The twin office buildings at 160 and 180 Water St. will soon have the same owner.
We’ve just learned that Oestreicher Realty, which developed 160 Water St. in 1970, is in contract to sell the 480,000 square-foot building to Emmes Realty.
The off-market deal was made at north of $160 million, roughly $333 per square foot, without brokers.
Last year, Emmes bought its adjacent near-twin at 180 Water St. for $151 million from Alfons Melohn. Its tenant, the city’s Human Resources Administration, will move to 4 World Trade Center in May 2015. After Sept. 11, the city offered to vacate that building to accommodate first Aon and then Lehman Bros. before both made other plans.
The two International style buildings were actually designed by different architects.
While No. 160 is credited to William Lescaze, who died before its completion, Emory Roth & Sons was the architect for the similar No. 180 developed by Theodore Locker and Bernard Blitz.
In the immediate area, Lescaze also worked on One New York Plaza, while Roth did Nos. 55, 77 and 200 Water, among others.
No. 160 was occupied by AIG until it retrenched in the wake of its leadership issues. It is now full with tenants that include New York City Health & Hospitals and Beth Israel. Its only vacancy is a 20,000 square-foot, three- level retail space where a sports gym had been located, being marketed by David Tricarico, Michael Stone and Lindsay Anapol of Cushman & Wakefield.
Mechanicals for both properties are expected to be raised with other capital improvements and, possibly, roof decks.
While there is an opportunity to turn all or part of the building to residential use, downtown spies say the flood of uptown office tenants seeking area spaces, along with the East River views and upcoming reinvention of the nearby Seaport, has given Emmes more fluidity and options.
No one from Emmes, Oestreicher or Cushman & Wakefield returned calls for comment.
In the City Hall area, excitement surrounding the conversion of the top of the Woolworth Building, its upcoming Four Seasons neighbor, the re-imagined 5 Beekman by Thompson with its adjacent tower and the high rental prices at 8 Spruce St. are sparking other redevelopment opportunities.
Now, the entire northeastern end of the Park Row block bounded by Beekman Street and Theatre Alley is up for grabs.
The site could sell for over $50 million, or $700 per buildable square foot, for an area in Tribeca where condos will sell for $3,000 per square foot and up.
James Nelson and Will Suarez of Massey Knakal have been hired to sell the 4,850 square-foot site that has roughly 60 feet along all three blockfronts.
A new building can grow to as much as 72,000 square feet, depending on its usage, Nelson said.
The six-story and three-story buildings currently occupied by Ricky’s pop-up stores will be vacated.
“We think residential is the highest and best use,” said Nelson.
“This Pearl on the Park site is about being on City Hall Park as there is a 12-to-15 percent price premium for condos facing parks,” he said.
The “starchitecture” firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners has prepared a preliminary architectural design and some gelt could probably persuade them to take on the assignment from the high bidder.
Residential is also going gangbusters in the boros — as those priced out of Brooklyn are now turning to Queens.
A 190-unit apartment building at 88-15 168th St. in Jamaica was sold for $27.8 million to Zara Realty.
Daniel Shragaei of GFI represented the sellers, Executive Arms Realty, while his colleague, Yosef Katz, brought in the buyer of the nine-story building.
Until now, celebrities like Zoe Saldana and Jessica Stam have had to trek to Neiman Marcus or other boutiques to find Rena Lange dresses and footwear.
While the German-based fashion brand now has a showroom in the Meatpacking District, it has now taken its growth one step further and leased its first US store in the midst of the Madison Avenue “brand land.”
The new 2,500 square-foot Rena Lange flagship will be fitted into the historic landmark at 791 Madison Ave. at the southeast corner of 67th Street.
The building, owned by Friedland Properties, had an asking rent of $2 million per year and will soon be getting a face-lift.
They are working closely with Landmarks to create a crisp new granite entrance with large, double-height windows.
This will show off the label’s 1,200 square feet on the ground, 850 square feet on the second floor and 500 square feet for storage. The 67th Street side will recapture lobby space and already has many large windows.
Ross Kaplan and Kate Cohen of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank Retail represented Rena Lange along with colleague Michael Dreizen, who helped the label lease its 430 W. 14th St. showrooms.
