kmiragaya – stock.adobe.com
New York City is for sale — and it’s going for bargain basement prices. Now, the selling spree is spurring a buyer feeding frenzy that even the city’s most iconic buildings won’t escape.
Most notably, the landmarked Chrysler Building could soon sell for peanuts with its operators facing eviction.
In 2019, Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding shelled out a mere $75.5 million for the Art Deco skyscraper.
Rosen hoped to return the building to its glory days, perhaps even converting some of the structure into a hotel, and invested $150 million.
But the bargain sale didn’t include the building’s ground, which is owned by Cooper Union. In 2017, the ground rent was just $7.8 million, but has grown to $32.5 million (it will leap to $41 million in 2028).
That’s more than current office tenants pay in rent and RFR owes the school over $21 million. Now, Cooper Union is trying to terminate RFR’s lease and appointed Cushman & Wakefield to manage the tower that is just 60% occupied.
Savills is evaluating future options that will likely include a new lease with a new operator. Meanwhile, the parties are now battling over the iconic skyscraper in court and declined comment.
Industry experts say without a deep cut in rent, no one can afford to make the improvements needed to woo new office tenants at higher rents. But Cooper Union is under a consent decree for prior fiscal mismanagement that ends this year but requires it to chop expenses and reinstate free tuition and needs well over $50 million each year to do so.
RFR isn’t the only owner in trouble.
Investor Charles Cohen also stopped paying rent on the ground lease, as well as property taxes, on the curvaceous Tower 57 at 135 E. 57th St. and Lexington Avenue. He was intent on converting the office building into a residential condominium, which is not permitted under his ground lease. Now, a state judge has given Cohen the boot and the property is being marketed with all offers considered by Andrew Scandalios of JLL. Meanwhile, Cohen’s lender, Fortress, is pursuing the UCC sale of a group of his properties and a personal $187 million guarantee for a $534 million mortgage he stopped paying this year.
Across the city, brokers say that rent regulated residential buildings and older office inventory that were once worth, say, $100 million, could now be worth as little as $30 million to $50 million. And lenders are becoming aggressive in getting bad debts off their books.
“There is a lot clearing out for lenders and they want to move on from these properties,” said Scandalios, who is handling the sale of 135 E. 57th St. on behalf of the ground owners.
“The market transitioned from hibernation to full throttle action. People will transact for FOMO — fear of missing out. We are at the bottom and this is the best time to buy in 15 years.”
Adelaide Polsinelli of Compass
“Owners of such properties cannot refinance because they would have to come up with the difference in cash to pay off the mortgage,” said Bob Knakal of BKREA. Instead, they’re handing over the keys — or battling in court.
The declines in values have astonished the industry. The 930,000-square-foot ground lease at the former Sports Illustrated building at 135 W. 50th St. just sold for $8.5 million — its last tab was $332 million. The new Texas-based owners will now undertake renovations to the tune of some $100 million, sources said.
In another example, Brookfield’s office building at 1 Liberty St., once valued at $1.5 billion, was recently revalued to $1 billion when it obtained a $750 million mortgage to upgrade its amenities.
For buyers looking for a permanent home for their businesses, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. “We are seeing a lot of buy-side energy and people want to deploy capital,” said Scandalios.
“User-buyers range from fashion and public service organizations to auction houses and financial firms that want to control their own destiny,” added Doug Middleton of CBRE. “It’s a bit of a herd mentality and they want to make sure they control the physical location in a prime space and will not get outbid in the future.”
One of those recent buyer-user transactions overseen by Middleton was the purchase of the vacant, 69,000-square-foot, cast-iron building at 636 Sixth Ave. along Ladies’ Mile. The Hotel Trades and Hotel Association paid Nuveen and Union Investment $37.5 million for the retail area and paid Clarion $32 million for the seven vacant office floors.
To control its views and “campus” JPMorgan Chase is buying 250 Park Ave., an older office building that sits next to its new tower at 270 Park. “It was the right building for them to control,” said Darcy Stacom of Stacom CRE, who advised both the bank and its development partner Hines.
However, the buying frenzy is starting to buoy prices for some owners. Over a year ago, Stacom said buyers in general were offering $150 to $170 per foot but “nobody was selling at that pricing.”
Now, she said, buyers are willing to pay $300 per foot. “That’s why you are getting so many offers,” said Stacom, noting that buildings are getting 15 to 25 bids. Still, those prices are often a third of the original owner’s investment.
“It’s expensive to take down buildings. It can add up to a lot. That is why they are trying to convert the existing structures.”
Darcy Stacom of Stacom CRE
Well-positioned sellers at the top end of the market know their values will rise and are waiting for pricing to improve, added Scandalios.
Meanwhile, some buyers are targeting obsolescent office buildings for residential and hotel conversions.
“It’s expensive to take down buildings,” Stacom said, estimating costs of $35 to $75 a foot. “It can add up to a lot. That is why they are trying to convert the existing structures.”
By making a pact with the holders of a $500 million mortgage, the 1.2 million-square-foot office building at 111 Wall St. will be turned into 1,500 apartments by conversion guru Nathan Berman and InterVest Capital Partners.
Nearby, Vanbarton, which has converted other Fidi buildings, is in contract to buy 77 Water St. for $95 million, or $175 per foot. It’s being marketed by Eastdil Secured on behalf of the Kaufman family company, Sage, which developed it in the 1970s.
Vanbarton is also planning the residential conversion of 1011 First Ave. The Archdiocese of New York is selling the office building for $100 million, in a deal brokered by Middleton, ahead of its move to 488 Madison Ave.
Also uptown, on behalf of Morgan Stanley, a Newmark team is marketing an 11-story boutique office building at 500 Park Ave. at 58th Street — originally Pepsi’s 1960s headquarters.
The office floors continue under the base of the adjacent, 40-story residential condominium tower. Since the offices are 95% leased, a new owner could spruce it up and add amenities for higher rents.
Adelaide Polsinelli of Compass calls all of this action “The Big Thaw.”
“The market transitioned from hibernation to full throttle action,” she said. “People will transact for FOMO — fear of missing out. We are at the bottom, and this is the best time to buy in 15 years.”