of America’s most fashionable shopping streets.

“We expect this to be the first of many prime properties that we will acquire in the Miami market in future years,” says Samuel Schneider, managing partner of Imperium. “Lincoln Road is known internationally as a fashion retail mecca and we look forward to our ownership of this strategic commercial property.”

The property at 643-657 Lincoln Road is a 10,000-square-foot building with four retail shops: French Connection; Runway Swimwear; Sushi Siam; Ricky’s Cosmetics. It is located between Pennsylvania and Euclid Avenue on the mall.

This is Imperium’s first Miami Beach acquisition. In the past several years, Imperium and Centurion have partnered on primer Manhattan retail acquisitions, including the SoHo Apple Store building at 103 Prince Street, 120 Prince Street, and the retail condominium at 465 Broadway. Imperium’s portfolio also includes other strategic commercial properties in the SoHo and Williamsburg neighborhoods.

“Lincoln Road will certainly continue to grow as a destination for major retailers and visitors alike, with its prime location in Miami’s popular South Beach neighborhood,” says Daniel Glaser, managing partner of Imperium. “We look forward to growing our presence in the Miami market in the years ahead.” Jay Goldman of USA Commercial was the broker representing the sellers in this transaction.

The post New Yorkers Grab Lincoln Road Retail appeared first on Imperium Capital .

N.Y. Investors ‘Overpaid’ For Lincoln Road Site

Tue, 14 Jan 2014 08:08:00 GMT

It’s not an average day when real estate investors candidly admit overpaying for a newly purchased piece of prime Miami Beach property.

That’s what happened Tuesday when two New York investors announced they paid $33 million-an eye-watering $3,300 per square foot-for a retail location on Lincoln Road mall.

The property last sold for $600,000 in 1989.

“We overpaid,” Samuel Schneider, managing partner of New York-based Imperium Capital LLC, told the Daily Business Review. “And we’re willing to overpay-but overpay for prime property- for the long, long, long term.”

Schneider’s partner, Daniel Glaser, agreed with that assessment.

“We feel we paid top dollar for it,” he said. “It’s a low return day 1, but we’re buying for the future.”

Imperium partnered with New York-based Centurion Realty LLC to purchase 643-657 Lincoln Road, a 10,000-square-foot building with three shops and a restaurant on the mall between Pennsylvania and Euclid avenues. Tenants include the French Connection clothing boutique.

Tristar Capital bought 530 Lincoln Road for $30 million, or $3,000 per quare foot, last month, setting a short-lived record for the South Beach retail market. A store occupied by Guess at 736 Collins Ave. in Miami Beach sold for $12.5 million, or nearly $1,500 per square foot, in November.

The Imperium investors said they believe Lincoln Road is at the cusp of becoming a place with even more exclusive retail outlets and even higher average asking rents. A June report by brokerage Cushman & Wakefield said asking rents for Lincoln Road property has risen to around $300 per square foot, a spike of 25 percent from 2012. Glaser and Schneider did not disclose the specific financials of their newly acquired property’s rent roll but suggested the rents were lower.

Instead of focusing on that aspect, the investors said they’re looking to acquire prime retail locations, believing the properties will eventually see heightened rents. More importantly, they see institutional investors, which are likely to acquire properties on relatively long horizons and hence make the market more illiquid, helping drive up prices in the near future.

“I think this is irreplaceable real estate,” Schneider said. “In terms of South Beach, there’s nothing better out there.”

http://www.dailybusinessreview.com/id=1202638358295/NY-Investors-Overpaid-For-Lincoln-Road-Site

The post N.Y. Investors ‘Overpaid’ For Lincoln Road Site appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Time Square to take Wings

Wed, 10 Jul 2013 08:16:00 GMT

Manhattan’s first Buffalo Wild Wings will soon be flying into a newly constructed retail building off Times Square.

The new 15,000 square-foot roost at 253 W. 47 ^th St. will serve up New York-style wings with 16 sauces and five flavorings, bottles of craft and tapped beer, and every sport known to city fans displayed on its multimedia systems.

The 22-foot-high ground floor is tall enough for its flying Buffalo logo and is wrapped by a 2,000 square-foot mezzanine. The restaurant, which features stadium seating areas, will be topped with a rare Times Square 2,000 square-foot roof deck for dining.

Friedland Properties recently developed the modern, single-tenant structure on a former parking lot between the Barrymore Theater and another parking structure. According to CoStar data, Friedland, which was represented in-house by Aaron Prince, had an asking rent of $800,000 a year.

Michael Gleicher and Jeff Winick, CEO of Winick Realty Group, represented the local White Plains-based franchisee Four M Capital, which already has 13 Buffalo Wild Wings in the metro area.

“It will be a fabulous addition to the city and…the sports capital of the world,” said Gleicher.
***
The board of The Setai, at 40 Broad St., filed suit in New York State Supreme Court yesterday against Zamir Equities, its principals and Ziel Feldman’s HFZ Capital for $5 million in construction defects.

The complaint alleges water penetration issues and missing design elements including glass railings on terraces.

HFZ, which bought the project’s highly discounted mortgage from Anglo Irish Bank, became the “de facto sponsor,” according to the suit, when it paid rent obligations for the sublease of the spa unit, took over the completion of construction and repairs, negotiated with third parties and marketed the 167 units for the original sponsor, Zamir Equities. Only 13 units remain unsold.

Rob Braverman of Braverman Greenspun, which represents the board, said, “This is not a lawsuit we charged into. We have been trying to settle for a long time. HFZ is a player in the industry, and we are hoping they will do the right thing.”

