Miki Naftali Closes on 800 Fifth Avenue for $810M

Developer Miki Naftali has closed on an $810 million purchase of 800 Fifth Avenue, a 33-story rental on the corner of East 61st Street that will be demolished to make way for a new luxury condominium opposite Central Park.

Naftali secured $675 million in balance sheet financing from J.P. Morgan and Golden Tree for the transaction, Bloomberg first reported. J.P. Morgan was the senior lender, with Golden Tree in the mezzanine spot, sources said. 

The dimensions of the current building and the plans for its condo conversion mean the sales price translates to $3,000 per buildable square foot, according to sources.

Newmark’s Jordan Roeschlaub and Nick Scribani negotiated the debt, while Newmark’s Adam Spies and Doug Harmon arranged the sale of the property. The seller was Eliot Spitzer’s Spitzer Enterprises and Winter Properties. 

In March, Commercial Observer reported that Naftali was under contract to buy the 208-unit building for more than $800 million, two months after the sellers put it on the market at a roughly $1 billion valuation. 

The luxury rental building has sweeping views over Central Park, and Naftali is now planning a luxury condo building in its place, with one source saying when all is said and done the building will be the “sexiest condo project NYC has ever seen.” 

Eliot Spitzer, whose father Bernard Spitzer built the 208-unit, 355,000-square-foot apartment building in the late 1970s, said in a statement, “We are thrilled that over 50 years after building the best rental building in the city that 800 Fifth will be transformed in the next incarnation to the best new condominium in the city.”

Cathy Cunningham contributed reporting to this article.