Property Types Office
Shorenstein Closes Purchase of 2 Macklowe Buildings in NYC
July 1, 2008
By: Denise L. Meyer, Contributing Correspondent

Shorenstein Properties has completed the purchase of a 94 percent controlling interest in the entity that owns Park Avenue Tower and 850 Third Avenue in New York City.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Park Avenue Tower (pictured), located at 65 East 55th Street between Park and Madison Avenues, is a 615,800-square-foot office building that is currently 97 percent leased. 850 Third Avenue, located between 51st and 52nd Streets, is a 613,600-square-foot office building that is currently 92 percent leased. The building was designed by Emery Roth & Sons and built in 1961.

Shorenstein made the purchase on behalf of its ninth investment fund, Shorenstein Realty Investors Nine L.P., a $2 billion private commingled fund formed in the spring of 2007. Shorenstein’s New York City portfolio is comprised of over 4.1 million square feet of equity ownership interests that also include 125 Park Avenue and The Starrett Lehigh Building and more than $500 million of subordinated debt interests in 660 Madison Avenue, 650 Madison Avenue, 1180 Avenue of the Americas, 450 Lexington Avenue and 14 Wall Street.

The Park Ave Tower and 850 Third Ave. negotiations were reported by CPN last month as part of a spate of deals on NYC’s iconic buildings. The properties were sold as part of the sell-off of Macklowe’s holdings seized by Deutsche Bank AG after default on debt payments for seven assets that Macklowe acquired at the peak of the commercial property boom in February 2007.

CPN reported last week on another NYC deal by Shorenstein. The company purchased a $250 million mezzanine loan backed by 450 Lexington Avenue, an office building on the same block as Grand Central Terminal.

 
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