HFZ’s attorney had not yet seen the legal papers, and the company said it does not comment on litigation.
***
Stolichnaya is setting up its first city headquarters since the brand was recaptured by parent company SPI North America.

Stoli will soon move to entire 9 ^th floor of 13,280 square feet at 135 E. 57 ^th St. from temporary space after building out a luxurious sales and tasting office.

SPI brought in John Esposito, the former chairman of Bacardi and Moet & Chandon, as president of the Americas in January to take over distribution from William Grant & Sons USA and give a shot to sales.

The liquor company was repped by Jamie Mitchell, Anita Grossberg and Neal Sroka of the Sroka Worldwide Team at Douglas Elliman, which declined comment.

Building owner Charles Cohen of Cohen Bros. was represented in house by David Nevins and a Cushman & Wakefield team led by Bruce Mosler.

“I’m very excited to bring this signature brand to the building,” Cohen said.
***
Sam Schneider and Daniel Glaser of Imperium Capital, along with Centurion Realty and an institutional partner, paid $80 million for the retail condo at the base of the Jean Nouvel-designed 40 Mercer.

Woody Heller and Will Silverman of Studley marketed the 9,400 square feet on the ground and 4,700 square feet below grade at 465 Broadway on behalf of sellers Christopher Schlank and Nicholas Bienstock of Savanna, which just bought it a year ago for $57 million.

The retail space caps the southern end of the block with 75 feet along Broadway, 200 feet on the north side of Grand Street and 45 feet on Mercer Street. Unlike most of Noho and Soho’s cast-iron edifices, the modern storefronts were designed for retailers.

Tenants Bose, Wells Fargo, Vivienne Tam and Dermologica are all at what are now considered way-under-market rents, providing future upside for the buyers.
***
For its first US store, men’s clothier Kent & Curwen has sewed up a 2,200 square-foot spot with 1,800 feet below grade at 816 Madison in the Marquand on the northwest corner of East 68 ^th Street.

Mattew Seigel and Joe Sitt of Thor High Street Advisors represented the “Outfitters to Gentlemen of sport,” which is part-owned by Tommy Hilfiger.

Since 1926, its tailored clothes have been worn by celebrities from Douglas Fairbanks Jr. to Mick Jagger.

Vornado Realty Trust’s Sherri White and Nicholas Howell represented the building. Asking rents in this area are much less than the $1,325 per-foot average found below 72 ^nd Street.

Neither Thor nor Vornado returned calls for comment.

http://nypost.com/2013/07/10/times-square-to-take-wings/

The post Time Square to take Wings appeared first on Imperium Capital .

The 30-Minute Interview: Samuel Schneider

Tue, 09 Jul 2013 08:14:00 GMT

Mr. Schneider, 35, is a managing partner of Imperium Capital, a real estate development and investment company based in New York; its holdings include the Apple Store in SoHo.

Mr. Schneider started the company more than three years ago with Daniel Glaser.

Q. Tell me a little more about your company.
A. Multifamily, retail and office is really what we focus on. Our strategy is to buy in irreplaceable locations and hold as long as we possibly can.
We started our company in January 2010 with the goal of going out and acquiring all different asset classes. The first property we acquired was on 60 Wooster, a 15,000-square-foot property on the corner of Wooster and Broome; and we bought that for $5.7 million. About a year later we bought the building in SoHo where the Apple Store is.

Q. How big is your portfolio now?
A. It’s just under $400 million. We have 11 properties: We have about 750,000 square feet of office, which is one office complex, and that’s One SoHo Square – two building on Avenue of the Americas and Spring Street – and we own the Apple Store at 103 Prince Street. We bought 103 Prince last December; they’re the only tenant in the building.

Q. Some might question your decision to start a real estate company during a recession.
A. Yeah. But we thought it was the best time to start a company, because we’re very confident and bullish in New York City. There were very few transactions for a couple of years. We knew Manhattan was always going to be a destination for capital around the world and that people wanted to be here.

Q. Where do you get the funds to buy these properties?
A. We have institutions and private individuals that we’re partners with. We have different partners for different deals.

Q. Who are some of them?
A. We’re partners with Stellar Management, Centurion Realty, Bronstein Properties and some funds. And every one of our deals is structured differently.

Q. I know you also borrow. Has credit loosened since you started out?
A. Yes. Lending has definitely thawed over the last 18 months. But I don’t think there’s any danger of a lending bubble. The interesting thing now is that there’s so much equity being put into deals. We prefer light leverage for our properties. We want to make sure they’re stable so we can weather any fluctuations in the market.

Q. Would you describe your business strategy as “value-added”?
A. Yeah, definitely. Our goal in all of our properties is to add value over time, to improve everything about the property. Some of them involve a lot of physical work and redeveloping, renovating apartments and office space. For the Apple Store, there’s nothing to do until the lease is up.

Q. Is the lease with Apple a triple-net where the tenant pays for most of the property expenses?
A. Yeah. And they actually last year put $20 million into their space. Couldn’t ask for a better tenant. There’s obviously a lot of cachet with them being the tenants.

Q. How long is the lease, and how much does Apple pay?
A. They go out till 2020. I can’t say exactly the rent they pay.

Q. What is the range of rents portfoliowide?
A. It’s a completely wide range. We have retail rents that are over $400 a foot and under $50 a foot. We have residential rents that are $20 a foot for rent regulated/stabilized tenants; we have free-market apartments that pay $75 a foot.

Q. What’s your occupancy rate portfoliowide:
A. We’re over 90 percent.

Q. Let’s talk about some of your other properties, like 161 Avenue of the Americas and 233 Spring Street.
A. We bought that a little over a year ago and we love the location. It’s sort of on the border of Hudson Square and SoHo. Its office and retail. It’s over 90 percent occupied. The location will continue to improve with the residential rezoning; it’s going to be much more of a 24/7 community.

