Macklowe Hires CBRE to Market GM Building

NEW YORK CITY-Locally based Macklowe Properties has hired CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. to sell the General Motors building at 767 Fifth Ave., an unnamed source familiar with the deal confirms to GlobeSt.com. Representatives from CB Richard Ellis could not comment by press deadline. William Macklowe tells GlobeSt.com that he has no comment at this time.

A Manhattan-based real estate investment banker tells GlobeSt.com that “this is an extremely unique asset that will trigger huge demand from a host of domestic and global investors. A team of investors might be better suited to buy the property given that the sale price will likely be huge. I estimate that the GM Building could fetch roughly $3.3 to $3.8 billion today. Still, it’s tough to estimate what the market will pay for this asset. The debt markets have radically changed since Macklowe bought the property. If we knew the debt structure in place on the property, we could ball-park the expected sale price much better.”

Another anonymous industry source tells GlobeSt.com that this is an extremely rare deal to come up in the market twice three years; although they added that it is “not that surprising.” Macklowe Properties purchased the building for a record-breaking $1.4 billion from Conseco Inc. in 2003, as GlobeSt.com reported.