Times Square’s Brill Building in Contract for Nearly $300M
By Liam La Guerre August 6, 2015 6:00 pm
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The sale of the historically musical Brill Building sounds like a done deal, Commercial Observer has learned.
Brill Holdings, a partnership of real estate investment firm B+B Capital, Israel-based fashion chain Fox-Wizel and landlords Conway Capital and Schottenstein Realty, is in contract to buy the landmarked 11-story office and retail tower in Times Square for $295 million. The seller is a partnership between Allied Partners and Brickman.
The deal for the 175,000-square-foot building at 1619 Broadway between West 49th and West 50th Streets is expected to close in December. Ilan Bracha, the co-founder of Keller Williams NYC and founder of B+B Capital, brokered the deal on behalf of Brill Holdings. Richard Baxter and Ron Cohen of JLL represented the seller.
“The Times Square area continues to be a staple in New York City culture and we are proud to be part of the neighborhood’s dynamic experience,” Mr. Bracha said in prepared remarks. “We are fortunate to feel the pulse of the city and embrace the history this building embodies. The Times Square bowtie is expanding and we want to be a part of its extension. We are proud to own such a piece of history as The Brill Building, as well as its location in what I call one of the best corners of the world.”
The Brill Building was named for the Brill brothers Samuel, Max and Maurice, who owned men’s apparel stores in Manhattan.
It is famous for being the home of the numerous music offices and studios from the 1930s until the late 1970s. Songwriters such as Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who wrote numerous hit songs for Elvis Presley, worked in the building. Jazz icon Duke Ellington and vocalist Nat King Cole had office spaces in the building at different times.
There are two existing tenants in the building and the rest of it is vacant.
Allied Partners and Brickman purchased the building two years ago for $185.5 million, according to city records.
