The sale of the iconic downtown skyscraper at 70 Pine St. closed yesterday for $205 million to Metro Loft Management.
The company intends to convert the 1.1 million-square-foot landmark into luxury rentals and is negotiating to install a hotel in the lower portion.
“We will give it our best shot,” said Nathan Berman, principal of Metro Loft, along with partner, Ronnie Bruckner. “We are in talks with a hotel group. It’s a very good international hotel group that we are considering doing a joint venture with.”
Berman said the architect is “the Conversion Rabbi,” Avinash Malhotra, while a design architect is yet to be chosen.
Earlier this spring, as the Post first reported, the Jones Lang LaSalle investment sales team of Richard Baxter, Ron Cohen, Scott Latham and Jon Caplan took the deal directly to Metro Loft, as they have been active buyers and converters of area office buildings into residential rentals. Among Metro Loft’s other properties are 17 John, 63 Wall and 67 Wall, and 20 Exchange Place.
To close on the deal, sources said, investment adviser the Emmes Group of Co. originated a $170 million mortgage loan on behalf of itself and an unidentified US pension fund, along with UBS, which led the first mortgage lending group.
Additionally, a mezzanine loan of between $40 million and $60 million, sources said, was provided by AG Insurance, a Belgian insurer with over $59 billion in assets.
The transaction begins a new life for the 1932-property, which had long been the headquarters for AIG. The current sellers, Youngwoo & Associates along with the Korean-based Kumho Investment Bank, bought the building in 2009 from AIG for about $150 million, as it downsized amidst financial problems and moved to 180 Maiden Lane.
