Now that the investment sales market has gotten comfortable with Class A office pricing and across-the-board leasing activity, a slew of Class B office buildings is coming to market.
The British-based PricewaterhouseCoopers team that took over properties in bankruptcy from the empire of their colorful compatriot, Paul Kemsley, has just hired Woody Heller and Will Silverman at Studley to market two buildings here.
The first, 183 Madison Ave., at the southeast corner of 34th Street, has 70 percent of its 250,000 square feet occupied by office tenants and intimate apparel wholesalers — a situation that will undoubtedly make site visits titillating for some folks.
Pricing hovers around $325 a square foot or about $80 million, our sources report. Domus and XOXO are some of the tenants in spaces that were occupied in the 1980s by the Peppermint Lounge.
This so-called Madison-Belmont building was developed in 1925 and later owned by the same racing family associated with the Belmont Racetrack.
The second office property, at 100-104 Fifth Ave., is between 15th and 16th Streets and close to Union Square making it attractive to media, advertising and publishing tenants. The 270,000-square-foot property is 80 percent occupied. While Mesa Grill is the retail tenant, only the office portion is for sale as a condominium. This is expected to fetch north of $425 a foot and close to $115 million.
Heller, who earlier this year brokered the sale of the Drake development site with Macklowe Properties and CIM Group, declined to discuss pricing.
These two buildings, Heller said, are “legitimate buildings in attractive locations with legitimate upside. That’s the bull’s-eye of investor preferences.”
Investors who simply want a return would be more interested in an offering on the very next block, where the 140,000-square-foot 90 Fifth Ave. is now being shopped. Located on the northwest corner of busy 14th Street, the 11-story office building is being marketed by the newly arrived Jones Lang LaSalle team of Richard Baxter, Ron Cohen, Scott Latham and Jon Caplan, Real Estate Weekly reported.
The building, owned by Aby Rosen‘s RFR Holdings, could fetch in the $120 millions. Sources said bids are due before the July 4th weekend.
Floors three to eleven — with 11,530 square feet each — are leased to Forbes through 2020. Forbes will be paying the rent but the CoStar database shows floor three through seven as being vacant and available for sublease along with furnishings. Listing notes say the sixth floor is also built out for video studios. The 11th floor, which has skylights and high ceilings, will be vacated and ready for sublease next April.
The ground retail space is also leased to TD Bank long term.
Pricing, therefore, is based on “coupon clipping,” with little chance of near-term upside, cutting out those potential buyers with more opportunistic outlooks but good for foreign institutions.
The JLL team, known as the “Fab Four,” could not be reached for comment. The Fab Four are also selling the larger 1412 Broadway for Norman Sturner‘s Murray Hill Properties. The over 400,000-square foot office tower is expected to garner in the $160 millions or $400 a foot, Real Estate Alert reported last week.
As The Post reported, Sturner has also now contracted to buy the smaller 509 Fifth Ave. from Joseph Moinian for $30 million or $500 a foot. Sturner expects to create two office and one retail condominiums and resell them at a later date.
Sources also tell us that Joe Sitt of Thor Equities went “hard” on the contract for the soon to be vacant nearly 100,000-square-foot Takashimaya Building at 693 Fifth Ave. with a “large” deposit and the deal pegged at $141.5 million. The sale is being handled by Nat Rockett of JLL.
In another JLL-arranged transaction, the just north of $180 million sale of the mostly vacant 6 Times Square and the development site next door on W. 42nd Street could close as soon as today, despite the Real Deal report saying it would close yesterday.
Ben Ashkenazy and Michael Alpert of Ashkenazy Acquisitions are teaming up here with Highgate Holdings to develop a luxury hotel and eventually, upscale retail. The Gap still has an option left on its lease. The building is being sold by Danske Bank.
This week, Ashkenazy and partner the Carlyle Group also completed a $355 million refinancing of their Class A office tower at 650 Madison Ave. through a Chi nese lender.
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Bill Moyers is moving his pro duction company, Public Affairs Television as well as his foundation — the Schumann Center for Media & Democracy to 6,327 feet at 250 W. 57th Street. Currently, both entities are based at 450 W. 33rd St.
James DeLuca of Cushman & Wakefield worked for Moyers while C&W colleagues, Barry Zeller and George Fabian, handled the deal for the building owners, W&H Properties.
According to W&H’s Fred Posniak, Moyers leased two pre-builts with an asking rent of $50 a foot even before they were completed. “We are now rushing to get more to market,” Posinak said.
