Landmark American Bank Note Building Hits Market for $88M
By Lauren Elkies Schram March 18, 2016 12:45 pm
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More than five years after picking up the American Bank Note Building in the Financial District for $18 million, a Chinese-based investment and development firm is looking to sell the mixed-use asset for $88 million, Commercial Observer has learned.
Douglas Elliman’s Neal Sroka, Anita Grossberg and Jennifer Hui Lo are listing the five-story, 19,000-square-foot granite landmark building (including a lower level) at 70 Broad Street between Beaver and Marketfield Streets that was built in 1908 by architecture firm Kirby, Petit & Green as the headquarters of the American Bank Note Company, an engraving company which produced bank notes, currency and stock certificates.
The seller, listed in CoStar Group as Gui Xin Hong, bought the 1908 building from Global Country of World Peace, a Transcendental Meditation nonprofit organization, on Dec. 20, 2010 for $18 million. The purpose was “to house their U.S. headquarters,” an Elliman spokesman said, noting that Mr. Sroka and Ms. Grossberg represented the buyer in that deal. The $18 million price tag was a serious reduction from the property’s final asking price of $25.5 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. The asking price started at $45 million in September 2009.
Dubbed the Peace Palace, 70 Broad Street received landmark designation in 1997. The building is comprised of commercial space, but for 4,260 square feet of residences on floors three to five, according to Douglas Elliman marketing materials. The building, which sits on a 3,060-square-foot lot, has a second-floor conference room.
“The building is configured best for a single user,” the Elliman spokesman said, “a great corporate headquarters with real street presence and an amazing location, and [it] even has luxe apartments on the top floors.”
