Just days after being declared a landmark by the city, 70 Pine St. has been sold for $205 million — or about $186 a square foot.
Ronnie Bruckner and Nathan Berman’s Metro Loft Management signed a contract to buy the iconic downtown 1.1 million square-foot tower, and build luxury rentals. The Post first broke the story on its Web site yesterday.
The 66-story building, the fifth-tallest in the city, was sold in an off-market deal by Kumho Investment Bank of South Korea through Jones Lang LaSalle.
The bank purchased it for $150 million along with 72/74 Wall St. from financially plagued AIG. The Wall Street building is in contract to a Chinese school for $46 million.
The Jones Lang LaSalle team of Richard Baxter, Ron Cohen, Scott Latham and Jon Caplan did not publicly offer 70 Pine St., but went straight to Metro Loft, sources said. Metro has been an active buyer and converter of downtown office buildings to residential rentals.
JLL had no comment and Berman was touring the building and was unavailable to comment.
Among Metro Loft’s properties are 17 John St., Nos. 63 and 67 Wall St., 20 Exchange Pl. and several buildings on William Street.
In 2009, before its sale to Kumho, The Post’s Steve Cuozzo noted 70 Pine St. was not landmarked, and he wrote about its new designation on Tuesday.
Cuozzo also revealed the bank’s most recent plan was to convert the building to residential and that developer Frank Sciame had been hired as an adviser along with Beyer Blinder Belle architects, who are known for their historical restorations.