Lois Weiss

Lois Weiss

Real Estate

Action heating up on Midtown South buildings

Two renovated Midtown South buildings are now being traded, with one approaching $1,100 per square foot and the other at $770 per square foot.

The pricier 1910-era gem at 315 Park Ave. S. near Madison Square Park we hear is now in contract to be sold for $375 million to a non-New York-based publicly traded company that could not be identified prior to press time.

You may recall the 330,000-square-foot building was purchased for $234.3 million in the summer of 2013 by the San Francisco equity fund Spear Street Capital.

A new lobby and additional entrance on East 24th Street along with views all around made it easy to lease to Oracle and Relativity Media at rents over $80 per square foot. Credit Suisse still leases or subleases out the top of the building through part of 2017, when it could also become a residential conversion.

Douglas Harmon and Adam Spies of Eastdil Secured marketed the building and requests for comment were not returned.

The duo also put Billy Macklowe’s nearby 386 Park Ave. S. into contract to a high-net-worth Hong Kong family.

HSR, operated by billionaire William Fung and family, signed a hard contract to pay just over $200 million, sources said. The pricing equates to roughly $770 per square foot.

Macklowe paid $111.5 million in the fall of 2012 and also upgraded the building on the northwest corner of East 27th Street. The 1927-era building is now about 70 percent leased to tech tenants that include Newscred and Sugar Publishing.

No one could be reached for comment.


SYMS SIM: This rendering gives an upscale view of what might be ahead for the former Syms store site in the Financial District.

We also hear that Harmon, Spies and and Kevin Donner of Eastdil Secured were just hired to market the development site that includes the former Syms store at 42 Trinity Place in Lower Manhattan. Sitting west of Trinity Church, it also includes 67 Greenwich St. and 81 Greenwich St.

The trio was hired by former Forest City executive, Matthew Messinger, now CEO of Trinity Place Holding, which took over the assets of the failed discount retailer.

Architects FxFowle have already prepared a rendering to help market the site that can be developed as-of-right with a mixed-use building of roughly 300,000 square feet. Nearby, Time Equities is averaging $2,400 per square foot for its condominiums on West Street and the future buyer of this site could include condos and hotel or even office space along with street retail.


Retail maestro Jeff Sutton has just closed on the purchase of a Soho retail condominium at 130 Greene St. for more than $16 million.

While located between the Apple and Hugo Boss stores, Ralph Lauren has an outpost on the block and Google may also lease across the street.

Susan Penzner and Nathan Stange of Susan Penzner Real Estate quietly marketed the condo interest for a local investor.

Alessi is the current retail tenant for the ground and basement that total about 3,000 square feet.

No one could be reached for comment.


The 84-unit newly constructed luxury rental apartment building in Boerum Hill, The Bergen, at 316 Bergen St. was sold for $52.2 million to a private European investor.

Woody Heller, Will Silverman and Eric Negrin of Savills Studley marketed the 100 percent leased property on behalf of the developer, Miki Naftali’s Naftali Group. The building raised area expectations as it has great design by ODA Architects and comes with lots of amenities just four blocks from the Barclays Center.

“The building was a roaring success in the rental market and received equally well by investors,” said Heller. Three of the five finalists were first-time, offshore buyers, he added.

The sale is the first that was sourced through the company’s new international network since Studley was purchased by Savills earlier this year.


We expect lots of deals to be completed over the next three weeks as Hannukah begins and the other holidays quickly follow. Stay tuned.