711 Fifth Ave., the Coca-Cola Building/ Image provided by Cushman & Wakefield, photo by Andrew Gordon Photography
NEW YORK CITY—The Coca-Cola Company is putting up for sale its Midtown office building at 711 Fifth Ave. Cushman & Wakefield's Doug Harmon, Adam Spies and Kevin Donner were exclusively retained to market the property commonly known as the Coca-Cola Building. It will be brought to market early next year.
Coca-Cola acquired the building in 1983 as part of its acquisition of Columbia Pictures. The soda manufacturer states it does not need to retain its investment in the building to support its activities in New York. It also says that Coca-Cola and its bottling partner in the area, Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages, will continue to have a sizable presence in the greater New York metropolitan area.
“711 Fifth Avenue is one of Manhattan's best kept secrets, a premier boutique gem with a rich history that dates back to 1927,” says Doug Harmon, chairman, capital markets, Cushman & Wakefield, referencing the date the property was built. “We look forward to working with the Coca-Cola Company as we seek a new owner for this world class offering.”
The 19-floor, mixed-use property is located on the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and East 55th Street. The building consists of 354,000 square feet, primarily used for office and retail space.
Harmon tells GlobeSt.com, “In today's market, there are fewer 100% high profile trophy properties for sale that have redevelopment potential. This is very rare and will be a sought after offering.”
Harmon and his team sold the Crown Building at 730 Fifth Ave., at the corner of 57th St., catty-corner to 711 Fifth for $1.75 billion to GGP and Wharton Properties' Jeff Sutton in 2015. Harmon also sold the Sony Building, located at 550 Madison Ave. that's on the same block as the Coca-Cola Building, on two different occasions. In 2013, he sold it for $1.1 billion and in 2016, he sold it for $1.4 billion.
The last large trophy sale to take place in Manhattan was the $2.4 billion sale of Chelsea Market to Google. Harmon and his Cushman & Wakefield team advised the seller Jamestown on the deal. Harmon had also represented Taconic Partners, Jamestown and New York State Common Retirement Fund in their $1.8 billion sale of 111 Eighth Ave. to Google in 2010.
In addition, this year Harmon continued to build upon his reservoir of noteworthy deals. He led the highly publicized sale of Starrett City, the country's largest federally subsidized affordable housing development, to Brooksville Company and Rockpoint Group for $905 million. Harmon was known for his work with the sale of the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village apartments to Blackstone Group and Ivanhoe Cambridge for $5.45 billion, in a deal that helped financially stabilize the property in 2015.
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Betsy Kim
Betsy Kim was the bureau chief, East Coast, and New York City reporter for Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. As a lawyer and journalist, Betsy has worked as the director of editorial and content for LexisNexis Lawyers.com, a TV/multi-media journalist for NBC and CBS affiliated TV stations in the Midwest, and an associate producer at Court TV.
