Blackstone Group LP, the famous private equity firm led by Steve Schwarzman, has reportedly purchased the Park Avenue Tower in New York City from Shorenstein Co. for $750 million.
The New York Post reported that Blackstone is paying $1,210 per square feet for the 619,631-square-feet building, located at 66 East 55th Street in New York City. The publication notes that the yet-incomplete deal is expected to close by August.
This is not the first time Blackstone is buying the building. In 2007, the private equity firm purchased Equity Office Properties which owned the Park Avenue tower at that time and immediately sold the building and six other properties to developer Harry Macklowe.
However, Macklowe surrendered ownership of the properties to the lenders after the market crashed. Shorenstein Co., the San Francisco-based real estate firm, took over the Park Avenue tower in 2008 for $625 million, reports Real Estate Alert.
In early 2013, several tabloids revealed that Shorenstein was looking to sell the Park Avenue Tower and by the end of the year, Grocon - Australia's largest private development company - announced that it was looking for financing to invest in the 35-storey building.
Grocon agreed to purchase 95 percent stake in the building, the other 5 percent is held by George Klein - the developer of the building - who keeps it for tax reasons. Grocon had offered to buy it for $775 million but that deal fell apart as the negotiation window between the companies expired.
And now, Eastdill Secured - the company representing Shorenstein - has put the deal in the lap of Blackstone Group.
Blackstone has been investing strategically in properties in the United States. In May this year, the company sold off some prime office properties in Boston to Oxford properties for $2.1 billion.
According to The Real Deal, Blackstone has been buying residential properties in South Florida of late.
The private equity firm recently invested $1.73 billion on the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas. Blackstone is one of the biggest purchasers of hotel properties in Vegas. It owns the Hilton hotel there, which it bought for $26 billion in 2007. It also recently agreed to spend $800 million on a group of service hotels that are being sold by Clarion Partners LLC, reports Bloomberg.
The company is also gearing up to launch its own investment platform.
