Verdi Dispensary Opens in Chelsea
The first Chelsea New York State dispensary has opened recently. Verdi is located at 158 West 23rd Street.
Manhattan offices set new record high for emptiness
By Hannah Frishberg, NYPost.com
Published April 2, 2024, 10:53 a.m. ET
Manhattan’s offices just hit a new record high for emptiness. VideoFlow – stock.adobe.com
Big Apple office buildings have never been so empty.
While the peak era of remote work may feel long ago in the past, the number of vacant offices in Manhattan just hit a new record.
The borough’s office availability rate -– or, how much of that market is currently unfilled — hit 18.1% in the first quarter of 2024, the highest rate ever recorded. That’s according to a recent report by investment management company Colliers, Crain’s first reported.
In contrast, that number, which includes currently empty offices and those that will be empty in the very near future, was just 10% back in March 2020. The majority of the 8% vacancy increase that has occurred since then happened between 2020 and 2022.
Still, the rate has gone up even in the past 12 months, when it was 17.1%, and even last quarter, when it was 17.9%.
With the increase in availability, rent has also gone down slightly; 0.2% over the course of February.
In terms of leasing, the return to office is not currently going very well, according to the numbers. Pavel – stock.adobe.com
“We are still waiting for demand to catch up and surpass supply,” Colliers Executive Managing Director Franklin Wallach told Crain’s. “It’s still the early innings of 2024, and there are both a fair number of large leases pending and a large number of tenants in the market. But we also anticipate some large blocks of space to be added.”
Downtown is hurting the most, according to Colliers, with the Financial District the most forsaken of commercial markets.
Midtown has fared better, but the biggest divide in which offices will find tenants and which will remain derelict isn’t based on neighborhood, but age and offerings. Newer, more amenity-filled Class A buildings, as they’re called, are getting leased at a significantly faster clip.
For those banking on the death of remote work and the reclaiming of offices, there is one positive angle in Colliers’ findings, Crain’s notes: The rate at which offices are emptying out is, at least, not as fast as it was at the height of COVID-19.
Developer of Brooklyn’s tallest skyscraper defaults on $240M loan — 93-story building faces foreclosure
By Hannah Frishberg, NYPost.com
Brooklyn’s tallest building is struggling to pay its skyscraping loans.
Michael Stern, the developer of 9 DeKalb Avenue’s 93-story The Brooklyn Tower, has defaulted on a $240 million mezzanine loan and now faces foreclosure, the Real Deal has reported.
A UCC foreclosure auction has been scheduled for Jun. 10 by Silverstein Capital Partners, which issued the loan in 2019, according to marketing materials from real estate company JLL.
The Brooklyn Tower, a 93-story structure located at 9 DeKalb Avenue, is the tallest building in the borough.
“9 DeKalb’s junior mezzanine, senior mezzanine and mortgage loans are in maturity default, and the junior mezzanine lender is enforcing its junior mezzanine loan remedies through a Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) sale process,” a Silverstein spokesperson confirmed to The Post.
“The junior mezzanine lender has engaged JLL to market the equity interests securing the junior mezzanine loan, and they will conduct a public auction after a marketing period.”
Stern’s JDS Development Group did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.
It’s unclear what will become of the tower, which only opened to tenants last year.
The news comes just days after a 440-square-foot studio in the skyscraper sold for $905,000, making it the most expensive studio in borough history, 6sqft reported.
A video producer who lives across the street previously told The Post that the building looks like “the headquarters of an evil corporation in a superhero movie.”
The apartment, unit 72A, is more than 720 feet from the street below and features floor-to-ceiling windows, and in-unit Miele washer-dryer and European white oak flooring.
“This is an incredible milestone for Downtown Brooklyn. Our newest residents will be living at the highest elevations ever available in the borough,” said Stern, who attempted to sell part of the 1,000-foot-tall Downtown Brooklyn behemoth’s rental portion in early 2023.
At the time, he put its 398 rental apartments as well as the building’s amenities — including a pool, 50,000 square feet of retail and 77,000 square feet of workout facilities provided by the upscale chain LifeTime Fitness — on the market for an ambitious $500 million.
It’s unclear what will become of the tower, which only opened to tenants last year.
But a deal was never struck for the listing, which notably did not include the 93-story skyscraper’s 143 individual residential condominiums, and now the building’s fate is up in the air.
In addition to now having a reputation for financial trouble, the looming metallic supertall has also become known for its “evil vibes.”
A video producer who lives across the street previously told The Post that the building looks like “the headquarters of an evil corporation in a superhero movie.”