Jones Lang LaSalle


BOFFO MIDTOWN BUYS
REFLECT HOT MARKET
By STEVE CUOZZO

April 11, 2006 -- Two large investment-sale transactions powerfully display the strength of the Midtown market, where quality properties for sale are in short supply.

On Friday, Dubai investment company Istithmar - the same outfit that bought 230 Park Ave. last year - signed a contract to buy a 99-year leasehold on 450 Lexington Ave., the 32-story office tower on top of the Grand Central Post Office at 45th Street.

The sellers are a partnership including Norman Sturner's Murray Hill Properties, Westbrook and SITQ.

Marketplace sources said the sale price is "$600 million and change," or above $600 a square foot - nearly as costly as an outright "fee" purchase would be. The U.S. Postal Service owns the land under the tower.

CB Richard Ellis' global brokerage chief Stephen B. Siegel acted as an adviser to Istithmar, which was represented by Andrew Farkas' Island Capital. None of the participants in the deal could be reached yesterday.

Meanwhile, opportunistic investor Raymond Chalme's Broad Street Development and Dallas-based Crow Holdings Realty Partners IV were the winning bidders for 370 Lexington Ave. at 41st Street.

In a deal that closed last week, the Chalme team paid $97.2 million for the 296,000 square-foot brick tower. CB Richard Ellis' Darcy Stacom and William Shanahan negotiated the sale.
Chalme and his partner Daniel M. Blanco plan to upgrade the building along the lines of a "boutique" office property, Chalme said.