NO sooner did we whis per the Roosevelt Hotel as being a potential development site last Friday then we were tipped that it was actually coming to market – and could sell for, gulp, $1 billion as an office development site. Just over a year ago, the Pakistani government, which owns the 1,013 room hotel as PIA Investments, bought out its 50/50 Saudi partner, Prince Faisal bin Khalid of Saudi Arabia.
Infighting and Pakistani political factionalism stopped an earlier sales effort in 2003 that would have brought in around $225 million slated to be used to purchase new jets for its airline.
Sources said Cushman & Wakefield will be marking the hotel through its Fab Foursome: Richard Baxter, Ron Cohen, Scott Latham and Jon Caplan. The company declined comment.
At a breakfast meeting at Michael’s yesterday morning, C&W executives were bullish on the ongoing sales and leasing markets, as vacancy rates have dropped to 5.3 percent and asking rents are up to $75.79 a foot in Midtown, a 35 percent jump since this time last year.
The hotel occupies nearly a full-acre block just north of Grand Central Terminal bounded by 45th and 46th Streets, Vanderbilt and Madison avenues.
Its 43,000 foot site can be built to 800,000 feet as-of-right, but attorneys say that special district air rights can be piled on to create a skyscraper that could leap to 1.5 million feet.
Potential bidders are being advised to compare the hotel to the site next to the Museum of Modern Art which sold for $775 a buildable foot, but is mid-block near Sixth Avenue.
Over a number of years making strategic land and air rights purchases, Macklowe Properties paid around $950 a foot for the Swisshotel Drake New York at Park Avenue and 56th Street, which they have changed from a residential hotel to offices.
Office rents have since climbed markedly in the city with 18 deals completed at over $125 a foot this year alone versus 16 in all of last year.
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We hear that Beacon Capital contracted to buy 32 Old Slip, known as One Financial Square, from Paramount Group for around $750 million.
Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan at CB Richard Ellis have been pitching that Downtown piece that was expected to fetch over $700 million. Calls were not returned by deadline.
The Paramount Group recently bought the Deutsche Bank building at 60 Wall St. for $1.18 billion, the highest price for an office building in Lower Manhattan.
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Brooks Brothers has finally inked its deal for 1930 Broadway, the luxury Glenwood Management rental known as the Grand Tier.
As we warned you earlier this year, the retailer will take 1,700 feet on the ground and 7,600 feet on the 2nd floor of the new building that takes up the entire block front between 64th and 65th streets opposite Lincoln Center.
The asking rent was $300 on the ground and $75 for the 2nd floor.
The retailer was represented by Frank Dimucci of Dimucci Partners. Robert K. Futterman Chairman and CEO of his eponymous company along with the company’s Beth Rosen represented Glenwood.
“It shows the Upper West Side quarter between Time Warner and Lincoln Center is thriving as a retail hub,” said Futterman.
Bed Bath & Beyond, lululemon athletica and Le Pain Quotidien are already signed on at 1930 Broadway. *
Actor Robert De Niro has been meeting with Africa-Israel Investment executives and discussing the development of a hotel in the Clock Tower Building at 1 Madison Ave., an Israeli news service, Globes, reported last week.
The actor is already teamed up on the Downtown Hotel with hotelier Richard Born.
The Israeli executives confirmed the talks, some of which took place at Ian Schrager‘s Gramercy Park Hotel, and noted they are also talking with other groups about a hotel for the building that overlooks Madison Square Park at E. 23rd Street.
You might recall that Schrager and Aby Rosen had been trying to work out a development there but walked away. [email protected]
