New York City Buildings sold
Google paid $1.77 billion in cash for its new office at 111 Eighth Avenue. Google will occupy 550,000 square feet in the 2.9 million-square-foot Chelsea building, located between 15th and 16th streets. Google's ability to pay cash helped it succeed in the purchase.MCR Development has acquired a portfolio of 10 Marriott and Hilton hotels for $164 million, marking one of the largest hotel deals in the country so far this year. The collection of mostly extended-stay hotels, include 1,100 rooms across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. The seller, developer Briad Group, held onto the portfolio longer than it intended. Briad, who built the hotels between 2007 and 2010, chose to ride out the recession before unloading the properties.
Brooke Astor's 14-room duplex at 778 Park Avenue, once listed for $46 million, is now in contract. The apartment, which takes up the 15th and 16th floors of the Rosario Candela-designed building, has been on the market since Astor died in 2007, most recently, for $24.9 million.
Los Angeles-based investment firm CIM Group has picked up an equity stake in yet another Sapir Organization-developed property, 11 Madison Avenue. The news comes on the heels of CIM's deal to purchase a stake in both the Trump Soho and William Beaver House. CIM is buying the property, which overlooks Madison Square Park and serves as the headquarters for Credit Suisse, for an undisclosed amount.
Aby Rosen's RFR Realty sold a two-story corner retail property at 451 Lexington Avenue at 45th Street in Midtown for $28.7 million. A Connecticut-based buyer identified as 451 Lexington Realty went into contract on the purchase. RFR Realty bought the 13,585-square-foot property in 1992 for an undisclosed sum. A one-story portion of the property is leased to fast food-restaurant Sbarro while a two-story portion is leased to McDonalds. There are three other tenants as well.
SL Green Realty has agreed to buy close to $391 million worth of office and retail investments from Gramercy Capital. As part of the deal, SL Green will own the land and lease fee for three properties, the Lipstick Building at 885 Third Avenue, 2 Herald Square and 292 Madison, but will also assume about $266 million in debt. SL Green will pay $39 million to buy Gramercy's 45 percent joint venture interest in the Lipstick Building, $26 million for their interest in 2 Herald Square and $19 million for 292 Madison's land and lease fee.
Developer Craig Nassi sold the former Midtown offices of the Jewish Daily Forward to a Los Angeles-based entity called NYC Hotel 33 LLC for $20 million in a quick flip after buying the property the same day from the long-time owners. Nassi's BCN Development had planned to build a 108-unit condominium at the six-story site at 45 East 33rd Street known as the Workmen's Circle building.
The West Village's Bleecker Street is now home to the third-most expensive storefronts in the city. Three properties were sold this week for $34 million, or $6,700 a square foot. Private real estate investment firm Beck Street Capital sold 367-369, 382-384 and 387 Bleecker Street, with tenants such Michael Kors and Burberry signing long-term leases. Since 2003, Fifth and Madison avenues have been the only retail areas to fetch higher prices than the West Village.
One of North Williamsburg's few remaining vacant lots along Kent Avenue has been purchased for $5 million by an entity called Waterview Lofts LLC. The previous owner of the 40 North 4th Street site, Matarese/Mandella LLC had filed a permit to construct a new seven-story building there in 2008, but has apparently run into financial trouble since. In May, the owner was hit with a lis pendens which marks the beginning of the foreclosure process. The area is ripe for new development, with nearby 175 Kent Avenue and 224 Wythe Avenue both taking shape in recent months.
NYC Buildings For Sale
Schrager took a pass on the Hotel Chelsea after touring the for-sale landmark. The 127-year-old property at 222 West 23rd Street, famous for having housed literati like playwright Arthur Miller and rock and roll stars like singer Patti Smith, went up for sale in October for the first time in over 65 years and is to be asking around $90 million.Zamir Equities is selling off its leasehold on the 43,000-square-foot Fifth Avenue building that houses retailer Quicksilver on the ground floor. The 10-story property, which sits between 48th and 49th streets and has an address of 587 Fifth Avenue, is 95 percent leased, including the few floors taken up by Zamir's jewelry business. Zamir's leasehold extends until 2079 and Jane Goldman owns the land beneath the building.
The Philip Coltoff Center properties on Sullivan Street will be going on the market, as decided by a unanimous vote last night by the Board of Trustees of the Children's Aid Society. The sale of the Greenwich Village properties has been opposed by local residents, including Brooke Shields, as well as parents, one of whom has filed a lawsuit to stop the school from closing. Though there is no official listing yet, an earlier estimate valued the properties, one at 219 Sullivan Street and another at 177 Sullivan, to be worth between $20 and $30 million.
