The city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services has signed a lease to fully occupy Savanna and Hornig Capital Partners’ 95 Evergreen Avenue in Bushwick.
A team from Cushman & Wakefield led by Mitch Arkin brokered the deal with Joseph Cirone, Myles Fennon and Remy Liebersohn with Brian Reiver representing Savanna in-house, Andrew Clemens of Ripco Real Estate.
C&W’s Robert Giglio, JRT Realty‘s Ellen Israel and Lauren Calandriello, and DY Realty‘s Paul Yuras and Warren Baymond handled the deal for the tenant.
The agency is taking 158,150 s/f at the former home of the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company, in a deal first reported by the Commerical Observer. The building will be occupied by the Human Resources Administration, which provides benefits such as food assistance and emergency rental assistance to three million low-income New Yorkers.
The 20-year lease gives the agency the option to renew for five additional years. The city’s rent will incrementally increase by $600,000 every five years. The DCAS will initially pay $6.9 million in rent.
Thomas Farrell, an executive at Savanna, told the Observer that the DCAS will consolidate its three Brooklyn offices into the five-story Bushwick property.
Savanna and Hornig spent $30 million renovating the property last year. The firms reportedly added a roof deck in hopes of landing a tech or media firm as an anchor tenant. The landlords will build out the space before the agency moves. The city’s portion of the cost is capped at $20.5 million. Savanna and Hornig is said to be on the hook for $5.8 million in renovation costs.
The transaction follows a string of large deals for city agencies. Last May, HRA signed a 193,821 s/f lease at the former Verizon Building at 375 Pearl Street. The agency is moving from 250 Church Street. The developer of the building has filed plans for a condo conversion at the site.
Earlier this year, the HRA also lease renewals in Manhattan and the Bronx. The agency renewed its lease for the entirety of Gould Investors’ 109 East 16th Street in Irving Place. It also signed a 74,400 s/f renewal at 305 Rider Avenue in Mott Haven.