At the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts conference in Chicago, Boston Property Developers, the famous commercial real estate trust, announced it has listed the Times Square Tower in Manhattan, New York City. The company expects the building to sell for around $1.6 billion, according to several media reports.
"The 1.2 million-square-foot (111,000-square-meter) office building "is on the market as we speak," Doug Linde, president of Boston Properties said during their presentation at the conference.
The Manhattan commercial property market is getting hotter by the day. Many trophy buildings have been listed in the last few days, including 100-104 Avenue and the Nymex Tower.
Boston Properties is looking to sell in order to make the most of the surging commercial property market of the area. Earlier, in a conference call with Bloomberg, the company had mentioned that it was considering selling assets worth at least $1 billion in 2013. The listing of the Times Square Tower is a part of the portfolio trimming.
"It's a great time to get the value recognized for some of our assets. It makes sense at times to prune our portfolio." Linde later said in an interview.
According to the New York Post, Adam Spies and Douglas Harmon of Eastdil Secured have been hired to market the building.
About Times Square Tower
The Times Square Tower, also known as the 7 Times Square, is one of the four commercial skyscrapers that were planned during the 1980's as a part of the district's revitalization plan. The 48- story tower was designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and developed by Boston Properties. The office building has affluent tenants like clothing retailer, Ann Taylor and law firms O'Melveny & Myers and Pryor Cashman. Retail rents for space in the building, as on Tuesday, was around $1,500 per square feet.
Meanwhile, Boston Property has mapped a steady journey in the commercial property market. It is considered as one of the most valuable and trustworthy commercial real estate firms of the country. Even though the company plans on pruning its asset portfolio, it has clear objectives about which properties to part with and which, not to.
More recently, a couple of foreign investors purchased a minority stake in the famous General Motors Building in which Boston Properties holds 60 percent stake amounting to more than $2 billion. Apparently, the company has no plans to divest its share. The new owners of the property will remain passive investors while Boston Properties will continue managing the building.
