November 2015 » Market Analysis » NYC Buildings For Sale

November 2015: New York Buildings For Sale


New York Buildings sold

Condo developer Six Sigma is in contract to buy a six-story self-storage facility near the northern end of the High Line in Chelsea for $54 million at 517-523 West 29th Street. The seller is self-storage Nicholas Sprayregen. The six-story, 55,000-square-foot, warehouse is one of 14 facilities in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. The site is zoned for up to 74,000 buildable square feet.

Vornado Realty Trust purchased 265 West 34th Street for $28.5 million. Vornado acquired the property from a group led by Manhattan attorney William Silverman. The deal gives the company three contiguous properties on the block between Seventh and Eighth avenues for redevelopment. Though the single-story building at 265 West 34th Street spans only 1,690 square feet, the property features 16,900 buildable square feet which values the transaction at just over $1,686 per buildable square foot.

The Empire Hotel Group sold a Garment District development site for $54.3 million. Empire filed plans for the site at 993 Sixth Avenue back in 2013, planning to construct a 44,000-square-foot, 122-key hotel. There is a single one-story retail property on the site. The Department of Buildings rejected the proposal in January 2014, but approved a roughly similar plan in June. The buyer in the deal is listed as 993 Sixth Realty LLC.

Harbor Group International bought a retail condo at 445 Fifth Avenue for $68 million from Thor Equities. The 20,000-square-foot space located between 39th and 40th streets faces the public library. Thor had paid $32.5 million for the condo in 2011.

Emmut Properties bought 134 to 142 Bowery in Nolita paying $47 million. A group 1031 investors represented by Max A. Hansen paid a total of $45 million last year for the set of two and three-story lighting supply store buildings. Plans were filed to build a 47,000-square-foot mixed-use building on the site. That structure, to be called 138 Bowery, will house 46 hotel rooms and 21 residential units.

Westbrook Partners and Atlas Capital Group have a deal with city officials to buy 250,000 square feet of air-rights from the Pier 40 for just over $100 million. The agreement will fund renovations at the former cargo terminal, which is in danger of falling into the Hudson River. It will also allow the developers to proceed with their 1.7 million-square-foot St. John's Terminal project.

SJP Properties and Mitsui Fudosan America closed on the purchase of a large development site at 200 Amsterdam Avenue. Zoning allows for a 600-foot-high residential tower of nearly 400,000 square feet, and the partners intend to build luxury condominiums on the site. The price works out to $750 per buildable square foot or nearly $300 million.


The 20-story building, at 1080 Amsterdam Avenue, housing a hospital-to-luxury rental conversion has been sold by St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center to Fine Times Inc. for $29.1 million. The building was converted from a hospital into an apartment building by development firm Stonehenge Partners and real estate investment trust SL Green Realty.">SL Green Realty. The building includes 96 residential units and two commercial units, spanning 89,365 square feet.

GFI Capital Resources Group acquired the Carlton Hotel in NoMad for $162.1 million. GFI bought the 12-story, 317-key hotel, at 88 Madison Avenue from the Wolfson Group.

75 First Avenue was sold for $12.9 million to the Colonnade Group following a bitter internal battle for control of a long-stalled East Village development site.

MetroLoft founder Berman is buying a controlling interest in a Financial District office tower at 20 Broad Street, with plans to convert it into rental apartments. Berman is paying Vornado Realty Trust, an undisclosed sum, for the leasehold on the 27-story, 473,000-square-foot office building. Vornado had leased 20 Broad Street from the New York Stock Exchange until 2081, when NYSE will have the right to take back control of the building. It means Berman will have ample time to convert the building and operate it as a rental.

Status Capital bought a retail condominium unit at 1049-1059 Madison Avenue for $48 million. Struggling Canada-based clothing chain Joe Fresh continues to lease the 10,000-square-foot space at 1049-1059 Madison Avenue, also known as 45 East 80th Street, despite vacating it this summer. Joe Fresh inked a short-term lease in 2012 and has two years remaining. The retailer plans to be bought out. Sitt acquired the condo from the estate of late art collector Norman Alexander for $4,800 per square foot. The space includes 4,500 square feet on both the ground and lower level, and 1,000 square feet on the mezzanine level.

The Klein Group acquired a retail condo and parking garage at 670 Columbus Avenue from Starrett Corp. for $60.5 million. The retail condo are two-levels with nearly 36,000-square-foot retail space located at the base of a 30-story, 280-unit condo building between West 92nd and West 93rd streets. The deal also includes a 31,000-square-foot garage which is currently leased.

Savanna is in contract to buy a 12-story Harlem office building at 1825 Park Avenue. The seller is Eugene Giscombe. The 112,500-square-foot building contains 9,000 square feet of retail space, and the property's net operating income in 2014 was $2.58 million. Available office space at the building has asking rents of $35 per square foot.

Edison Properties just acquired a 103,000-square-foot building at 620 12th Avenue, between West 47th and West 48th streets, for $55 million. Edison acquired the property from longtime owner Yale Citrin.

The Paramount Group secured a $90 million loan for its purchase of a 77,500-square-foot Class A building at 670-674 Broadway. Bank of America provided financing for the acquisition and a repositioning of the 77,500-square-foot Class A building at 670-674 Broadway, near Bond Street. Paramount's equity fund signed a contract in July to buy the property from Jay Deutsch's F.D.R. Industries, which owned it since 1971.
The Korean Teachers' Credit Union recently bought a minority stake in 51 Astor Place. A deal that values the Midtown South office property at $600 million.

Brookfield Property Partners is partnering with the Qatar Investment Authority on Brookfield's $8.6 billion Manhattan West mixed-use development. QIA will acquire a 44% stake in the five-building project, which includes a 62-story, 844-unit residential tower currently under construction and the 67-story One Manhattan West office building. The Manhattan West project hopes to draw office tenants who have long gravitated to the Midtown business district.

CW Capital Asset Management sold Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village to Blackstone for $5.3 billion. As part of the deal with the city, the firm agreed to preserve 5,000 apartments for affordable housing for the next 20 years.

NYC Buildings For Sale

SL Green Realty.">SL Green Realty is in contract to sell two more properties, part of its ongoing selling spree aimed at funding its purchase of 11 Madison Avenue. The real estate investment trust is selling the land beneath the Building at 885 Third Avenue, for $453 million to a partnership between Ceruzzi Properties and Shanghai Municipal Investment USA. SL Green is also selling a recently completed Pace University dormitory at 33 Beekman Street in the Financial District, for $196 million, to an undisclosed buyer.

Helen Keller Services is looking to sell 57 Willoughby Street in Brooklyn Heights, a 96,000-square-foot Downtown Brooklyn office building. There is no official asking price.

SL Green put the office portion of 1745 Broadway on the market asking $700 million. SL Green Investment trust holds a 56.9% stake in 685,000 square feet of office space, which spans floors two through 25. Canadian investment firm Ivanhoe Cambridge owns the minority stake.

Meringoff Properties and the Reise Organization are partnering to sell two adjacent Midtown buildings as a single development site. The property manager, a subsidiary of Himmel + Meringoff, and the restaurant operator are offering 677 and 681-685 Lexington Avenue, a combined 115,000 square feet of development rights.

Lincoln Property Company is looking to sell a 17-story Garment District office building at 250 West 39th Street. The property could get around $125 million, or $600 per square foot. The 208,000-square-foot Art Deco property is located between Seventh and Eighth avenues, as a long-term investment opportunity.

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