Manhattan Commercial Real Estate Sales Triple in Q1
BusinessWeek reports: Manhattan commercial property sales tripled in value in the first quarter from a year earlier as sellers begin to take advantage of rising demand, according to brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield.
About $3.3 billion of transactions priced at $10 million or more were closed or went under contract, almost matching the $3.5 billion sold during the whole of last year, the New York- based property broker said today. Deals included UBS AG’s sale of a 49 percent stake in an office tower at 299 Park Ave. and the sale of the former Drake Hotel site at 440 Park Ave.
Buyers included Rockpoint Group LLC, a Boston-based global investment management firm, which purchased the stake in 299 Park, and Los Angeles-based CIM Group, which acquired the former Drake Hotel site for $305 million, according to Real Capital Analytics, a New York-based research company that tracks sales in the industry. Sam Zell’s Chicago-based Equity Residential paid $181 million for River Tower, a 38-story apartment house on Manhattan’s East Side, Real Capital data show.
The Manhattan office vacancy rate climbed to 11.6 percent from 9.6 percent a year earlier as new construction added supply to the market, Cushman said. The biggest addition was 11 Times Square, a building at Eighth Avenue and West 42nd Street, which has 1.1 million square feet of space, according to the broker.
Asking rents slipped to a three-year low of $55.38 a square foot, compared with $65.01 a year earlier.
View the full article on BusinessWeek: Manhattan Commercial Real Estate Sales Triple in Q1
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Posted by: Nina Turner