We haven’t really done anything yet to that property. We have tenants whose leases go out a long time. We’ll renovate their space as they come up.

Q. Where would you like to see the company in, say, the next five to 10 years?
A. I would love to keep on expanding and acquiring property in Manhattan and Brooklyn. And also in the future in other gateway cities: in Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington.

Q. Do you own your own home?
A. I rent an apartment on 22 ^nd Street.

Q. Why aren’t you buying?
A. It’s too expensive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/realestate/commercial/samuel-schneider.html?_r=0

The post The 30-Minute Interview: Samuel Schneider appeared first on Imperium Capital .

New York’s upstart investors find big profit

Sat, 01 Jun 2013 08:32:00 GMT

As New York City sales began recovering from the paralyzing real estate downturn, scores of investors worldwide launched companies and funds to buy up what they expected would be a windfall of distressed assets here, with billions of dollars of global wealth competing to back them.

But these newcomers faced competition for properties from aggressive, established buyers such as SL Green Realty, Extell Development, Thor Equities and the Chetrit Group.

Still, a few new companies have succeeded in landing significant deals and cobbling together portfolios since the recession. This month, The Real Deal used data from the research firm Real Capital Analytics to identify 10 new players that have spent at least $80 million buying two or more New York properties since 2010.

Some of these new companies have founders with decades of experience in New York City real estate. Jeffrey Kaplan, who launched Meadow Partners, was at the private equity giant Westbrook Partners. And Douglas Eisenberg left Urban American, one of the largest owners of rent-regulated apartment buildings in the New York area, to start A&E Real Estate in 2011.

Others are upstarts hungry to make their mark on the industry. Sam Schneider, 35 and Daniel Glaser, 29, for example, are former Eastern Consolidated brokers who launched Imperium Capital in 2010.

Many of these new firms said their biggest challenge is not finding investors, but sourcing deals in a crowded market.

“There are millions of companies starting,” Schneider said. “The money is not the issue – it’s getting control of the properties.”

To beat the competition, some of these new players seek out off-market deals and focus on properties less than $50 million. Deals that size are “under the radar of the big players,” said Mody Kidon, chairman of three-year-old Alto Investments.

Now, for a closer look at these up-and-coming investors.

Imperium Capital
Founded: 2010
Principals: Sam Schneider and Daniel Glaser

Since Sam Schneider, 35, and Daniel Glaser, 29, founded Imperium Capital in 2010, they’ve completed a string of mostly off-market Manhattan acquisitions totaling $342.5 million, according to RCA. The new firm has also partnered with some of the largest real estate companies in the city, including Laurence Gluck’s Stellar Management and the Chera family’s Crown Acquisitions.

To do this, Schneider and Glaser have leveraged connections they made while working at now-defunct developer KMG Partners, then later as brokers at Eastern Consolidated.

In fact, Glaser said, working at Eastern Consolidated helped them formulate a broker-like “hunt and peck” strategy for sourcing deals. “We brought the broker mentality to the principal side of the business,” he said.

For example, in May 2012 Imperium partnered with Gluck to buy two Soho office buildings – 16-story 161 Sixth Avenue and 10-story 233 Spring Street – for about $200 million.

Glaser and Schneider had known the owner for years, Glaser said.

“We kept in touch, and for [the seller’s] own reasons, he decided it was time to sell,” Glaser said. At that point, Imperium brought the deal to Gluck, who they’d talked to about other deals, none of which panned out. This time, Gluck jumped at the chance.

Imperium has also done high-profile retail deals, such as the December 2011 purchase of the Soho Apple store building at 103 Prince Street for $70.85 million. Imperium partnered with Crown and Centurion Realty on the deal.

Imperium, headquartered at 512 Seventh Avenue, now has seven employees.

http://therealdeal.com/issues_articles/new-yorks-upstart-investors-find-big-profit/

The post New York’s upstart investors find big profit appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Young Princes of SoHo

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:36:00 GMT

Sam Schneider, 35 and Dan Glaser, 29 are buying (with equity partners) everything they can in SoHo. In their three years since starting Imperium Capital, they’ve amassed a million feet, including the 30k SF Apple Store at Prince and Greene and two office buildings totaling 650k SF with Stellar Management at 233 Spring and 161 Sixth Ave (below), to which they’re adding another 150k feet. They met in ’05 when paired at a development company doing a high-end West Village condo conversion, bonding through their backgrounds at Big 10 colleges (Sam a Wolverine from Cincinnati and Dan a Hoosier from Woodmere, LI). They formed a team at Eastern Consolidated, specializing in investment sales of all asset classes, but wanted to be principals, hunting only trophy assets.

They’re bullish on SoHo retail, seeing it as not just the hottest market in the city, but one with great upside because visitors make a beeline there as much as to Fifth or Madison Avenues, yet the rents are much lower. “It’s a giant mall,” Sam says, describing Broadway as the street of big boxes and side streets as the luxury. “The weekend foot traffic is insane,” Dan adds, contending the narrower streets have a higher cool factor for high-spending young people. With a two-story building at 120 Prince that has 70 feet of frontage and a 15k SF loft building at 60 Wooster (in addition to a 102-unit apartment house near Columbus Circle and a 16k SF retail building in Williamsburg), they know how to build a portfolio because they themselves are its target demographic. With a shared love of football, they should also be looking for a sports bar tenant, but rooting for the Bengals and Jets, they’re afraid to watch TV.

https://www.bisnow.com/new-york/news/commercial-real-estate/Young-Princes-Of-SoHo-33987

The post Young Princes of SoHo appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Crown, Centurion and Imperium pay $20 million for Soho mixed-use building

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 08:07:00 GMT

The Chera family’s Crown Acquisitions has partnered with Centurion Realty and Imperium Capital to purchase a mixed-use building at 120 Prince Street for $20 million, Ralph Tawil, president of Centurion, told The Real Deal. The same three Midtown firms joined forces in November 2011 to pay $70.85 million for the Apple store building at 103 Prince Street, at Greene Street, in a deal that also included a property in Queens.

