Real Estate Roundup 5.8.20

Real Estate Roundup:

Retail

• When Gap begins reopening stores this weekend, shoppers will notice a few differences. Fitting rooms and restrooms will be closed, and it wants to turn face masks into a fashion statement. The company, which owns the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic chains among others, plans to reopen roughly 800 North American stores this month, beginning this weekend with a handful of locations in Texas. Along with T-shirts and jeans, it will be selling fabric face masks. (WSJ)

• Jamestown’s Michael Phillips told the WSJ: “The days of being the landlord as an overlord to collect rent are over.” He expects to see more short-term leases and revenue-sharing arrangements as stores gradually reopen. A number of retailers are already asking landlords to waive some of their rent in return for a share of future revenues. Ross Stores said last month that it would pay a rent equivalent to 2% of sales when its stores reopen. (WSJ)

Deal news

• Savanna went into contract in mid-February to buy 1375 Broadway for $435 million — the first purchase out of the firm’s fifth private equity fund, which it launched late last year. One source told TRD that Savanna held an initial closing on its Fund V of about $100 million. The company usually raises money from investors in different phases for its funds, which can reach $500 million or $600 million. But income projections have fallen since Savanna underwrote the deal in February, and it could be difficult to get more investors to buy into a fund that’s already underperforming. (TRD)

• RFR Realty’s Aby Rosen along with partner Sigma Holding GmbH is in talks to restructure the ground lease for the Chrysler Building. They pay Cooper Union, which owns the property, $32.5 million annually in ground rent, along with more than $23 million for what the building would typically owe in property taxes. Those charges are expected to jump to $67 million by 2029. (BI)

• Joe Chetrit has sold a townhouse at 110 East 76th Street for $25 million to an unknown buyer. Chetrit had listed the 13,000 SF, 32-foot-wide townhouse for $39 million in 2017. The house spans six floors, and has eight bedrooms, with an elevator, cigar bar, swimming pool, and rooftop garden. (WSJ)

• Mark Tress of Cedar Holdings has filed a lawsuit accusing German co-living firm Quarters of “opportunistically” bailing on an $8 million lease in Brooklyn. The suit claims Quarters began using construction delays as grounds to terminate its 10-year lease at 251 DeKalb Avenue “only after it became clear that Covid-19 was spreading rapidly through New York City.” (TRD)

• All Year signed a non-binding deal in February for a $675 million CMBS refinancing for its massive Denizen apartment complex in Bushwick that was supposed to close in March, but the closing has been delayed. (CO)