One former Pfizer building is undergoing a monumental residential conversion courtesy of Nathan Berman and David Werner, the largest office-to-resi conversion in New York City. Another is celebrating a different milestone with a nine-figure loan.
Värde Partners provided Acumen Capital Partners with a $125 million loan to refinance 630 Flushing Avenue in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the Commercial Observer reported. The eight-acre industrial property is 88 percent occupied, including FreshDirect among its diversified tenant roster.
CBRE’s Jason Gaccione and Jake Salkovitz arranged the three-year, floating-rate loan, which was first reported by PERE Credit.
“With Värde’s support, we are well positioned to continue delivering the flexibility our valued tenants need to support their growth, while also adding to our tenant community,” Acumen founder Ashish Dua said in a statement.
The building served as Pfizer’s original headquarters in the mid-19th century. It operated as a factory until 2008; three years later, Acumen swooped in with a $26 million acquisition and began to revamp the property as a flex industrial space.
Tenants of the 575,000-square-foot building have included the Pratt Institute, SoulCycle and Roberta’s Pizza. FreshDirect signed a lease in 2015 for 20,000 square feet at the property, which is bound between Marcy and Tompkins avenues.
As of the second quarter, the overall vacancy rate in Brooklyn’s industrial market was 4.7 percent, according to a report from Cushman & Wakefield. Through the first half of the year, more than 400,000 square feet was leased in the market and the overall weighted average net rent in the borough was $26.09 per square foot.
Over the summer, Värde provided the owners of The Lewis at 411 West 35th Street — Jorge Madruga’s Maddd Equities and Eli Weiss’ Joy Construction Corporation — with a $96.5 million loan to refinance the luxury multifamily building in Hudson Yards.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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