East End Capital
Two firms have agreed to buy a half-vacant office building at 123 William Street in Lower Manhattan for $133 million.
East End Capital and GreenOak Real Estate are teaming up to buy the 545,000-square-foot property from a partnership led by local investor Joseph Chetrit. The priced equated to $244/sf. The deal was struck off-market, but CBRE was involved in introducing the parties, sources said.
The 27-story building, constructed in 1957, is on the east side of William Street between John and Fulton Streets in the Financial District. it is two blocks east of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s $1.4 billion Fulton Street Transit Center, now under construction, and four blocks east of the World Trade Center site.
The Chetrit partnership purchased the building in 2005 for $108 million, but ran into trouble during the market downturn when multiple government tenants didn’t renew leases. New York State has a lease on 40,000 sf until 2021, while marketing and advertising firm GlobalHue has a 40,000-sf lease until 2018, according to CoStar.
The property has an $81.8 million securitized mortgage that the buyers are believed to be assuming.
East End, led by former Broadway Partners staffers Jonathon Yormak and David Peretz, has partnered with GreenOak on $500 million of purchases in Manhattan. GreenOak was founded in 2010 by former Morgan Stanley real estate executives Sonny Kalsi, John Carrafiell and Fred Schmidt. Both firms are based in New York and focus on repositioning poorly leased buildings.
Last year, the duo and RFR Holding of New York bought the 530,000-sf office building at 285 Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan for $189.3 million, or $357/sf, from advertising agency Young & Rubicam. The seller, which fully occupies the building, will move out by yearend.
