Taconic Partners Sets Sights on the Sun Belt

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Taconic Partners, a vertically integrated real estate development firm based in New York, is making the move to the Sun Belt. The firm has tapped Sheldon Pariser as executive vice president to lead its expansion into acquiring multifamily assets in the Southeast and Texas.

This expansion builds on Taconic’s track record in New York and the tri-state area, where it has developed or repositioned over 7,300 units. 

“Taconic’s track record in the residential and multifamily sector puts the firm in an advantageous position to deliver on long-term, sustained rental demand across the Sun Belt,” says president and chief operating officer Colleen Wenke. 

Pariser joins Taconic from real estate investment manager Prospect Ridge, where he was a principal. In his decade there, he oversaw acquisitions and asset management across a range of property types and equity strategies. Prior to that, he served in Cantor Fitzgerald’s real estate CMBS group.

MFE caught up with Pariser to learn more about his new role and Taconic’s expansion into the Sun Belt.

Why is now the right time for Taconic Partners to expand outside of New York and the tri-state area?

Read more on multifamilyexecutive.com

A Return to New York Was a Much-Delayed Dream

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Daira Jackson loved growing up in New York City. Her family lived in Queens, and she has a trove of memories from her earliest years, attending P.S. 148 and going on field trips to marquee destinations like the Bronx Zoo and Chinatown.

But when she was 8, her parents divorced and she moved to Miami with her mother and two younger sisters.

“It was so different,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Where are the skyscrapers? We need a car all the time — what?’ Everything was just different. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to get back to New York.”

It turns out you can go home again but sometimes it takes a very long time. In Ms. Jackson’s case, it was nearly 40 years before she returned.

Read more on nytimes.com

Inside an Inwood rental with lush green space and a performing arts center

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A huge mixed-use development in Upper Manhattan brings together mixed-income housing, a new performing arts space, and lots of green space to a single project. Taking up a full block on West 206th Street in Inwood, the Miramar is home to nearly 700 apartments, 85,000 square feet of amenities, and the future permanent home for the immigrant-centered People’s Theatre. As leasing continues for the building’s 417 market-rate apartments, 6sqft got an exclusive peek at Miramar’s beautiful amenities, which include two landscaped courtyards, a meditation garden, terraces, and a rooftop with skyline views.

Developed by LMXD, MSquared, and Taconic Partners and designed by Beyer Blinder Belle, Miramar offers 698 apartments, with 40 percent designated affordable for households earning 40, 60, or 80 percent of the area median income. An additional 10 percent of units are set aside as workforce housing for those earning 120 percent of the area median income.

Pricing for the market-rate apartments starts at $3,125/month for studios, $2,950/month for one bedrooms, and $4,450/month for two bedrooms. After three months, the building is over 30 percent leased, and move-ins have begun.

“Each detail at Miramar is meticulously crafted to ensure residents have a premier living experience,” Katherine Kelman, managing director of LMXD, said.

“With thoughtful layouts, modern amenities and several stunning outdoor spaces to enjoy, Miramar offers a tranquil retreat while still providing easy access to the neighborhood’s revered cultural institutions, dining establishments and some of the best parks and recreational activities in the city.”

Read more on 6sqft.com

Aldi Times Square Store Set To Open Next Year Amid Further U.S. Growth

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German discount grocer Aldi is to open its first central Manhattan location, slated to open in 2026 at The Ellery, a new 32-story luxury residential tower near the city’s famous Times Square.

The retailer has signed a lease for a 25,000-square-foot flagship store at 312 West 42nd Street, at the edge of Hell’s Kitchen and Times Square, in partnership with developer Taconic Partners and National Real Estate Advisors.

The news comes amid a wave of development in Midtown, following the New York City Council’s adoption of Mayor Eric Adams’s Midtown South mixed-use rezoning plan, which is expected to help create nearly 10,000 new apartments through new construction and office-to-residential conversions.

Read more on forbes.com

The Ellery Reaches Fully Leased Milestone in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan

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After launching leasing in the summer of 2024, The Ellery at 312 West 43rd Street is now officially fully leased. Developed by Taconic Partners and National Real Estate Advisors, the 32-story building in Hell’s Kitchen features a rooftop pool with expansive views, a range of amenities, and 330 residences. Compass Development Marketing Group is the building’s exclusive leasing and marketing partner.

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JP Morgan Chase Lends $57M on Taconic’s N.J. Industrial Acquisition

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Taconic Partners has landed $46.6 million of acquisition financing to purchase a New Jersey industrial asset, Commercial Observer has learned.

J.P. Morgan Chase provided the loan on Taconic’s $74.3 million acquisition of a 360,000-square-foot Class B logistics facility at 1735 Jersey Avenue in North Brunswick, N.J., in a deal that closed Monday afternoon. The property was previously acquired for $18.9 million in late 2017 by a private investor as part of an off-market transaction.

JLL (JLL) arranged the financing with a capital markets team led by Evan Pariser and Aaron Niedermayer. The acquisition was brokered by JLL’s investment sales team of Jordan Avanzato, Marc Duval, Nicholas Stefans and Jason Lundy. 

