NEW YORK CITY-If money talks, an investment sale that's gone into contract with a whopping price tag is speaking volumes about the city's economic recovery and the nature of buyers in the current market.
Oxford Properties Group, a Canadian investment firm, has agreed to buy 450 Park Ave.—on the corner of 57th street—for $575 million, according to the New York Times. The sale is a comeback story for the 33-story tower, which last sold for $509 million in 2007, just one year before the market collapsed. At over $1,700 per square foot, the new price will be one of the highest prices ever paid for a Manhattan office building.
Oxford, the real estate arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, will buy the building from Somerset Partners and the Michael Tabor family trust. Eastdil Secured's Douglas Harmon reportedly brokered the deal. Oxford declined to comment and the sellers couldn't be reached by press time. A call to Harmon seeking comment was not returned.
Oxford and the sellers appear to have made a win-win deal, Dan Fasulo, managing director at Real Capital Analytics tells GlobeSt.com. "There are only a handful of corners in the Plaza district of Manhattan; 450 Park is on one of them. Somerset was able to get good return on investment even after buying at peak in 2007 and the new buyer stands to benefit when the surrounding area sees upcoming improvement."
Next door to 450—where the tenant roster includes hedge funds, private equity companies and law firms—developer Harry Macklowe is building a 1,398-foot skyscraper, the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere.
It's also worth noting that Canadian companies are the most active foreign buyers in the city, Fasulo says. Chinese companies such as Fosun International, which last year bought Chase Manhattan Plaza for $725 million, have gotten the lion's share of attention among international property buying contingents.
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Rayna Katz
Rayna Katz is a seasoned business journalist whose extensive experience includes coverage of the lodging sector, travel and the culinary space. She was most recently content director for a business-to-business publisher, overseeing four publications. While at Meeting News, a travel trade publication, she received a Best Reporting award for a story on meeting cancellations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
