Blackstone, RXR Selling 1330 Avenue of the Americas
By Celia Young June 3, 2022 11:34 am
reprints
A joint venture between Blackstone Group and RXR Realty put the 40-story 1330 Avenue of the Americas up for sale, looking to get more than $350 million for it, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.
A group of investors led by RXR first purchased the tower — previously known as the Financial Times Building — for roughly $400 million in 2010 from Canadian lender Otera Capital, after Otera took over the property when Harry Macklowe was forced to auction it off in 2009 following the financial crisis. Macklowe bought it at a much higher price, for $498 million in 2006.
Blackstone purchased a stake in the building, located between West 53rd and 54th streets, in 2015 as part of a deal to buy a roughly 50 percent stake in a portfolio of six New York City office properties from Scott Rechler’s RXR.
The property had the United Kingdom-based Financial Times’ initials plastered on the top floor until 2020, when the publicly traded firm Silvercrest Asset Management replaced the logo with its own. The Emery Roth & Sons-designed property is also home to furniture company Knoll and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The building is being offered free of any debt, according to the source. RXR paid off a previous $200 million loan from New York Community Bank on the property in 2018 with $285 million from DekaBank, which included a new five-year, $97 million mortgage, Commercial Observer reported at the time.
It’s unclear how much debt is left on the DekaBank loan, but the amount will likely be paid when the tower is sold, according to the source.
Eastdil Secured’s Will Silverman, Gary Phillips and Steven Binswanger are marketing the property for the seller. Eastdil declined to comment on the deal. Blackstone declined to comment and RXR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Celia Young can be reached at cyoung@commercialobserver.com.
