RXR Secures $1.45B Recapitalization for 1211 Avenue of Americas

One of Midtown Manhattan’s prime office buildings has secured a $1.45 billion recapitalization, with hundreds of millions of dollars expected to go toward tenant capital improvements and renovations across the property. 

Commercial Observer can first report that Scott Rechler’s RXR has secured the new financing for 1211 Avenue of the Americas, a 45-story, 2 million-square-foot tower near Rockefeller Center that serves as home to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and Fox News. 

RXR purchased a 49 percent stake in the office building in January 2025 from Ivanhoé Cambridge, which has continued to hold an investment position in the asset. 

Sources close to the transaction told CO that the $1.45 billion recapitalization will include a three-year extension on $1.035 billion in debt originated by Apollo Global Management with its maturity date moving from August 2025 to June 2028. CO first reported news of this extension in May, noting that the CMBS loan was sent to Berkadia’s special servicing department.  

Sources also told CO that between $250 million and $400 million in new equity will be supplied by Baupost Group, King Street Capital Management, Criterion Real Estate Capital, Abrams Capital and Liberty Mutual. 

The deal was negotiated by Newmark‘s Adam Spies, Doug Harmon, Marcella Fasulo and Adam Doneger.

The recapitalization is expected to use an expected $367 million in equity to pay $130 million in tenant improvements for Fox News, leasing commissions and new bathrooms; $110 million to re-tenant and improve space left by law firm Ropes & Gray; $61 million in capital expenditures; and $54 million in other tenant improvements, according to an offering memorandum. 

“The building is fully capitalized for re-lease and redevelopment costs,” said an RXR spokesperson.

1211 Avenue of the Americas opened in 1973, and was renovated in 2006. The building stretches the full length of the avenue between West 47th and West 48th streets. It is the southernmost in a row of three similar-looking office towers sometimes called the “XYZ buildings” that were built in the 1960s and 1970s as part of an expansion of nearby Rockefeller Center.

The property boasts an 88 percent occupancy rate and drew headlines after securing a noteworthy leasing extension in January 2023 from Fox News and News Corp., which agreed in January 2023 to lease 670,000 square feet and 486,000 square feet respectively, locking in over 1.1 million square feet, or 55 percent of the building’s space, until 2042.  Fox News is expected to move into the building’s base floors in the coming months. 

Ropes & Gray signed a 20-year lease to move a few blocks north last year to 1285 Avenue of the Americas, leaving many of the top floors open to renovations and new tenants. The building’s floor plates range from 40,000 to 60,000 square feet. 

The $1.45 billion recapitalization comes on the heels of RXR forming a new office investment platform as majority owner with Baupost Group and King Street Capital Management, one that aims to purchase stakes in distressed trophy office buildings at attractive discounts. 

Bloomberg reported last month that the new investment vehicle, called Gemini Office Venture, also features Criterion Real Estate Capital, Liberty Mutual Investments and Abrams Capital as investors, and has closed $3.5 billion worth of deals. Aside from 1211 Avenue of the Americas, properties the group has bought 49 percent to 51 percent stakes in include 590 Madison Avenue and the Starrett-Lehigh Building at 601 West 26th Street. 

Brian Pascus can be reached at bpascus@commercialobserver.com.