Located on 17 acres about six miles west of the New Jersey Turnpike, the fully leased property has anchor tenants that include pallet distributor Kamps and furniture rental company Luxe Living Design. The facility is within the Central Jersey industrial market, which has experienced leasing momentum of late thanks to its access to ports, highways and major cities, according to Taconic. 

Read more on commercialobserver.com

Would-Be Buyers Picking High-End Rentals Over Starter Homes

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Do you know one or more of the many would-be buyers who can’t afford to enter the housing market? Given still-high interest rates and a dearth of existing homes, they are in a tough spot. But for some of these people, there’s an offsetting upside.

They might be able to justify an amenitized, higher-end apartment community, and wind up enjoying a superior quality of life than they might in a for-sale first home.

A study out today from CBRE revealed what the authors described as “a significant affordability gap” between homeownership and renting. There exists a yawning gulf of 35% between average monthly mortgage payments for new homes and rents for apartments, fueled by the 75% surge in average mortgage payments since late 2019. That wave, CBRE stated, has created “a steep financial barrier to homeownership for many households.” The premium to buy a home is expected to fall in coming years due to interest rate and home price changes. But, CBRE reported, “is it expected to remain wide enough to keep many people in the rental market for longer.”

This reality hasn’t been lost on apartment building developers. An increasing number of upper-crust rental buildings in U.S. cities are duking it out to appeal to a renting cohort prizing aesthetics, convenience and distinctive in-house experiences.

Cases in point: The for-rent residential buildings The Ellery in New York City and 2000 Biscayne in Miami, which both quickly topped the half-leased mark. The latter notched the 50% milepost in November, following a June launch, while the former reached that benchmark in late August, not long after inaugurating leasing in May.

Read more on forbes.com

New to New York, and Dazzled by the Energy of Times Square

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When Candice Gwak and David Xie moved from Southern California to New York City, they settled in Hell’s Kitchen, just a block from the chaos and crowds of Times Square, the very place many New Yorkers love to hate.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of their one-bedroom apartment in The Ellery are the upper-level ramps and rooftop parking lot of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The walls of their living room glow with colored light thrown from the ever-changing giant digital billboards nearby.

Their friends who knew New York couldn’t believe they’d live there.

“We’re not really fazed,” Ms. Gwak said. “Maybe it’s because we’re so new here, so everything is great.”

The couple moved in September. Mr. Xie, who works for an executive search firm, is focused on developing a sense of direction to avoid getting lost. Ms. Gwak, a lawyer, is learning to navigate her way through throngs of people, but she’s not annoyed by the slow-moving visitors — in fact, she relates to them.

She and Mr. Xie admitted they have behaved like tourists since they arrived.

“We bought CityPASS as if we don’t live here,” Ms. Gwak said, referring to a ticket that grants admission to several tourist attractions.

They visited iconic spots including Ellis Island, the Empire State Building and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. They also took a guided boat tour around the harbor. They try to jam-pack their weekends with sightseeing and exploration.

On their excursions, they often realized that at the end of the day they’d be going back home, rather than to a hotel. Mr. Xie called that “the best feeling.”

“There were so many times we kept going, ‘Oh my gosh, we live here,’” he said.

Years before they even met each other, they had separately gotten a taste of New York City and wanted more.

Back in 2017, still in college, Ms. Gwak had visited a friend who lived in the East Village. The trip made a lasting impression on her, and she set her sights on moving permanently, at some point, though she couldn’t envision the path.

Read more on nytimes.com

A Modern Hub for Life Sciences Rises from a 1920’s New York Gem

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The life-sciences industry is a growing part of New York’s economy. It accounts for 1,000 companies and 20,000 jobs, and researchers there received $3 billion in funding from the National Institutes of Health last year. The city has invested heavily in the sector and changed zoning rules to unlock millions of square feet of real estate for labs. All this has paved the way to open a multitenant life-sciences facility, called West End Labs, situated inside a 1920’s edifice on the mostly residential Upper West Side that’s been adaptively reused and made state-of-the-art by Perkins&Will.

The firm has designed scientific research centers across the country for more than 40 years, including the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Washington and the National Bio and Agro- Defense Facility in Kansas. It’s also been involved in New York’s push to become a life-sciences hub; a decade ago, Perkins&Will contributed to a Manhattan nonprofit’s study about how to make the city more competitive in the industry. It connected with Elevate Research Properties, a life-sciences subsidiary of Taconic Partners, which acquired and developed a midtown building into the Hudson Research Center in 2016 and is currently developing Iron Horse Labs, a research facility on the Upper East Side. When Elevate Research Properties bought this eight-story, over 400,000-square-foot building 10 blocks north, it hired the studio to retrofit it for life-sciences companies. “We looked at an array of properties to determine their suitability as conversion candidates, and this site, with its proximity to transit, opportunities for private entrances and direct loading on multiple levels offering ‘building within a building’ tenant potential, and 55,000-square-foot, center-core floor plates, is unmatched,” Matthew Malone, senior vice president, life science, Taconic Partners/Elevate Research Properties, says. “A new exterior enclosure not only improves its thermal performance but also introduces abundant natural light into the work environments, which of course includes the labs.”

Read more on interiordesign.net