The 40-story Class A office building Tower 45 has just hit the market through CBRE on behalf of SL Green Realty Corp. with expectations it could sell for north of $270 million, or $600+ per square foot.
The 475,000 square-foot building at 120 W. 45th St. is midblock between Avenue of the Americas and Broadway, near Times Square and Rock Center. It has a Bobby Van’s Steakhouse in 5,500 square feet and parking for 53 cars.
Its dramatic 15-story atrium has a waterfall and humongous, rectangular suspended LED light sculptures. These and other renovations were part of a 2010-2012 modernization of the 1989-era Swanke Hayden Connell-designed property.
SLG bought it in January 2007 for $285 million as part of the Reckson portfolio.
D.E. Shaw’s research company is the largest tenant with about 75,000 square feet. Floor plates range from 8,000 to 13,000 square feet with views to the rivers and Statute of Liberty in some cases.
“You have a core-plus building with some vacancy and roll, so there is a real play here with upside and value,” explained Darcy Stacom, vice chairman of CBRE and known as the “Queen of the Skyscrapers,” who is marketing the building with Vice Chairman Bill Shanahan and Paul Gillen. “This should be right in the sweet spot for investors.”
While Stacom declined to discuss pricing, she said it would be affected by a fixed-rate 6.1 percent interest-only securitized debt that cannot be defeased or changed. “As long as you can live with the debt, you can get this at a very good basis,” she said.
This building is also an outright sale, which was rare last year when sellers were only willing to recapitalize and sell a nonoperating stake in their buildings. “Last year we were recap, recap, recap, and this year we have been fee, fee, fee, fee,” said Stacom.
The team’s sales this year include: 4 New York Plaza for $270 million, 10 E. 53rd St. for $252.5 million, 325 Hudson for $110 million, and 33 Maiden Lane for $207.5 million.
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The three-story building at 991 Second Ave. is going from bets to pets. The former OTB horse-betting parlor is going to the dogs (and cats and birds) as Petco has just signed a deal for the entire 15,000 square-foot building between East 52nd and 53rd streets.
“It truly will be a major transformation of the block and the neighborhood,” said Jeffrey Roseman of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank Retail, who along with colleague Jason Maurer represented the ownership. The asking rent was $1.5 million per year.
Andrew Mandell and Richard Skulnik of Ripco Real Estate represented Petco.
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We’ve learned more about the deal for the 60,000 square-foot 509 Fifth Ave. we reported in Saturday’s Post.
The midblock building marketed for Norman Sturner by Brian Ezratty and Peter Hauspurg of Eastern Consolidated was purchased as a TIC, aka a tenants-in-common entity, consisting of Rabbi Joshua Metzger’s Chabad and a group led by Jeff Sutton with Bobby Cayre’s Aurora Capital and Alex Adjmi, sources said.
The price was $39.75 million with SL Green Realty Corp. providing the financing for Chabad’s upper floors.
Sources said the buyers want to create a Class A facility for the retail and the office portions of the building where Chabad will expand its Midtown headquarters.
IDB’s lease for the upper nine floors expires at the end of the year. At that time, in conjunction with Chabad, the retail owners intend to spend in excess of $15 million to reconstruct the entire building.
The other parties either declined comment or could not be reached.
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Broker Aaron Jungreis left GFI in 2007 to found Rosewood Realty Group with David Berger. This year they have closed $500 million in 50 sales and are on track to complete 100 deals worth $1 billion.