SL Green Sells Over $600M in Properties to Fund 11 Madison Avenue Buy
By Terence Cullen July 13, 2015 3:05 pm
reprints
SL Green Realty Corp. has sold off an entire property and the majority share of another for a total of $642.8 million, the city’s largest landlord announced today, to fund its purchase of 11 Madison Avenue.
The sales blitz includes Tower 45 at 120 West 45th Street between Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue for $365 million, SL Green (SLG) announced today. That comes out to $830 per square foot for the 444,000-square-foot building.
Richard Baxter of JLL and Darcy Stacom of CBRE represented SL Green in the deal. The buyer was not immediately identified. Whoever bought the 40-story building will inherit one high-profile tenant. Former Secretary of State and current presidential candidate Hillary Clinton leases 4,000 square feet at the Times Square office tower.
SL Green also sold off 80 percent of 131-137 Spring Street to Invesco Real Estate for $277.8 million. The landlord, who’s retaining a 20 percent stake in the Soho building, will still be responsible for management and leasing in the 73,000-square-foot mixed-use property. Burberry and Diesel have flagship stores in the retail portion of the building between Wooster and Greene Streets.
“As illustrated by these transactions, the demand for high-quality commercial assets in the Manhattan market continues to be very strong, even as interest rates have risen in recent months,” said Andrew Mathias, the president of SL Green, in prepared remarks.
Mr. Mathias and other SL Green executives confirmed in a press release that the asset dump was to fund 11 Madison Avenue. SL Green announced in May it would pay $2.29 billion for the office building from a joint venture between the Sapir Organization and CIM Group, Bloomberg Business reported. The U.S. operations for Credit Suisse Group AG is the biggest tenant in the 2.3-million-square-foot building between East 24th and East 25th Streets, with a foothold of roughly 1.7 million square feet, according to CoStar.
“These transactions fit perfectly with the acquisition of 11 Madison, which is well leased for the long term and located in one of New York City’s strongest commercial office submarkets,” said Isaac Zion, the co-chief investment officer of SL Green, in the release. “As we indicated at our December investor conference, we expected to sell certain assets and create joint ventures for others during 2015 and deploy the proceeds into more accretive opportunities. Clearly, the pieces are coming together nicely.”
