The Art Deco office building at 292 Madison Ave. is in contract to be purchased by the Vanbarton Group for $180 million.
The 203,000-square-foot building on the southwest corner of East 41st Street sits across from 300 Madison and is one block south from SL Green’s upcoming 1 Vanderbilt skyscraper in the Grand Central submarket. It has 26 floors occupied by single tenants with asking rents in the $70s per square foot.
The sparring Marciano brothers, known for launching jeans maker Guess, own the building under a long-term lease set in place in 2007 with Gramercy Capital, which the brothers bought in 2012 for $85 million. The land was purchased from SL Green in 2011 for $78.04 million.
The building is managed by Herald Square Properties, which is led by former SL Green executives. A $6 million renovation program designed by the Mufson Partnership resulted in financial and tech tenancies along with a 7,000-square-foot retail lease with CVS.
Sources say Gary Tischler and Richard Coles of Vanbarton signed a contract in August without brokers and will close later this fall.
Vanbarton is known for adding value to its inventive purchases. This acquisition still has available floors, providing more upside to Vanbarton, which expects the transportation-rich neighborhood to become more desirable to a variety of tenancies.
The Vanbarton Group and Marciano brothers did not return requests for comment.
