An investment group led by George Comfort & Sons and RCG Longview has sweet talked its way back into completing a $600 million-plus deal with Deutsche Bank for the Worldwide Plaza office building.
Rather than creating a joint venture, Deutsche Bank will now simply provide a $470 million mortgage with the Comfort team, which will put up about $135 million in equity, sources told The Post.
The price comes to roughly $375 a square foot for the 1.6 million square foot tower, and is expected to close later this month.
As part of the deal, Deutsche Bank will write down the current $1.014 million mortgage.
The building was bought by Macklowe Properties in 2007 and for tax reasons will be sold by its entity to the Comfort group. Macklowe’s real estate empire collapsed with the market downturn and they have agreed to the sale.
Macklowe has “cooperated fully,” sources said.
The Comfort group was originally set to buy the 47-story building at 825 Eighth Ave. through a joint venture with Deutsche Bank, but that deal was nixed by the bank’s board last month.
Competing bidders were notified by phone and e-mail yesterday that investment marketers at Eastdil Secured were no longer accepting offers on the property.
One bidder who asked to remain anonymous wasn’t too upset about missing out.
“We’re just as happy because the rents have gone the wrong way, so I wish them luck with it,” this person said.
Last month, the sale to Comfort had been thrown into doubt after Deutsche Bank’s board refused to approve the deal on worries about retaining an interest in the tower.
However, Comfort President Peter Duncan refused to accept the return of a $50 million deposit and publicly went on the offensive, saying his team was ready to close on the deal by June 30.
Developer Douglas Durst, who said he withdrew his bid of $350 a square foot several weeks ago, said he believes Duncan got the deal by playing hardball.
“What probably happened is they said they were going to sue. . . and make sure they never got the building sold,” he said.
Added another source: “The bank didn’t do it because he was nice, but because it was in both their interests.”
The building was one of seven Manhattan office buildings that Macklowe bought from the Blackstone Group when the private-equity giant paid $38 billion for Sam Zell’s Equity Office Properties.
Macklowe defaulted on $7 billion in Deutsche Bank mortgages when the market tanked and lost all the EOP properties plus parts of its legacy portfolio, including the GM Building, which had been used as collateral.