The Prince Street building, situated between Wooster and Greene streets, has 70 feet of frontage on Prince Street, and “the plan is to keep it as high-end retail,” Tawil said.

The building is composed of 1,750 on the ground floor, divided into four retail units and another 1,750 square feet of residential space on the second floor. Crown owns 50 percent, and Centurion and Imperium together own the other 50 percent, Tawil said.

The seller, Greene Edgar, retained ownership of an adjacent five-story mixed-use building on the corner of Wooster and Prince Streets with the address of 126 Prince Street.

The city’s most active retail investors have been snapping up properties in Soho, where the Real Estate Board of New York shows asking rents rose modestly over the last year to about $542 per square foot from $506 per square foot in the fall of 2011.

“There is a lot of demand from the retailers to be there,” said Sam Schneider, managing partner at Imperium, and that demand is creating interest from institutional owners to purchase the stores.

The highest-profile acquisition in the neighborhood this year was 529 Broadway, a two-story building at the corner of Spring Street for which Jeff Sutton, Thor Equities, Aurora Capital Associates and the Adjmi family partnered to buy last week for approximately $150 million.

In addition, Thor Equities and an affiliate of Jenel Management on September 7 paid $22 million for 494 Broadway, a 9,200-square-foot commercial building between Spring and Broome streets.

And in August, Lloyd Goldman’s BLDG Management purchased 102 Greene Street, between Prince and Spring Streets, for $11.9 million.

All three 120 Prince Street buyers have been active purchasers this year. Crown bought a minority interest in Olympic Tower at 640 Fifth Avenue at 51 ^st Street, while Imperium partnered with Stellar Management to pay $200 million for the Soho office buildings 161 Sixth Avenue at Spring Street and 233 Spring Street, between Varick Street and Sixth Ave.

Centurion is a significant owner in Soho, and last week purchased two smaller properties in the area. Tawil’s firm bought 473 West Broadway, at Houston Street, for $9 million and a retail condominium at 119 Chambers Street, between Church and West Broadway, for $2.5 million.

The five-story 473 West Broadway property backs up against another Centurion building, the 40,500-square-foot 155 Wooster Street at Houston Street, which the company purchased in 2004.

And in November, Centurion partnered with Sitt Asset Management to buy the 25,000-square-foot retail and office building 113 Spring Street, between Greene and Mercer streets, for $32.5 million.

http://therealdeal.com/2012/12/24/crown-centurion-imperium-pay-20m-for-soho-retail/

The post Crown, Centurion and Imperium pay $20 million for Soho mixed-use building appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Apartment Building, Former Church, Music Legend Hangout Nets $42.5M

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 08:06:00 GMT

A property at 309 West 57 ^th Street in Midtown West that once housed a Victorian Gothic church and later saw the likes of John Lennon and Frank Sinatra pass through its doors has changed hands for $42.5 million.

The 16-story, 75,600 square foot rental property with 102 apartments and nearly 14,000 square feet of commercial space – currently home to night club Providence NYC – was purchased by New York City-based real estate investment firms Imperium Capital and Bronstein Properties.

The property, site of a former church and later a prominent recording studio, is located near a number of popular amenities and development projects, and it’s the latest in a string of high-profile acquisitions made by Imperium Capital.

“It’s a block from Central Park, it’s a block from the Time Warner Center, there’s world class condo projects like One57 right there, Nordstrom is going to be right there – so it’s right in the heart of it all,” said Samuel Schneider, who is managing partner at the firm along with Daniel Glaser.

The Providence NYC club and event space currently occupies the 13,700-square-foot retail space on a lease that runs for seven more years, and its origins as a Baptist Church is evident in its neo-Gothic entrance and vaulted ceiling.

Mr. Schneider called the acquisition a “long-term hold” and said there are no plans for renovations on the building.

That’s unlike the $75 million renovation Imperium has planned for the 740,000-square-foot office development project at One SoHo Square in Hudson Square, which will combine 161 Sixth Avenue and 233 Spring Street and was purchased along with Larry Gluck’s Stellar Management for a reported $200 million earlier this year.

The firms will use 15,000 square feet of air rights from 26 Vandam Street in SoHo towards the 80,000 square feet of new office penthouse space being tacked on to the One SoHo Square project.

The former Victorian Gothic church at 309 West 57 ^th Street was redeveloped in 1927 by Vincent Slattery and Morris Rothschild and redesigned by Rosario Candela, the famous architect of pre-war “luxury” apartment buildings in the neighborhood.

But it continued to house a Baptist church at its base until 1969, when it became the Media Sound Studios, which according to author David Dunlap drew the likes of music superstars Aretha Franklin, John Lennon, Frank Sinatra, and Stevie Wonder. Jimi Hendrix, Billy Joel, The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith and Barbara Streisand also recorded in the space, according to Metronome Hospitality Group, the group behind Providence NYC.

The space later became popular 1990’s nightclub Le Bar Bat, before turning over to Providence NYC.

