Nuveen, Union, Clarion Sell Office and Retail Condos at 636 Avenue of the Americas for $70M
By Isabelle Durso September 19, 2024 4:05 pm
reprints
636 Avenue of the Americas is now completely off the market after Nuveen Real Estate and Union Investment sold their retail portion at the base of the building and Clarion Partners sold its office space on the floors above to the Employee Benefit Funds group of Hotel and Gaming Trades Council and the Hotel Association of New York City.
The sale totaled approximately $70 million, after the 18,000-square-foot retail and 70,000-square-foot office condominiums both sold in the mid-$30 million range, a source familiar with the deal told Commercial Observer.
The buyer was the group created by the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, which is a union representing hotel and gaming workers in New York and New Jersey, and the trade group Hotel Association of New York City, which needed both retail and office space for its medical facilities, the source said.
CBRE (CBRE)’s Daniel Kaplan, Doug Middleton, Jack Stillwagon and Justin Arzi brokered the transactions. Spokespeople for Nuveen, Union, Clarion and NY Trades Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The CBRE brokers declined to comment.
The deal closed Sept. 13, the source said. The office portion of 636 Avenue of the Americas had previously sat entirely vacant, while CVS had leased the building’s retail space before closing in 2022.
“The investment environment in the U.S. is currently very challenging when it comes to implementing complex transactions like this one,” Adam Irányi, head of investment management global at Union Investment, said in a statement. “It can be counted as a major success that our U.S.-based team achieved this exit together with our joint venture partner Nuveen, delivering positive benefits for our global fund.”
Union and Nuveen acquired the retail property at 636 Avenue of the Americas in a joint venture deal in 2016 that included three other retail properties, Union said. That was after financial services company Nuveen, then known as TIAA-CREF, bought the retail site in 2014 for $42 million, according to The Real Deal, which first reported the sale.
The NY Trades Council will now take over the whole building after recently developing a property in Brooklyn at 265 Ashland Place, near Fort Greene Park, where it operates its health center and pharmacy in the borough.
The group also has health centers at 133 Morningside Avenue in Harlem, 773-775 Ninth Avenue in Midtown and 37-11 Queens Boulevard in Queens, according to its website.
The sale comes as the latest example of tenants buying their buildings outright. In December, high-end Italian fashion brand Prada bought its building at 724 Fifth Avenue — its second on the Fifth Avenue shopping corridor — for $425 million.
Since then, many companies have followed suit, including luxury brand Kering, which bought 715-717 Fifth Avenue for $963 million, and even delivery service FedEx, which paid $248 million for Sunset Industrial Park in January, as CO previously reported.
Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.
