A New York City buyer of underperforming suburban properties has named Cushman & Wakefield Inc. as exclusive leasing agent for its recently acquired class-A office building in the White Plains central business district.
Celestial Capital Group L.L.C. plans a one-year, approximately $5 million renovation project to reposition 222 Bloomingdale Road, a 150,000-square-foot building formerly owned by Behringer Harvard Holdings L.L.C., of Dallas, Texas. The new owner also will manage the property.
Mark Ellman, president of Celestial Capital Group, in a phone interview said a confidentiality agreement prevented his company from disclosing the purchase price.
He said the company held off on acquisitions for more than five years before price points dropped to levels suited for its investment strategy. Celestial Capital reentered the suburban market in June 2010 with the $13 million purchase of an approximately 77,000-square-foot medical office park in Milford, Conn.
At 222 Bloomingdale Road, Ellman said interior and exterior renovations will be coupled with an aggressive marketing campaign. “Although the building has not been well maintained or efficiently managed, those are issues that we can overcome as the new owner,” he said in a press release.
Ellman said the building is about 75 percent occupied. Major tenants are the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Maier, Markey & Justic L.L.P.
Susan Noddle, Celestial Capital Group”™s senior vice president, in a press release called the deal “an extremely complicated acquisition. It entailed an out-of-town owner, the special servicer for a securitized lender and a discounted payoff of the existing mortgage. We worked on the acquisition for over two years before we closed. It was worth it.”
The Cushman & Wakefield leasing team includes senior director Glenn Walsh, director Larry Ruggieri and associate Matthew Lisk. Walsh said the building has not been marketed for several years.
Other buildings in Westchester owned by Celestial Capital Group affiliates include 2 Overhill Road in Scarsdale, 550 Mamaroneck Ave. and 600 Mamaroneck Ave. in Harrison, 118 N. Bedford Road in Mount Kisco and two retail properties in Yorktown.
CPD pumps $41.9M into Mobil-station deal
CPD NY Energy Corp., an affiliate of Chestnut Petroleum Distributors Inc., a family owned company based in New Paltz, in February closed on purchases of 19 Mobil gas stations in Westchester from ExxonMobil Oil Corp. The deals totaled approximately $41.9 million.
The properties are in Bedford, Cortlandt, Eastchester, Greenburgh, Mamaroneck, Mount Pleasant, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Peekskill, Pelham, Rye, Yonkers, Yorktown and White Plains.