“The area will certainly continue to be a destination for major retail development…and luxury retail [is] certain to extend further west on 57 ^th Street,” said Mr. Glaser, in a prepared statement.

Imperium’s New York City portfolio also includes 103 Prince Street, which houses the SoHo Apple store, as well as a number of properties in the SoHo and Williamsburg neighborhoods.

Bronstein Properties did not returns calls seeking comment in time for publication.

https://commercialobserver.com/2012/12/apartment-building-former-church-gathering-place-for-music-legends-nets-42-5m/

The post Apartment Building, Former Church, Music Legend Hangout Nets $42.5M appeared first on Imperium Capital .

In hot SoHo, developer pays $6M in air rights play

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 08:05:00 GMT

Small residential building is snapped up as Imperium Capital plans to use the air rights to add on to a planned penthouse extension in office building next door.

Imperium Capital is adding to its bold bet on a surging midtown south office market. The company, founded by former Eastern Consolidated executives Sam Schneider and Daniel Glaser, just closed on 26 Vandam St. in SoHo for $6 million in a play to add square footage to a pair of neighboring office buildings the company is planning to redevelop.

26 Vandam St., a roughly 10,000 square foot apartment building, has about 15,000 square feet of air rights that Mr. Schneider said can be added to the top of 161 Sixth Ave. and 233 Spring St.

In total, Imperium will build about 80,000 square feet of new penthouse office space on top of the two buildings, an addition it will be able to construct by way of both the air rights above 26 Vandam St. and also unused existing development rights at the two properties.

The buildings at 161 Sixth Ave. and 233 Spring St. are adjacent to one another and will also be reconfigured in the $75 million renovation project to share a single lobby under the new joint address One Soho Square.

“We’re going to add 15,000 square feet to the most valuable space we’ll have at the property,” Mr. Schneider said, estimating that when the redevelopment is done in about a year and a half, the space on the top floors will net rents in the $70s per square foot.

Messrs. Schneider and Glaser partnered with real estate investor Larry Gluck in May to purchase 161 Sixth Ave. and 233 Spring St. for roughly $200 million.

After the addition of two to three new office floors on top of the two buildings, the complex will have a combined total of about 750,000 square feet of office space in a market that has seen a dramatic uptick in demand. Mr. Schneider said the owners were about to begin work on the project, which will be designed by the architectural firm Gensler, early next year and that he and his partners were buying office tenants out of their leases where possible in order to clear space to be included in the renovation.

“Many of the leases are well below market paying rents in the $20s per square foot,” Mr. Schneider said. “The more space we can free up, the more Class A offices we can create.”

Imperium has been an active investor in the city. The company announced on Tuesday morning it had acquired 309 West 57 ^th St., a 102-unit apartment building, for $42.5 million with a partner, Bronstein Properties.

Mr. Schneider said the purchase price equated to an initially low rate of return, about 4%, but estimated the property would net higher returns as the owners slowly rent more units at market rate rents. About 60% of the building is rent stabilized, he said.

Imperium was also keen on the buildings roughly 13,500 square feet of retail. That space is currently rented by a party venue and a nail salon. A former church space, with wood-framed vaulted ceilings, the retail space is eye-catching and could be a valuable location when its leases expire. 309 West 57 ^th St is located in a burgeoning neighborhood where Nordstrom recently committed to opening a department store and major luxury residential towers are either underway or slated to rise.

“With Nordstrom and One 57 just a block away, we think there’s major upside to both the retail and the residential space,” Mr. Schneider said.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20121211/REAL_ESTATE/121219979/in-hot-soho-developer-pays-6m-in-air-rights-play

The post In hot SoHo, developer pays $6M in air rights play appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Big deals on tap for SoHo

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:05:00 GMT

The off-market sale of 309 W. 57 ^th St., by Columbus Circle, has closed for $42.5 million.

Sam Schneider and Daniel Glaser of Imperium Capital, along with Barry Rudofsky’s Bronstein Properties, bought the 75,000 square-foot building with 102 apartments. “We’re pretty excited about it,” said Rudofsky.

Once the home of Media South Studios, where folks like Frank Sinatra and Jimi Hendrix laid down tracks, the retail space became the Bar Bat. The current 13,700 square-foot Providence NYC club and event space has a lease for another seven years.

The deal includes four buildings, four sets of unsold co-op shares and the David Associates management business. “We will continue with the third-party management team,” added Rudofsky.

http://nypost.com/2012/11/28/big-deals-on-tap-for-soho/

The post Big deals on tap for SoHo appeared first on Imperium Capital .

SoHo and Beyond

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 12:09:00 GMT

Real estate investment and development firm Imperium Capital is probably best known for owning 103 Prince Street, a building that is home to the popular SoHo Apple store. But the New York City-based firm isn’t through with SoHo – or the rest of New York, for that matter.

Founded in 2010 by Daniel Glaser and Sam Schneider, Imperium Capital has been actively engaged in a number of significant transactions, specializing in the acquisition of commercial, retail, and multi-family properties in New York City and major markets across the U.S. The firm has acquired over $300 million of high-profile assets comprising over 800,000 square feet in prime New York City Locations.

Over the past several years, Daniel Glaser and Sam Schneider have created a solid portfolio of New York City properties, which they expect to grow in the coming years. The Imperium Capital co-founders have purchased trophy properties in prime Manhattan and Brooklyn locations that are patient to realize future value in those properties.

Daniel Glaser has over ten years of experience in the real estate business, concentrating in the commercial and multi-family real estate sectors in New York City. He is responsible for overseeing all activities within Imperium Capital. Sam Schneider has been involved in the sourcing and acquisition of over $1 billion of Manhattan real estate for more than ten years and is responsible for overseeing all acquisitions, financing and development.

