NEW YORK CITY-A prominent New York retail family is making its way into Manhattan’s mixed-use realm, acquiring a stake in Olympic Tower, a four-building complex along Fifth Avenue. Crown Acquisitions, a national owner/developer of high-profile retail assets such as Herald Center and 666 Fifth Ave., has entered a joint venture partnership with Olympic Tower Associates in the multi-building asset, assuming a 49.9% equity interest in the property.

The complex – located at East 51^st Street across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral – is comprised of the 51-story Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Ave., the Versace Building at 647 Fifth Ave., the Cartier Building at 653 Fifth Ave., and 10 East 52nd St. Built in 1974, Olympic Tower was commissioned by Aristole Onassis and his company, Victory Real Estate Development, and became the first New York skyscraper to include a combination of retail ships, commercial office space and owner-occupied apartments in the same building, according to Colliers International, the brokerage firm who facilitated the joint venture partnership between Crown and Olympic. The company also handles leasing efforts at the property.

Harry Seherr-Thoss, executive managing director at Colliers, tells GlobeSt.com that Olympic Tower Associates wanted to “broaden their base” and bring in a new investor. “We went out into the marketplace and interviewed banks and investment banks, REITs, pension funds, private equity and entrepreneurial investors,” he says, noting that the total search took nine months. “From each class of investor, Olympic Tower Associates chose one or two of the group that they wanted to interview personally. Eventually it turned out that the entrepreneurial investor, the Chera family through Crown Acquisitions, really stood out as the most value-added potential partners because of their extremely strong record in retail. They are familiar with the market extremely well, and there was a certain symbiotic fit with them and Olympic Tower Associates. They were all on the same page.”