Tishman Speyer Under Contract to Buy SoHo Office Building for $108M

Last night, the Met Gala made sure all the action was happening on the Upper East Side.  Thanks to Tishman Speyer, SoHo is also getting some love today. 

Rob Speyer‘s Tishman Speyer is now officially under contract to buy an office building in the neighborhood, Commercial Observer has learned. 

The firm will pay roughly $108 million for 148 Lafayette Street, a 13-story, 150,000-square-foot building between Grand and Howard streets, with the deal expected to close in the next two weeks. 

Tishman was first said to be in talks to buy 148 Lafayette — its first Manhattan office acquisition since 2019 — last month, but now a contract has been signed, with the eventual sales price roughly 10 percent lower than previously anticipated, sources said.

The sale was arranged by Newmark’s Adam Spies, Adam Doneger, Josh King, Doug Harmon, Marcella Fasulo and Avery Silverstein. Newmark’s Jordan Roeschlaub and Chris Kramer are currently in the market with the financing mandate, with the loan expected to be around 50 to 60 percent loan-to-cost. 

Seller Steven Elghanayan’s Epic purchased the building for $126.5 million in 2012 from Property Group Partners. 

Certainly no stranger to the Manhattan office market, Tishman Speyer counts within its portfolio the 2.8 million-square-foot Spiral at 66 Hudson Boulevard in Hudson Yards and Rockefeller Center. It also closed two of the most buzzed-about financings for those assets in the past year: a $3.5 billion refinance for Rockefeller Center in October and a $2.85 billion refinance for The Spiral in November. 

Its latest portfolio addition, 148 Lafayette, includes tenants such as venture capital firm General Catalyst — backer of Airbnb, Snap and Stripe — which leases 42,535 square feet at the building, and also WeWork. 

Tishman Speyer and Newmark declined to comment. Epic didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Cathy Cunningham can be reached at ccunningham@commercialobserver.com