Empire Capital Buys Two Steeply Discounted Midtown Buildings for $50M

Empire Capital Holdings is folding more distressed properties in the warmth of its embrace as it purchases two Midtown Manhattan buildings for one-third of their previous sales price.

The company, which has been going after deeply discounted buildings for a while, acquired 229 West 36th Street and 256 West 38th Street for just over $50 million, a far cry from the $157 million seller Investcorp purchased them for in 2017, Bloomberg reported.

Doug Middleton and Jack Stillwagon of CBRE (CBRE) handled the deal for the seller, but declined to comment. Investcorp and Empire Capital did not respond to requests for comment.

The 36th Street building spans 151,204 square feet and was built in 1921, while the other on 38th Street was constructed in 1924, according to Bloomberg. Both buildings sit midblock between Seventh and Eighth avenues.

The sale is the latest deep discount Empire Capital has picked up around the city, often partnering with Namdar Realty Group to acquire struggling office properties.

One of the more recent transactions was 321 West 44th Street, which was owned by Related Fund Management, in June 2024, Commercial Observer reported at the time.

Just like with the West 36th and West 38th Street properties, the 10-story, 220,000-square-foot office building was purchased by Empire Capital for about $50 million, a 67 percent discount from its most recent sale price of $153 million in 2018.

Namdar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But not all of Empire Capital and Namdar’s bets have paid off. The pair bought 345 Seventh Avenue, along with two other nearby buildings, for $107 million in 2021. 

They planned to spend millions to renovate vacant floors in 345 Seventh, but the efforts stalled out and occupancy instead dropped after their purchase, as CO previously reported. Empire Capital and Namdar lost that building earlier this year and it was sold to The Katan Group, Kohan Retail Investment Group and investor Ilya Mikhailov for about $85 million in a Uniform Commercial Code foreclosure auction.

Mark Halllum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.