Prior to founding Imperium Capital, both Sam and Daniel held director positions as Eastern Consolidated. In those roles, the pair successfully completed over $750 million of transactions involving office buildings, apartment buildings, development sites, retail properties and defaulted mortgage notes.

Since 2010, Imperium Capital has closed on three properties located in the highly sought-after SoHo neighborhood. After initially purchasing a corner retail building at Broome and Wooster, the firm closed on a second, much larger landmark SoHo property with Centurion Realty, located at 103 Prince Street, which houses Apple’s first Manhattan store.

In May 2012, Imperium Capital acquired its first Brooklyn property, 174-180 North 11 ^th Street in the popular Williamsburg neighborhood, in partnership with Great Point Properties. The 16,000-square-foot property is a two-story retail and office building with significant air rights, which allow for the property to be developed into a multi-story residential apartment building.

“We are very bullish on Williamsburg, especially the northern end near McCarren Park,” added Schneider. “We love that area specifically for residential and retail.”

The firm’s most recent SoHo purchase, One SoHo Square, occupies nearly one full city block on the corner of Avenue of the Americas and Spring Street. Imperium Capital partnered with Stellar Management to purchase the property, which consists of two commercial buildings and 650,000 square feet of office and retail space.

http://onlinedigeditions.com/article/Daniel+Glaser+and+Sam+Schneider/1199477/0/article.html

The post SoHo and Beyond appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Young guns set their sights on becoming tomorrow’s real estate success stories

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 08:03:00 GMT

The city’s young real estate entrepreneurs are using unique investment strategies to become tomorrow’s success stories.

In some circles, youth correlates with impatience and rash decisions, but these relative newcomers to the fierce and congested New York City market are identifying effective strategies – and valuable assets – and sticking to them.

“Because I’m young, I tend to be a little bit more selective with the properties we invest in,” said 32-year-old Adam Verner, who founded Springhouse Partners in 2010. “It’s very important to me to make prudent investment decisions to be sure that these first few deals are successful.”

Firms like Springhouse Partners focus their efforts on under-utilized and sometimes poorly-run assets, making renovations and bringing in a new set of tenants along with them.

Other firms are sticking to prime, well-known neighborhoods where upside exists in premier locations; while others are focusing on up-and-coming neighborhoods.

Springhouse has acquired $51 million in real estate assets since its inception by securing off market purchases of underperforming assets in the $8 million to $30 million range.

Part of Verner’s strategy is the identification of properties that have been mismanaged, often evident when building vacancies are high or rent isn’t in line with the market, he said.

A screening process of new residents in his residential buildings ensures a “better quality tenancy” with good credit and payment histories, while extensive guy renovations naturally draw tenants in.

At the end of day, what I need to do is provide a quality living standard,” he sai.d “When tenants are happy, you’re not going to have a problem collecting you rents.”

Within a year of setting up shop, Springhouse picked up three buildings in close proximity to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, totaling 200 residential units and roughly 10,000 s/f of retail.

The firm more recently purchased a newly-constructed 32 unit, 39,000 s/f residential building located at 90-96 Meserole Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for $13.75 million; and Springhouse is currently in the process of signing its second Brooklyn contract for $16 million, Verner said.

“We like being near transportation, hospitals and schools. The strong demographics make management not quite as labor intensive, enabling us to focus on satisfying tenants while generating strong cash flow,” he said.

Imperium Capital, founded in 2010 by managing partners Samuel Schneider, 34 and Daniel Glaser, 29, is another young company that’s making headlines in New York City real estate.

Among other acquisitions and leases, Imperium solidified Apple as a tenant at their 103 Prince Street location.

Schneider and Glaser previously worked together at KMG Partners, and later at Eastern Consolidated, where they took lead roles in the closing of deals valued at more than $750 million.

Imperium sticks to prime neighborhoods they know block-to-block and building-to-building, locating undervalued trophy properties, and holding them down for the long haul.

SoHo has been a major focus, where a $20 million renovation by Apple is nearing completion at Imperium’s 103 Prince Street. The 30,000 s/f Building, located in the SoHo Historic District, Apple will increase its retail spaces there by 5,000 s/f.

“We look for properties in world class locations and SoHo is a neighborhood that’s exploded,” Schneider said. But, he added, “It’s been very hard to get our hands on great locations, so if we can buy anything we’re holding onto it for the long-term.”

Among other Imperium holdings is a 16,000 s/f residential loft building at 60 Wooster Street; two neighboring commercial buildings as 161 6 ^th Ave. and 233 Spring Street; and 174-180 north 11 ^th Street, a 16,000 s/f retail and office space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, another neighborhood the duo is zoning in on.

Other young investors breathing life into neighborhoods that were once overlooked and only more recently have come under the spotlight.

Treetop Development, for instance, a Newark, N.J. based real estate firm founded in 2005 and run by general partners Adam Muemelstein, 33, and Azi Mandel, 34, has purchased a slew of properties in underserved Manhattan neighborhoods.

The firm has recently focused on areas above the Upper West Side, north of 96 ^th Street and up to 135 ^th Street, where rents are still relatively affordable, new construction, redevelopment projects and retail hubs are sprouting, and there’s access to transportation and universities.

“This area has a diverse population and almost has the feel of Williamsburg as a rapidly gentrify neighborhood,” Mermelstein said.

“The New York City market has given real estate investors the opportunity to tap into new markets and we are generally looking at value-added opportunities in area that we perceive to have current value, as well as inherent value for the future.”

