Silverstein Selling Final Part of Disney Campus for Roughly $930M: Sources
By Celia Young February 23, 2022 3:33 pm
reprints
Silverstein Properties and Seven Valleys are selling the final portion of the former Walt Disney Company-owned ABC campus on the Upper West Side to Gary Barnett of Extell Development Company for around $925 million to $930 million, sources familiar with the deal told Commercial Observer.
Barnett put a $50 million deposit down on the office assets — which sit on Columbus Avenue between West 66th and West 67th streets and is occupied by Disney’s as well as ABC’s studios — and the deal is expected to close in March, according to sources. The sale, combined with an earlier transaction for part of the campus, means Silverstein would roughly break even on its $1.2 billion purchase of the properties in 2018.
An Eastdil Secured team of Gary Phillips and Will Silverman brokered the sale, according to sources. Eastdil also represented Silverstein when it sold off part of its campus to Taconic Investment Partners and Nuveen Real Estate in 2019 and Disney in the original sale of its property to Silverstein in 2018. The real estate brokerage declined to comment on the sale. Details on how Barnett will finance this purchase couldn’t be gleaned.
“We do not comment on stuff like that and you should check your facts,” a spokesperson for Extell said in a statement.
Silverstein first bought the 1.7 million-square-foot campus in 2018 from Disney for just under $1.2 billion. It financed that purchase with a $900 million loan from Deutsche Bank and roughly $300 million of its own equity, CO reported. Disney leased the buildings from Silverstein to build its new 22-story headquarters at Four Hudson Square — where workers have begun to install the facade.
Seven Valleys — the U.S. family office of Chinese Investor Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi, who cofounded developer-giant SOHO China — owns the buildings with Silverstein, according to a source familiar with the deal, though it’s unclear how large the firm’s stake in the properties is.
Nearly a year after purchasing the campus, Silverstein sold a part of it — three buildings totalling more than 500,000 square feet at 125 West End Avenue, 320 West 66th Street and Lot 61 — to Taconic for approximately $220 million in 2019, CO reported.
Silverstein and Seven Valleys did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the deal.
Update: This story has been updated to include another seller, Seven Valleys.
Cathy Cunningham contributed to this report. She can be reached at ccunningham@commercialobserver.com.
Celia Young can be reached at cyoung@commercialobserver.com.
