NYC Children’s Services plans 640K lease at Savanna’s 110 William in FiDi

The Department of Citywide Administrative Services as the property manager for the city on behalf of the Administration of Children’s Services seek to lease approximately 640,000 square feet of office space at Savanna’s 110 William Street in the Financial District, according to documents filed with the city’s Department of City Planning.

The proposed acquisition is for the relocation of ACS’ headquarters to “provide for better operational efficiency in one location, with improved and expanded space to accommodate new mandates and needs, support staff growth, and provide better customer service to clients and the public,” according to the filing.

ACS will have 25 floors with approximately 640,000 square feet of office space. Most of the space will be standard office space for staff who will enter the building through the main lobby. In addition, a new client-focused center will be provided on the second floor.

According to the filing, “ACS is responsible for the safety and well-being of New York City’s children and families by providing child welfare, juvenile justice, primary prevention, and childcare services. Their current headquarters at 150 William Street has provided office space for administrative support and a range of client facing services since 1996.

Although the current headquarters served the agency’s business needs for 26 years and has been retrofitted over that time, the building no longer serves the agency’s current and growing needs. Any retrofit or renovation would require staff to be displaced and work at a separate location for extended periods of time which would be very disruptive to agency operations. Additionally, new mandates and needs require additional staff, and the existing space cannot accommodate ACS’ expected growth.

ACS already has a presence on three floors at 110 William Street on floors 13, 14, and 20, including client facing services on the 14th floor. The proposed headquarters relocation to 110 William Street would not only support programmatic growth and operational efficiency but will provide modern amenities that will help staff service ACS’ clients. The proposed relocation would secure office space for approximately 2,500 employees and serve 100 clients per day. Because the proposed location is less than 500 feet from the current location, the relocation of ACS’ headquarters will have minimal impact on staff, clients, and the surrounding area. Eighteen divisions and programs currently operating in 150 William Street will relocate to 110 William Street.”

The property

The 81 John Street parcel has frontage of 188 feet and is 173 feet deep with a total lot size of 32,511 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C6-4 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $129.4 million.

Prior sales and revenue

The office building in Financial District has 788,241 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data.

The 788,241-square-foot property generated revenue of $30.5 million or $39 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on July 3, 2013.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020.

The neighborhood

In Financial District, the majority, or 75 percent of the 81.3 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, Financial District has the 7th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Financial District is the 5th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 7.8 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 10 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the six commercial properties representing 584,448 square feet of the 1,588,695 square feet. The two identified owners are Lightstone Group and Kibel Company. On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 355,831 square feet. The largest is a 242-unit, 337,311 square-foot R-2 building developed by Joseph Teichman with plans filed March 18, 2015 and permitted January 11, 2018. The second largest is a 10-unit, 18,520 square-foot R-2 building developed by Brian Collins with plans filed June 9, 2014 and it has not been permitted yet.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 81 John Street, Pincusco identified eight commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those eight items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit issued on October 4, 2022 for the $330,000 renovation of 146,990-square-foot R-2 building with 169 residential units at 85 John Street. Of those eight items, two were sales above $5 million totaling $188.5 million. The most recent of the two was Brookfield Properties which bought three condo units in the 142,626-square-foot, 159-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 15 Cliff Street and zero other properties for $115 million from Carmel Partners on January 20, 2022. Of those eight items, five were loans above $5 million totaling $178.1 million. The most recent of the five was Greenroad Capital which borrowed $11.6 million from Signature Bank secured by the 21,520-square-foot, five-unit office building (O5) on 27 Cliff Street on September 30, 2022.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.