NEW YORK CITY—Just as news broke that Mount Sinai Hospital agreed to take 450,000 square feet at 150 E. 42nd St., it was revealed that the property was up for sale. Known as the Socony-Mobil Building, the property is on the market for around $900 million, according to Bloomberg.com.
Owner Hiro Real Estate Co., a Japanese investment firm, is working to sell the long-term leasehold, which would give the buyer rights to control the 1.7 million-square-foot landmarked tower, say sources familiar with the seller. Hiro leases the ground on which the tower stands from the Goelet family.
Douglas Harmon and Adam Spies, brokers at Eastdil Secured are representing Hiro in the deal. Harmon did not respond to a call for comment.
The Mobil property occupies an entire city block just half a block east of Grand Central Terminal and it sits across the street from the Chrysler Building. The 42-story, steel-clad tower is about 90% occupied, according to the Bloomberg source. In addition to Mount Sinai, Wells Fargo also has a major presence at the building, taking up approximately 500,000 square feet.
Sitting at the base of the building is roughly 50,000 square feet of retail space, with the Ann Taylor Loft clothing chain, CVS Caremark and Starbucks as tenants. The store occupants reportedly are paying rents that are well below prevailing rates for the neighborhood.
“Given the location, a stone's throw from Grand Central, this is exactly the type of asset the market is clamoring for right now,” says Dan Fasulo, managing director at Real Capital Analytics.
Asking office rents in the building average $58 to $65 a square foot, according to CoStar, In the Grand Central submarket, asking rents averaged $64.19 a square foot at the end of February, notes Cassidy Turley research.
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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.
