Vornado Realty Trust, a leading real estate investment trust, is buying stakes in the high-end prime commercial property, 650 Madison Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, and plans to invest around $12.5 million in the structure, according to several media reports.
Carlyle Group, owners of the building agreed to sell to Crown Acquisitions and Highgate for $1.3 billion. However, two more entities, Vornado and Oxford Properties have decided to chip in and form a consortium to purchase the office tower, reports Yahoo News.
The consortium is in the process of putting together the capital structure. All the four entities will reportedly have equal stakes in the property. Steven Roth, the chairman of Vornado said to Bloomberg that it was too early to reveal any more details of the deal. However, Roth noted that the building was a "fine asset in a fine location" and also said that the building was "fairly modern" in comparison to all the other buildings in the vicinity.
"We had a strong conviction in the underlying value of this property when we acquired it during the Great Recession, and we are pleased to capitalize on the success of our active repositioning and leasing plan," Andrew Chung, managing director at Carlyle said in a statement.
General Growth Properties was also reportedly vying for 650 Madison Avenue. However, Crown Acquisitions and Highgate managed to win the bidding war.
The sale of 650 Madison Avenue will go down in the history of the nation's commercial building sales as it is the largest acquistion since Google's 111 Eighth Avenue building purchase in 2010, reports Commercial Observer.
About 650 Madison Avenue
The 650 Madison Avenue building also known as the C.I.T. Building is located at East 59th Street, at the North West corner to East 60th Street. The skyscraper is 109.7 meters high and comprises of 27 floors. Built in 1987 by Harrison & Abramovitz and Fox & Fowle Architects, P.C., the tower has a glass facade and is a completely commercial building with retail space functioning as well.
Some Fun Facts
This building was originally constructed as an 8-story, modern glass building in 1957. It was renovated and expanded to 19 stories in 1987.
Originally built as the headquarters of the C.I.T. Financial Corporation, the building was sold in 1981 to Prudential Insurance after C.I.T. was acquired by the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company.