The firm recently purchased properties at 1917 7 ^th Avenue, 110 St. Nicholas Avenue, 110 West 116 ^th Street and 120 West 116 ^th Street, consisting of over 80 apartment homes and eleven retail spaces totaling 10,000 square feet.

These transactions are the first of several large portfolio-type deals the firm has planned for the remainder of 2012, Mermelstein said.

Last month Treetop closed on a 12,000 s/f, six-story, 52-unit rental building at 165 West 127 ^th Street in Harlem.

The company, which owns and manages over 3,000 residential homes throughout New York and New Jersey, plans to give the building a similar renovation treatment that their other buildings get, with new electric, plumbing, roofing, and modernized units, with hard floors and new, larger windows, Mermelstein said.

“We don’t just slap a coat of paint on the walls and coat the floors with polyurethane,” he said. “We’re really giving the buildings a higher-end feel than what the area has been used to in the past.”

http://rew-online.com/2012/08/22/young-guns-set-their-sights-on-becoming-tomorrow%E2%80%99s-real-estate-success-stories/

The post Young guns set their sights on becoming tomorrow’s real estate success stories appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Partners pay $200M to purchase One Soho Square

Wed, 23 May 2012 12:04:00 GMT

Stellar Management and Imperium Capital have acquired two SoHo commercial buildings at 161 Avenue of the Amercias and 233 Spring Street for a reported $200 million.

The partners plan to reposition the buildings, known as One Soho Square, into a Class A property.

The properties are located within the Hudson Square Business Improvement District (BID), the lower Manhattan neighborhood bounded by West Houston Street on the north, Canal Street on the south, 6 ^th Avenue on the east and Hudson River on the west.

Home to almost 35,000 people working in advertising, design, media communications and other innovation economy businesses, Hudson Square is a major creative and media location and one of the most desirable commercial districts in Manhattan.

“The dynamic Hudson Square and SoHo neighborhoods offer unlimited opportunities for future commercial growth. We are thrilled with this acquisition and our partnership with Stellar Management,” said Samuel Schneider, managing partner of Imperium Capital. Starwood Property Trust originated a $170 million first mortgage loan on the buildings, collectively known as One SoHo Square.

The 600,000 s/f of office and retail space is currently 96 percent occupied, according to Starwood.

“Starwood’s tailored financing solution and superb execution made a complex transaction a seamless acquisition,” noted Laurence Gluck of Stellar Management.

One SoHo Square occupies the majority of a city block on the corner of Avenue of the Americas and Spring Street and is situated four blocks east of the Hudson River and the Holland Tunnel.

Stellar Management’s recent portfolio activity includes the sale of the five residential towers at Columbus Square, the sale of the condominium-to-rental conversion at 111 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, and the launch of the Windermere West End on the Upper West Side.

Imperium Capital recently acquired 103 Prince Street, the location of the SoHo Apple store, and 174-180 North 11 ^th Street located in Brooklyn, New York.

The post Partners pay $200M to purchase One Soho Square appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Deal is a go in SoHo

Wed, 09 May 2012 08:02:00 GMT

Two older industrial office buildings near the Trump SoHo Hotel are being bought and combined into a new, modern entity called One SoHo Square, named after the park across Spring Street.

Stellar Management’s Larry Gluck and an institutional partner were closing yesterday on the $200 million purchase of 161 Ave. of the Americas and 233 Spring St. from Earle Kazis, Ronald Mount and other investors, sources said.

Sam Schneider and Daniel Glaser of Imperium Capital said they teamed with Gluck on the deal. They previously bought the Apple store building at 103 Prince St. in SoHo with Centurion Real Estate and are accumulating other investments. “We’re really excited we bought the deal,” said Schneider.

Between the 16-story, 320,000 square-foot Butterick Building at 161 Ave. of the Americas and the 10-story, 250,000 square-foot loft property at 233 Spring is a 20-foot wide loading dock that runs all 214 feet from Spring to Vandam streets.

According to sources, Gluck’s architect, Gensler, devised a plan to create a new center core, including a lobby, elevators and staircases in what is now the dock space, and add a penthouse to make one 748,000 square-foot building.

“It would create operating efficiencies,” said one source. Gluck and his partners will be able to eventually recapture the spaces that are now being occupied by several lobbies, at least 13 elevators and a number of staircases.

As small tenants move out, the owners will be able to turn the recaptured space into leasable office and retail spaces, while modernizing the building with roughly $50 million in improvements.

Sources said Doug Harmon and Adam Spies of Eastdil Secured advised Gluck and obtained equity from Rockwood and financing from Starwood Capital.

Gluck may be pouring in some of his profits from his recent $630 million sale of five new Columbus Square buildings brokered by Harmon to UDR earlier this year.

None of the parties returned request for comment.

http://nypost.com/2012/05/09/deal-is-a-go-in-soho/

The post Deal is a go in SoHo appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Imperium Buys Williamsburg Building

Wed, 09 May 2012 07:55:00 GMT

Imperium Capital, a real estate investment company, has acquired a roughly 16,000 square-foot building in Williamsburg for $3.4 million, the company’s principals revealed to The Commercial Observer. The firm bought the building in Partnership with Great Point Properties, another investment firm.

The property, 174-180 North 11 ^th Street, sits on a parcel that can accommodate about 36,000 square feet of development the firm’s executives said, though they said they plan on operating the existing building there for the foreseeable future in large part because of its retail space.

“We are very bullish on Williamsburg, especially the northern end near McCarren park,” Sam Schneider, a managing partner of the company, told The Commercial Observer. “We love that area specifically for residential and retail.”

