Cue the fireworks.
A Midtown deal is hitting just in time for the Fourth of July: We’ve just learned the Park Avenue Tower is being resold to Steve Schwarzman’s Blackstone Group for $750 million.
The deal works out to $1,280 for each of its 585,563 square feet — or $1,210 per square foot once Blackstone uses the newly re-measured 619,631 feet.
The Big Apple buyout giant had owned the building for a nanosecond in 2007 after it took over Equity Office Properties. But it immediately flipped the property and six other city office buildings to Harry Macklowe, who later turned them back to lenders as the market immediately crashed.
The seller, San Francisco-based Shorenstein Co., assumed control in 2008 for $625 million. Through all of the musical chairs of owners, original developer George Klein of Park Tower Realty has retained a slice of the pie for tax reasons.
Shorenstein hired investment brokers Douglas Harmon, Adam Spies and Kevin Donner of Eastdil Secured to sell the building last year. Eastdil has already sold the Sony Building for a condo hotel conversion at 550 Madison Ave. for $1.1 billion, and 450 Park Ave., a deal in which buyer Oxford Properties assumed debt and other items pushing the value to $575 million.
The Australian developer, Grocon, quickly tied up the Park Avenue Tower deal at $775 million and hired JLL to help in financing.
But as a newcomer to the complicated city world of commercial real estate, Grocon couldn’t pull the pennies together and, according to Real Estate Alert, Shorenstein pulled the plug on them in April.
Meanwhile, Eastdil had the experienced Blackstone review the deal and sit poised and ready to deploy opportunistic capital — albeit for a bit less than Grocon had proffered and also less than what Blackstone had allocated for it in the 2007 Equity portfolio transaction.
Now with a contract signed and August vacations on the horizon, the PE firm, which is reportedly forming its own hedge fund, is expected to quickly close on the deal.
The building also is hitting a sweet spot for Blackstone, which prefers buying partial vacancy so it can bump up the cash flow.
Two major tenants are getting ready to exit. The largest tenant, law firm Paul Hastings, has its own entrance, with 253,000 square feet spread over 16 floors.
Its lease is up in 2016, and Hastings, repped by a CBRE team, is expected to down size to 160,000 square feet at 200 Park Ave., aka the Met Life Building.
A second hefty space taker at Park Avenue Tower, hedge fund manager Davidson Kempner, with 50,000 square feet, is moving to 70,233 square feet on the 29th to 31st floors of Tishman Speyer-owned 520 Madison Ave.
None of the parties would comment on the transactions.
Met Life’s Tishman Speyer owners have also created a new availability for another tenant by transforming the former helicopter waiting area on the tippy-top 58th floor into a magnificent 11,864 square foot spread with floor to ceiling windows.
According to CoStar data, this space has “unparalleled views” and an option to expand to 23,352 feet with direct elevator access.
Blame it on human error.
On Tuesday morning, a New York City Finance Department vendor accidently punched the wrong button and withdrew around 2,000 property tax payments by mistake.
Although bills were due on July 1, many owners had already paid them, or had only authorized one-time electronic payments in the past.
The vendor, Sound Billing of Wisconsin, hosts the site and creates the payment file but a “manual input” triggered a bad banking tsunami.
“The payments are in process of being reversed and they are crediting everyone,” said Sonia Alleyne, a Finance spokeswoman.
Property owners who alerted The Post about the button misfiring hit the roof as their own banks notified them of large overdrafts.
In better Finance Department news, remind your friends and neighbors that applications are now being taken for the newly revised Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption, known as SCRIE. Unfortunately, the law requires a reapplication every single year.
Regulated tenants who are 62 and older who have household incomes up to $50,000 and pay over one-third of that for rent can qualify for the break. SCRIE is funded by the city as a credit to the building owner’s property taxes.