Ceruzzi, SMI USA Revealed as Buyers of $453M Lipstick Building Ground Lease
By Lauren Elkies Schram October 20, 2015 9:17 pm
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Ceruzzi Properties and Shanghai Municipal Investment USA are the buyers of the $453 million ground lease at the Lipstick Building at 885 Third Avenue, Commercial Observer has learned.
According to a source with knowledge of the deal, the contract was signed last week and the lease is for 67 years.
Ceruzzi’s Lou Ceruzzi confirmed the contract signing and noted that they hope to close the deal in mid-December. He declined to comment further.
Holliday Fenoglio Fowler‘s Christopher Peck and David Nackoul brokered the deal. They didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
SL Green Realty Corp. today announced today that it had signed a deal to sell the leasehold interest in the building, but declined to cite the identity of the buyer.
The Lipstick Building has been owned by a group of investors, primarily comprised of IRSA, Argentina’s largest real estate firm, and the Marciano Investment Group since 2010. SL Green (SLG) Realty and Gramercy Capital paid $317 million for 79 percent of the 592,000-square-foot building’s fee-simple interest and a 21 percent leasehold interest.
Ceruzzi and SMI USA’s Lipstick Building contract signing comes two months after the buyers closed on the purchase of the demolished site at 520 Fifth Avenue—plus 60,000 square feet of air rights—for $325 million.
International law firm Latham & Watkins is the largest tenant in the building with 400,000 square feet. Other tenants include Meadows Office Furniture, German-based media firm GWFF and global private markets firm StepStone Group.
