David Werner to Buy 300 East 42nd Street From Fortress for $52M
By Isabelle Durso February 6, 2025 5:31 pm
reprints
David Werner Real Estate Investments went into contract to purchase a Midtown East office building from Fortress Investment Group at a steep discount.
Werner is set to buy the 18-story building at 300 East 42nd Street for $52 million — a sharp drop from the $122.5 million previous owners paid for the property in 2019, according to The Real Deal, which first reported the news.
JLL (JLL)’s Jennifer Zelko, David Giancola, Drew Isaacson and Andrew Scandalios brokered the deal for the seller. It’s unclear who represented the buyer.
Spokespeople for Fortress and JLL did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while a spokesperson for Werner could not be reached for comment.
Somerset Partners and Meadow Partners bought the building from ULM Holding in 2019 for $122.5 million and pumped in millions to upgrade its lobby and elevators, according to the New York Post and TRD. They refinanced the building in 2021 with a $110 million senior loan and $27 million mezzanine debt from Fortress. However, Somerset and Meadow handed back the keys to Fortress in 2023.
Current tenants of the building include the Consulate General of Jamaica, which signed on for 42,500 square feet in January 2023, and architecture firm CannonDesign, which took 17,000 square feet in June 2022.
It’s unclear what Werner’s exact plans are for the building, which spans the full length of Second Avenue from East 41st to East 42nd streets, but the investor has been on a residential conversion streak lately.
Just down the block sits Werner and Metro Loft Management’s office-to-residential conversion of the former Pfizer headquarters at 235 East 42nd Street, where the developers plan to create as many as 1,600 rental units, as Commercial Observer previously reported.
In addition, Werner paid more than $100 million to The Durst Organization in January for its 32-story office tower at 675 Third Avenue for a planned conversion, CO reported at the time.
Werner is also moving forward with several other conversion projects in New York City, such as 100 Wall Street and 40 Fulton Street in Downtown, TRD reported.
Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.
