Mack Real Estate Sells Brill Building’s Commercial Condo Units for $29M

Mack Real Estate Group has offloaded six commercial condominium units at Midtown’s landmarked Brill Building for $28.8 million, according to city records made public Tuesday.

Mack, through the entity 1619 Broadway Realty, sold the lobby unit and units seven through 11 at 1619 Broadway to Broadway producer John Gore, who used the entity John Gore Brill Holdings, records show.

Gore owns live theater production company the John Gore Organization, which has produced shows including “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” and “Sunset Boulevard.”

Current tenants of the Brill Building include CVS and TD Bank. Coworking firm WeWork was formerly a tenant but terminated its lease on the building’s 11th floor in November 2023 after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Jimmy Buffett’s hospitality brand Margaritaville was also set to become a tenant at the building in 2016, but the deal fell through when CVS signed a lease for the entire second floor in 2017, the New York Post reported.

Priyanka Garg, managing director at Mack, signed for the seller in the new deal, while Gore signed for the buyer, according to records.

It’s unclear who brokered the deal or what Gore’s plans are for the condo units, but PincusCo reported the expected use is “owner-occupied.” Meanwhile, Mack is expected to hold onto the remaining portions of the building, Crain’s New York Business reported.

Mack declined to comment, while Gore could not be reached for comment.

Former owner Brookfield Asset Management transferred ownership of the entire 11-story, 158,150-square-foot building on the corner of Broadway and West 49th Street to former lender Mack in a transaction valued at $216.1 million in July 2023, property records show.

In that deal, Mack bought the LLC that owns the property, not the property itself, The Real Deal reported at the time.

The 1931-built Brill Building is long storied for its place in the world of jazz and pop music, having once been the workplaces of songwriters and musicians such as Carole King, Jerry Lieber, Mike Stoller, Burt Bacharach, Liza Minnelli and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The building was so popular in music by the end of the 1950s that a subgenre of pop music called “the Brill Building sound” was coined.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.