Group of NYC Investors Buys Downtown Brooklyn Macy’s for $23M

A group of New York City investors purchased the Macy’s store in Downtown Brooklyn at a pretty steep discount.

United American Land, Crown Acquisitions and the Jackson Group teamed up last week to buy the roughly 440,000-square-foot department store at 422 Fulton Street from Macy’s for $23 million, according to the New York Post, which first reported the sales price.

The price tag is part of the total $293 million purchase of the Fulton Street property, sources familiar with the deal told Commercial Observer.

In 2015, Tishman Speyer paid $270 million for the top four floors of the building, which it converted and split up into 10 floors of new office space, the Post reported. Tishman secured a $301 million refinancing loan from Starwood Property Trust in August for the project, according to The Real Deal.

This final $23 million sale of the store completes the total purchase, sources said.

But at around $52 per square foot, the new sale price is also a steep drop from Brooklyn’s average sale price of $617 per square foot in the mixed-use and retail sector during the first half of 2024, according to a report from Matthews Real Estate Investment Services.

Raider Hill Advisors marketed the sale, the Post reported. Spokespeople for Raider Hill, Macy’s, United American Land, Crown Acquisitions and Jackson Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Under its three new owners, the department store between Hoyt Street and Gallatin Place could be converted into entertainment attractions with potential tenants like Netflix, Universal and Lego, the Post cited one investor as saying.

“The Macy’s building is one of the most historic retail buildings in all of Brooklyn, and we intend to reinvigorate it and activate the retail to its highest and best use,” Jackson Group CEO Isaac Chehebar told the Post.

The new sale comes after some bad news for Macy’s, which saw a 3.5 percent decrease in year-over-year visits during the third quarter of 2024, according to data from location analytics company Placer.ai.

And in February, Macy’s CEO Tony Spring announced the department store would shrink its retail footprint by 25 percent and close about 150 of its 502 stores over the next three years to regain its market share, as CO previously reported.

All of this has led activist investors Barington Capital and Thor Equities to push Macy’s to sell off its real estate portfolio, among other proposals, to bring in some cash for the struggling department store.

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