IT may all be a trick or maybe it will be New Jersey’s treat, but Colgate-Palmolive Co. could be pretending to wash its hands of the majority of its 300 Park Ave. headquarters. Or not.
A group headed by Tishman Speyer Properties now owns its namesake 779,048-foot, green-glass tower between 49th and 50th streets opposite the Waldorf-Astoria. According to CoStar Group, Colgate occupies about 525,000 feet in a lease that expires in 2010.
But while the consumer products giant negotiates with TSP, our sources add that it is also making offers to jump to Jersey with 200,000 to 300,000 feet, while keeping a headquarters presence on Park Avenue.
With Class-A rents along the Jersey City shore running in the $30s and $40s and government incentives up the wazoo, Colgate could afford to pay the $80 to $100-plus per foot Class-A rents on Park Avenue for the portion of office space that stays in the city.
Of course, it also wouldn’t hurt to tap Mother Big Apple for a handout, in order to prevent the company from crossing the river with all those employees.
Brian Givens of GVA Williams is heading the space search and couldn’t be reached yesterday.
TSP executives had no comment through a spokesman.
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A series of billion dollar babies were getting adoption offers yesterday.
The Class-A towers are in various bid stages but investor interest in the face of the major credit crunch has been varied.
Think of it this way: You thought your house was worth $1.2 million and now you realize you’d be lucky to grab $950,000 because of the trouble getting jumbo loans above $417,000.
A parallel dynamic is occurring with these capital investment toys and the cost of the capital stacks – i.e., multiple mortgages at different interest and risk levels.
The Philip Morris Building at 120 Park Ave. on the southwest corner of 42nd Street, has bids coming in at over $500 million for the 600,000-foot tower.
This second round of bidding through Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan at CB Richard Ellis was seeing extensive interest from a variety of investor types, including real estate investment trusts and locals.
Among them is real estate magnate Peter Kalikow, who, fresh from his stint as MTA Chairman, is trying to get back into real estate with partner Lehman Bros.
He’s already had great success with 101 Park Ave., down the street from the Philip Morris Building.
Another bidder is SL Green Realty Corp., which is happy with its reinvention of 100 Park Ave. and is busy making plans to redevelop on Madison Avenue.
Brookfield Properties is another bidder, having already developed 300 Madison Ave.
Ditto for Tishman Speyer Properties, which already owns 200 Park Ave., and for Vornado Realty Trust, which owns 350 Park Ave.
The Whitney Museum is planning on moving out of the Philip Morris Building, leaving a covered pedestrian space that could eventually be converted into valuable retail space with the purchase of more air rights.
Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank’s mid-block building at 31 W. 52 St. is being offered in-house with Jones Lang LaSalle.
It is garnering interest from as many as 10 suitors, including Paramount Group, which just bought its downtown headquarters, as well as Hines, the building’s original developer.
Because the building is near Rockefeller Center, it has also attracted TSP.
Contract comments were due yesterday.
Paramount Group’s own sale of Americas Tower at 1177 Avenue of the Americas is being shepherded by Wayne Maggin’s group at Eastdil Secured and Goldman Sachs.
The newest of the Rockefeller Center West towers may attract overseas bids as well as locals like TSP for this first round.
But to bring up bids, sources tell us the sellers will give the buyer $25 million for three years to bring up the income to the $60 million range.
“Then you can sell the building and get the money back,” ex plained one source.
Finally, Citi group’s towering Hudson River head quarters at 388 Greenwich Ave. was getting final round offers into the Fearless Foursome at Cushman & Wakefield from the likes of SL Green and perhaps Shorenstein, along with other institutional players.
Stay tuned.
