Two commercial real estate companies that have made major building acquisitions and investments in the Westchester office market in recent years were honored by the Building Owners and Managers Association of Westchester with its Hall of Honor Award for supporting and encouraging economic growth in the county.
Ivy Realty, based in Greenwich, and Onyx Equities, headquartered in Woodbridge, New Jersey, were presented the award separately before an audience of about 150 professionals from the commercial real estate industry at the BOMA chapter”™s annual awards dinner on May 11 at Abigail Kirsch at Tappan Hill Mansion in Tarrytown.
Ivy Realty was cited for its recent $30 million capital improvement program at White Plains Plaza, the 700,000-square-foot mixed-use complex in downtown White Plains that includes the 15-story 1 N. Broadway and 445 Hamilton Ave. office buildings. The new landlord has significantly raised tenant occupancy in the complex since buying the property two years ago in a distressed sale.
Eric Levy, Ivy Realty”™s vice president for asset management, accepted the award for the Greenwich company, which has acquired more than $1.5 billion and 11 million square feet in commercial real estate assets since its founding in 1996.
Onyx Equities LLC raised its presence in the Westchester market in 2014 when it regained ownership of 1311 Mamaroneck Ave., the former Parker Corporate Center in White Plains, in a loan default after selling the approximately 326,000-square-foot office complex for $81.8 million in 2008.
Onyx in late 2014 paid $56.6 million to acquire 1111 and 1129 Westchester Ave., a 335,000-square foot office complex on the Platinum Mile in White Plains where PepsiCo Inc. had established temporary headquarters during renovations to its Purchase corporate campus.
BOMA officials said Onyx has renovated all of its White Plains assets.
Accepting the award for Onyx Equities was Jeffrey Fuller, property management director.
Also honored by the BOMA chapter was Dean Bender, partner at Thompson & Bender, the public relations and advertising firm based in Briarcliff Manor. He received the BOMA President”™s Award for his 18 years of volunteer service on BOMA Westchester”™s board of directors. Bender is the board”™s public relations adviser, handling all publicity as well as the chapter newsletter.
BOMA officials also presented three Best of BOMA Awards.
Mamaroneck Self Storage, developed by Murphy Brothers Contracting Inc., won the Reposition/Repurpose Award. The 40,000-square-foot self-storage facility at 426 Waverly Ave. was designed by Port Chester architect Kim Martelli and built by Murphy Brothers Contracting on its own property in the village.
BOMA officials said owners Sean and Chris Murphy collaborated with Steven Winter Associates, an energy consulting firm in Norwalk, to construct the facility under a New York State Energy Research and Development Authority program to rate 52 percent more energy-efficient than required by the state building code.
Laura Murphy, manager of Mamaroneck Self Storage, accepted the award.
BOMA presented its Medical Use Operations Award to Northern Westchester Executive Park, a Yorktown Heights office complex owned and managed by GHP Office Realty.
GHP acquired the former Taconic Corporate Park in 2014 in a distressed sale and invested $6 million in capital improvements to the two-building complex at 2649-2651 Strang Blvd., where Mercy College leases space for its Yorktown campus. The landlord has attracted new tenants that include NewYork Presbyterian/Hudson Valley Hospital and PCSB Bank, which relocated its corporate headquarters from Putnam County.
BOMA officials said the tenant mix at Northern Westchester Executive Park “creates a synergy unparalleled in the typical Westchester office park, presenting Mercy College with direct access to working professionals and current students with direct access to regional employers.”
Andrew Greenspan, principal of GHP Office Realty, accepted the award.
Reckson, a division of SL Green Realty Corp., received BOMA”™s Most Active Leasing Team or Broker Award for SL Green”™s Westchester portfolio of 13 Class A office buildings in downtown White Plains, Valhalla, Rye Brook and Tarrytown.
Reckson”™s three-person leasing team of Larry Kwiat, Robert Swierbut and Willard Overlock last year completed more than 30 deals in the portfolio, brokering leases that ranged from under 1,000 square feet to over 50,000 square feet and totaled approximately 300,000 square feet for the year. The team completed 13 leasing transactions in this year”™s first quarter.
Kwiat, senior vice president for leasing at Reckson/SL Green, accepted the award.
