NEW YORK CITY-As Midtown South continues to evolve into the “Silicon Alley” of the East Coast, a prime Flatiron District building will be repositioned to suit the needs of the growing technology sector in the neighborhood. An investor group organized by Earle S. Altman of ABS Partners Real Estate, LLC and real estate investor Richard Hadar have acquired 915 Broadway, a 20-story, 250,000-square-foot office and retail property at East 21st and Broadway for $140 million in an off-market transaction, GlobeSt.com has confirmed.

“We liked the fundamentals, we liked the location, we liked the access to transportation, we liked the play on technology going forward,” Gregg Schenker, principal of ABS Partners, tells GlobeSt.com, noting that the building is currently home to companies like Union Square Ventures, Jump Associates and General Assembly, and the management hopes to attract new innovative businesses to the property as well. “We have a couple of wonderful core technology tenants and we would like to build on that going forward,” he adds.

The all-in acquisition, including the prepayment of the existing mortgage, was financed by JP Morgan Chase, which was arranged through Simon Ziff, Russell Schildkraut, and Jonathan More of the Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group. In addition to Altman and Schenker, ABS’ Steven Hornstock and James Caseley are equity participants in the acquisition, along with industry veterans John Zirinsky and Jeffrey Feil. Previously in 1981, Altman and a group of investors acquired the building for $6 million, and the new managers plan to capitalize on the building's location and strength in the market. According to brokerage sources, Midtown South has the lowest office vacancy rate in Manhattan, and possibly the nation, at 5%.