Imperium, which Mr. Schneider operates in partnership with Daniel Glaser, is probably best known for owning 103 Prince Street, a building that is home to a popular Soho branch of the Apple store. That property is in the midst of a roughly $20 million renovation that being done by Apple to refurbish the retail space.

174-180 North 11 ^th Street has about 10,000 square feet of retail and 6,000 square feet of space upstairs that Mr. Schneider and Mr. Glaser said is predominantly used as office space for small commercial tenants.

The building could eventually be replaced with a larger structure Imperium’s partners said that would likely be a residential project with retail space.

“There is a lot of options with it but we’re happy how it’s positioned right now,” Mr. Glaser said. “If the market continues to grow the way that it has, retail will only get stronger and we’re happy to wait it out and see what the future holds.”

https://commercialobserver.com/2012/05/imperium-buys-williamsburg-building/

The post Imperium Buys Williamsburg Building appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Apple set to expand Soho store following $20M renovation

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 07:53:00 GMT

The SoHo Apple store at 103 Prince Street is set to expand following a $30 million renovation.

The 30,000 s/f building in the SoHo Historic District was originally renovated in 2001 to utilize only about half of the maximum floor space available.

Apple took over the ground floor space at the rear of the property that was previously operated by the U.S. Postal Service, but was emptied in 2009.

In 2011, the building was acquired by Imperium Capital.

Once the renovation is complete, the SoHo Apple store retail space will increase by approximately 5,000 s/f.

“After Apple completes this renovation, we believe it will be the company’s most attractive Manhattan consumer location,”” said Daniel Glaser, co-founder and managing partner of Imperium Capital.

103 Prince Street is a landmark property and Imperium Capital’s second investment in SoHo.

“We are very bullish on SoHo, especially the Prince Street corridor. We look forward to Apple’s continued growth and success in this world-class retail location,” added Samuel Schneider, co-founder and managing partner of Imperium Capital.

Imperium Capital is a New York City-based real estate investment and development firm run by Glaser and Schneider. In the last seven years, the partners have closed deals valued in excess of $750 million.

The SoHo Apple store will reopen in July 2012 and is temporarily located at 72 Greene Street.

http://rew-online.com/2012/04/11/apple-set-to-expand-soho-store-following-20m-renovation/

The post Apple set to expand Soho store following $20M renovation appeared first on Imperium Capital .

Imperium Capital

NYC firm buys outdoor storage space near DFW airport

The 9-acre site has small, 28,000-square-foot warehouse

Rare 27-Acre Industrial Land Asset in Central Denver Sells for $19M

IG Logistics expands Pompano Beach industrial portfolio with $12M acquisition

Industrial arm of Imperium Capital bought two outdoor storage facilities

Industrial site near downtown sells for $8.25M

New York-based IG Logistics makes initial purchase in Nashville

Deep Dive: Phoenix vs. Dallas

Imperium Capital’s Daniel Glaser compares two very different—and thriving—southwestern markets.

New York investment firm snags Pompano Beach truck repair shop site for $9M

IG Logistics’ 6.5-acre property has two repair shops spanning over 12K sf ﻿

New York-based IG Logistics makes second Jax real estate purchase

Imperium Capital's IG Logistics Takes Big Aim at Outdoor-Storage Sector

New York firm pays $3.5M for Philadelphia truck terminal as it scours market for more opportunities

A New York real estate firm bought a truck terminal in Philadelphia for $3.5 million, marking the company’s first acquisition in the city as it plans to quickly expand its industrial holdings here.

Adams County industrial property and its empty parking lot sells for $21 million

The Lipan Street Industrial Park has room for new development, but it’s also willing to just house trailers, vans or heavy equipment

In Positive Sign for New York's Troubled Office Market, Hudson Square Complex Snags Big Refinancing Loan

One SoHo Square Secures Loans Worth $905 Million

﻿

Local firm acquires Neiman Marcus warehouse in Irving, plans expansion

In this roundup of the latest industrial transactions in North Texas, two local companies acquire warehouses in Dallas and Irving, another local company buys land for a new warehouse, and two large leases are extended. The following is a summary of those deals, listed from largest to smallest.

Flatiron Health and E-Cigarette Startup Juul Take Space at One Soho Square

Stellar, Imperium lock down $900M CMBS refi for One Soho Square

Stellar Taps CMBS Market for $900M Refi of One Soho Square

Stellar, Imperium set to revamp Midtown South office

Stellar, Imperium near deal for 220 Fifth Ave. leasehold

Next Generation Of Real Estate Leaders’ View of the Market

Stellar buys out Rockpoint at One Soho Square in $650M deal

New York players enter Surfside market with $5M purchase

Investment firms bet on Brooklyn Heights Montague Street as the next Spring Street

The 2014 Commercial Observer Owners Magazine

A new era for the evolving Lincoln Road

Firm buys up pricey properties

Tiny SoHo retail space sells for record price

New Yorkers Grab Lincoln Road Retail

N.Y. Investors ‘Overpaid’ For Lincoln Road Site

Time Square to take Wings

The 30-Minute Interview: Samuel Schneider

New York’s upstart investors find big profit

Young Princes of SoHo

Crown, Centurion and Imperium pay $20 million for Soho mixed-use building

Apartment Building, Former Church, Music Legend Hangout Nets $42.5M

In hot SoHo, developer pays $6M in air rights play

Big deals on tap for SoHo

SoHo and Beyond

Young guns set their sights on becoming tomorrow’s real estate success stories

Partners pay $200M to purchase One Soho Square

Deal is a go in SoHo

Imperium Buys Williamsburg Building

Apple set to expand Soho store following $20M renovation

IG Logistics’ 6.5-acre property has two repair shops spanning over 12K sf