Ranking NYC’s Top 20 Commercial Real Estate Deals of 2021
54 Noll Street, 441 Ninth Avenue, 30 Hudson Yards and 100 Pearl Street (Google Maps, Hudson Commons)
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The city’s biggest single-property commercial sales of last year included the priciest deal since 2019, an observation deck, a bankrupt Brooklyn development and some deeply discounted hotels.
Analyzing data from the city’s ARCIS database for transactions involving commercial properties, The Real Deal created a ranking of the top 20 commercial deals that closed last year.
For the purpose of this analysis, TRD excluded portfolio sales such as StorageMart’s $3 billion acquisition of Manhattan Mini Storage’s 18 locations, and Mack Real Estate’s acquisition of seven distressed hotels at auction.
Among sales of individual commercial properties or commercial condos, the largest last year was CommonWealth Partners’ $1 billion purchase of Hudson Commons, a 25-story office and retail building at 441 Ninth Avenue in Hudson Yards. It was the first investment sale in the city to top $1 billion since 2019.
Hudson Yards dominated the list of 2021’s biggest commercial deals. The area notched three of the top 20, including No. 4, KKR’s $500 million purchase of The Edge observation deck atop 30 Hudson Yards, and No. 14, Sam Chang’s $166 million sale of a hotel at 350 West 39th Street.
The second largest was the sale of the tower at 100 Pearl Street — previously known as 7 Hanover Square — by the Gural family’s GFP Real Estate and the Northwind Group to German investor Commerz Real. Originally reported as an $850 million deal, city records confirm the final price tag was $756 million.
Though most of the biggest sales were in Manhattan, the third largest was in Brooklyn: the bankruptcy sale of All Year’s Denizen Bushwick. Atlas Capital Group picked up the massive development on the site of the old Rheingold Brewery for $547 million.
SL Green’s $290 million sale of a 25.5 percent interest in One Madison Avenue in Flatiron rounded out the top five. That office building just landed IBM as an anchor tenant.
Brooklyn actually had two deals in the top 10. The other was the $220 million sale of the rental portion of Front & York at 160 Front Street — aka 85 Jay Street — to Scott Rechler’s RXR.
Two other outer boroughs made the top 20. The $166 million purchase of studio facilities at 36-06 34th Street in Queens — No. 15 in the ranking — was part of Hackman Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital Management’s acquisition of Kaufman Astoria Studios.
And the $156 million sale of a 14-story retail and commercial building at the corner of East Fordham Road and Webster Avenue put the Bronx on the board at No. 17
Four of the top 20 commercial sales were of hotels — most of them at a loss following the hospitality sector’s pandemic pounding.
In addition to Chang’s deal, Andrew Farkas’ Island Capital bought the Lexington Hotel for $173 million — nearly $160 million less than seller DiamondRock Hospitality paid for it 10 years earlier. Isaac Hera’s Yellowstone Real Estate Investments acquired the distressed Watson Hotel for about $155 million in the wake of owner BD Hotel’s mortgage default.
And Beverly Hills-based Hawkins Way Capital purchased the site of the former Midtown DoubleTree at 569 Lexington Avenue for $146 million — less than half what seller RLJ Lodging Trust paid for it in 2010.
Other notable deals included the $210 million foreclosure sale of the stalled XI condo project to Steve Witkoff and Len Blavatnik after original developer Ziel Feldman’s HFZ Capital Group lost control of it. And in late December, Rockrose Development completed its takeover of 11 East 26th Street in Nomad, purchasing the remaining 55 percent of the building for $148 million after upping its stake to 45 percent in April.
Contact Bill Egbert