Top 5 Office Transactions in Manhattan

Manhattan’s commercial real estate market has faced challenges over the past year and a half, but the market is beginning to show some signs of recovery, highlighted by a few major office transactions. In the first eight months of 2021, office transactions totaled $2.4 billion and included 2 million square feet of assets across the borough, according to CommercialEdge data. This is a 36 percent decline from the same period last year, when investments totaled $3.7 billion.

Sales prices averaged $1,191 per square foot, a significant jump from the $774 per square foot paid in 2020. The top five deals, highlighted in the table below, amount to nearly $1.9 billion, or close to 80 percent of total investment volume, CommercialEdge shows.

5. 325 Hudson

325 Hudson

Last May, DivcoWest purchased 325 Hudson, a 220,000-square-foot, 10-story building in the heart of Lower Manhattan’s Hudson Square neighborhood. Jamestown Properties sold the asset for $134.1 million. The investor paid Bristol Group $110 million for the asset nine years earlier.

The 1960-built property was converted from industrial to offices in 1998. It currently encompasses an additional 10,000-square-foot data center and more than 8,000 square feet of retail space. Tenants include coworking space operator Industrious and SUNY Empire State College. The property is located near Google’s New York offices and is adjacent to The Walt Disney Co.’s upcoming 1.2 million-square-foot headquarters.

4. 860 Washington

860 Washington. Image courtesy of Property Group Partners

At the beginning of the year, Meadow Partners joined forces with CalPERS to acquire 860 Washington, a 108,733-square-foot office building in Greenwich Village. The property traded for $232 million, or a record-breaking $2,133 per square foot, with JPMorgan Chase providing $116 million in acquisition financing.

Seller Property Group Partners co-developed the property in 2015 with Romanoff Equities, which continues to own the land. Its tenants include SoftBank and Tesla, which occupies part of the asset’s 20,297-square-foot retail portion.

3. 524 Broadway

524 Broadway

After owning it for more than three decades, Tahl Propp Equities sold 524 Broadway in June for $235.8 million. Northwood Investors acquired the 140,988-square-foot Soho building along with the adjacent, 66,000-square-foot 520 Broadway for a combined $325 million, financed with a $227.1 million acquisition loan from Barings.

Built in 1902 and most recently renovated in 2014, 524 Broadway is home to multiple tenants, including Corcoran and WeWork. The 11-story asset has 15,000-square-foot floorplates and 15,000 square feet of retail space at the ground floor.

2. 641 Avenue of the Americas

635-641 Sixth Ave. Image via Google Street View

Also in June, Spear Street Capital added a trophy asset to its portfolio—635-641 Avenue of the Americas, a 267,000-square-foot asset in the borough’s Chelsea neighborhood. The two-building property changed hands in a $325 million deal and was sold by SL Green Realty after 9 years of ownership.

The buildings were completed in 1902 and underwent a $15 million renovation in 2015. At the time of the sale, they were 94 percent leased, with the roster of tenants including enterprise firm Infor, Microsoft, EvensonBest and Teknion Inc.

1. 410 10th Avenue

410 10th Avenue. Image courtesy of SL Green Realty

The largest office sale in Manhattan between January and August was the $925.5 million sale of 410 10th Avenue, a 638,000-square-foot asset in Chelsea. SL Green sold the property in January as part of its share repurchase program. The 601W Cos. acquired it with the help of a $565 million loan funded by Wells Fargo Bank.

The former Master Printers Building was once the tallest concrete structure in New York City. It was completed in 1927 and is currently undergoing a $650 million redevelopment program spearheaded by local architecture firm MdeAS, which will result in façade upgrades, new street-level storefronts, a relocated entry, enlarged windows, a coffee bar and a roof terrace. The fully leased property is anchored by Amazon, which occupies 335,400 square feet within the building.