Swiss big-cheese move
SWISS Re is jumping from one top-floor spot in Midtown to another that includes outdoor space.
Real estate sources say the reinsurance company has just opted to lease 67,688 square feet on the 43rd through 45th floors at Paramount’s 1301 Sixth Ave.
The 45th floor is just 6,907 square feet, but has dramatic 21-foot-high ceilings and includes a huge outdoor terrace with Central Park views. The 44th floor also has oversized 16-foot-high ceilings. “The Swiss will do something special there,” said our yodeling source.
The asking rent was $100 per square foot.
The company is currently located in 93,344 square feet on the 40th to 42nd floors at the Fisher Bros.’ Park Ave. Plaza at 55 E. 52nd St., which CoStar shows as available in November 2017. BlackRock also leases 242,298 square feet there that will be given up when it moves in a few years, to 50 Hudson Yards.
Rob Martin of JLL represented Swiss Re along with brokers from Colliers International. The JLL team of Frank Doyle, David Kleiner and Clark Finney represented Paramount along with Peter Brindley in-house.
Swiss Re’s US headquarters are in Armonk, and while the jump from skyscraper to skyscraper is a bit of a downsizing, the open floor plan and terrace will likely attract the desired millennial workers.
None of the companies would comment. Deal guru and former Vornado president
Michael Fascitelli is now taking on a larger role at Cadre, the investment platform founded by the Kushner brothers along with Ryan Williams.
“He’s a rock star,” Fascitelli says of Williams. “But I’m the guy with the most experience and product experience. So over the last year, I became officially the chair of the investment committee.”
In his more formal roles as investment committee chair and senior adviser, Fascitelli will now approve all transactions, advise senior management on its nationwide expansion and debt platform, and have ongoing dialogues with investors.
“Mike has been incredible for us,” said Williams, who expects to scale up Cadre this year into completing more than $1 billion in deals.
Starting with a minimum of $50 million, Cadre can now invest in deal sizes up to $300 million.
“We have a technology and can automate work flow and can do in a week what a fund takes a week or two to do,” Williams said of their deal-vetting process, which consists of analytics and analyst advice, then discussion by the investment committee.
The focus on offices, multifamily and retail makes it crucial to vet offers. “Some deals that we explored … Mike has seen in multiple iterations,” Williams laughed. “We are focused on cash flow and whether the asset was undercapitalized or the operating partner has a strategy.” Already, they have vetted some 200 potential operating partners but have so far made investments with just six. “Last year, we saw $13 billion [in deals] and said no to most because we want to be methodical,” Williams added.
Its 10 purchases made in 2016 included an office building in Greenwich, Conn., and a multifamily in Washington, DC, with more on the way.
With a discretionary capital pool of $250 million, they can secure the deal before syndicating it to their select clients, which are typically family offices, pension funds, endowments and institutional investors.
“They make the investment through the technology, and it provides them with reporting,” Williams said. “The average check size is close to $500,000, and we’ve had individuals invest up to $10 million.”
Over the last year, Cadre has also scaled its workforce from 25 to 45, and grown from 3,000 square feet into 10,000 square feet at the Kushners’ Puck Building in Soho.