Rudin family sells Whitehall Street office building in bid to settle estate taxes

The lower Manhattan office building at One Whitehall St. is in contract for roughly $182 million.

The 387,390-square-foot glass and steel building was developed by Rudin Management in 1962 between Bridge and Stone streets and renovated in 1989. It is being sold by cousins Bill and Eric Rudin to settle estate taxes for the late Jack Rudin, the family patriarch who died in 2016.

The buyers are brothers Jacob and Joe Chetrit and cousins Michael and John. Closing is expected within 60 days, sources said.

Cushman & Wakefield investment sales heads, Douglas Harmon and Adam Spies, marketed the building with their team of Josh King, Adam Doneger, Marcella Fasullo and Kevin Donner.

The ground-floor retail space is occupied by the US Post Office and Duane Reade. Upstairs office tenants include the Regional Plan Association and trading card behemoth Topps, which occupies over 66,000 square feet on the fourth through sixth floors in a below-market lease that expires in late 2020.

Other tenants also have low rent leases that end over the next six years, providing potential upside to the Chetrits. The creation of outdoor terraces and building-wide amenities could also boost future revenue.

Above the 10th floor, the 21-story building designed by Emory Roth & Sons has views of Battery Park and New York Harbor and sits opposite the low-rise US Custom House.

The Rudins have already installed smart building technology.

The family had also listed 110 Wall St. for sale with Eastdil Secured, but sources said that offering was pulled after the One Whitehall contract was signed. Workspace startup WeWork subleases the entire property at 110 Wall St. for both co-living and co-working under a net lease for the next 22 years.

The LeFraks, another New York family facing hefty estate taxes after the 2013 passing of the late Sam LeFrak’s wife, Ethel, are now marketing the Newport Office Centre 4 in Jersey City through the Cushman & Wakefield investment brokers. Pricing is expected to be over $400 million. Earlier this year, they sold Newport 6 to iStar for $170 million.