December 2015 » Market Analysis » NYC Buildings For Sale

December 2015: New York Buildings For Sale


New York Buildings sold

The Dermot Company is in contract to buy a Kips Bay apartment building from AvalonBay Communities for $175 million, part of its effort to transition into the luxury market. A majority of the 209 units in the building located at 377 East 33rd Street are occupied. The 23-story building consists of 185,549 square feet of residential space and 19,000 square feet of commercial space, which is currently leased by New York University.

Forest City Enterprises has agreed to sell its development site at 625 Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn to Simon Dushinsky's Rabsky Group for $158 million. Forest City bought the property in 1989. In 2013, the company demolished the 359,000-square-foot office building that occupied the site, with plans to construct a new residential tower.

Tishman Realty Corporation paid $40 million to buy a commercial building at 660-668 Eighth Avenue in Times Square. The six-story, 150,000-square-foot building, part of the E Walk retail complex, contains 16 commercial units total. Of that, 90,000 square feet are offices and 60,000 square feet to retail.

CIM Group's purchased the Martha Washington Hotel and paid $158 million for the property, plus another $14 million for another parcel next door. The hotel is a landmark and has 256-keys, 130,000-square-foot hotel at 29 East 29th Street. The developer plans to renovate the property and rebrand it as the Redbury Hotel New York. The company also bought a second, adjacent property as well, the four-story, 6,000-square-foot 33 East 29th Street. That building has 36,000 square feet of usable air-rights. The seller of both properties was Chelsea Hotels, which bought the Martha Washington in 2012 from the Rockpoint Group for $116 million.

TIAA-CREF continued its push into the Meatpacking District, picking up a third large warehouse property. The company is in contract to buy 430 West 15th Street, an 84,000-square-foot warehouse between Ninth and Tenth avenues, paying $140 million to sellers Atlas Capital Group and Rockpoint Group.

Michael Shvo is about to acquire the office portion of 685 Fifth Avenue. Shvo is in contract to buy the office portion of the 20-story, roughly 115,000-square-foot building. Thor partnered to acquire the entire property from Italian luxury brand Gucci for $460 million. Shvo is paying around $1,225 per square foot. With around 90,000 square feet of office space at 685 Fifth Avenue, the deal could be valued at more than $110 million.

Wells Fargo is the latest firm to commit to owning spaces at 30 Hudson Yards, agreeing to buy the last office condominium units. Wells-Fargo will buy two spaces at the tower totaling about 500,000 square feet, roughly a fifth of the 2.6 million-square-foot project currently being developed by the Related Cos..">Related Cos. and Oxford Properties. Wells Fargo is currently at a 372,000-square-foot space at 150 East 42nd Street and its lease expires in June 2019. Hudson Yards is slated for completion around the same time.

Li Hui Lo bought the Wingate by Wyndham Midtown Manhattan for $37.2 million. Lo closed on the 17-story, 92-room hotel at 235 West 35th Street, one block north of Madison Square Garden. The sellers, restaurateurs Lisa and Simon Lou, paid $2.6 million for the property in 2003 before spending $20 million to build the hotel in 2005.

Ed Scheetz and 29 East 29th Street in NoMad CIM Group bought the Martha Washington Hotel in NoMad with plans of transforming the property and rebranding it as the Redbury Hotel New York. They acquired the 256-room property at 29 East 29th Street, between Park and Madison avenues, from Ed Scheetz's Chelsea Hotels brand. The hotel last changed hands in 2012, when Chelsea Hotels, then known as King & Grove Hotels, acquired it from Rockpoint Group for $116 million.

Westbrook Partners and RXR Realty are in contract to buy a half-million-square-foot commercial property near the Brooklyn Navy Yard for more than $160 million. The partners signed a contract to buy 47 Hall Street from a partnership of Rubin Schron's Cammeby's International, Eli Fruchthandler and Bruce Federman. The price is between $160 million and $170 million ($290-$310 per square foot) for the 550,000-square-foot building, which is just south of the Brooklyn Navy Yard campus.

Jamestown Properties purchased a 37-year master lease interest for a Lincoln Square retail condominium that contains a Lowe's Home Improvement for more than $70 million. The 32,400-square-foot commercial condo, located at 2008 Broadway near West 68th Street, is at the base of a 28-story luxury residential condo building. Lowe's will occupy the retail condo, which has 22,000 square feet of selling space on the ground floor, for another 10 years. The rest of the property's square footage houses storage space in the basement and mechanical equipment in the mezzanine level.

Trinity Real Estate and Norges Bank Investment Management signed a binding contract to partner on the church's 11-building Hudson Square portfolio, in a deal that values the real estate at $3.55 billion. Norges Bank Investment Management entered to pay $1.56 billion for a 44% share in a 75-year ownership of Trinity's portfolio. The properties were built in the 1900s to house printing presses and total 5 million square feet in Hudson Square. The buildings include One Hudson Square 12-16 Vestry, 200 Hudson, 205 Hudson, 345 Hudson, 350 Hudson, 225 Varick 435 Hudson streets, 10 Hudson Square 100 and 155 Sixth Avenue.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority paid $382 million, or $678,000 per room, to the Blackstone Group for the leasehold for the 563-key London NYC Hotel at 151 West 54th Street. $194 million was paid for the property itself, with the remaining $154 million made on the building's debt. As per the lease agreement, the ADIA will pay $157 million to the Sol Goldman estate through 2136.

NYC Buildings For Sale

Luxury brand Coach Inc. is marketing its 40% interest in 10 Hudson Yards. While Related and partner Oxford Properties Group will maintain their stakes in the 1.7 million-square-foot tower, Coach, the office building's anchor tenant, is looking to sell its interest in the property. One of the tower's sovereign wealth investors plans to recapitalize its position at the 52-story tower. Coach paid $530 million for its 738,000-square-foot portion of 10 Hudson Yards. The building is more than 90% committed and is likely to be fully leased shortly.

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