HSBC to Sell NYC HQ for $330 Mil. Cash
Bloomberg reports: HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s largest bank, agreed to sell its New York City headquarters for $330 million in cash to a company controlled by Israeli businessman Nochi Dankner.
The London-based lender will lease back the HSBC HQ tower at 452 Fifth Ave., according to company filings. The price comes to about $381 a square foot.
"The fact that an investor is willing to pay all cash for a several hundred million-dollar asset is a very bullish sign for the Midtown office market," said Dan Fasulo, managing director of New York-based Real Capital Analytics Inc., which tracks commercial property sales worldwide. "At some point these cash deals are going to add up and give investors the confidence to return en masse."
Commercial real estate transactions in the U.S. may fall 93 percent this year compared with 2007, according to Real Capital. New York sales through September totaled $1.62 billion, down 95 percent from the same period two years ago, as tight credit and rising unemployment sapped demand.
Cash buyers from other countries who made money outside of real estate are now looking at New York property "as a place to stash that capital," Fasulo said. They’re "targeting commercial real estate as a counter-cyclical play, whether it’s right or not," he said.
View the full article on Bloomberg: HSBC to Sell NYC HQ for $330 Mil. Cash
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Posted by: Matthew Stone