Remember back to those frothy, heady days in the spring when we took $1 billion sales for granted? Everywhere you looked—230 Park! 280 Park! On Wall Street, too!—they were dropping.
It’s been four months since we’ve had one, but hope springs again.
Paramount Group is putting 1177 Avenue of the Americas up for sale, a source said. The 47-story, one-million-square-foot postmodern-deco granite tower is across the street from Rockefeller Center and its sale should eclipse $1 billion. Eastdil Secured will market the building, the source said.
A spokeswoman for Paramount said, “We have been approached by a couple of potential investors and a sale is under consideration.” She would not comment any further.
Paramount purchased the building in 2002 for $409 million, but with the standard midtown sale price these days at more than $1,000 per square foot, Paramount should have no problem fetching a billion. The question is: How far over $1,000 per foot will someone go? This sale will be the first big market test since the credit market scare. A few months ago, it would have been easy to see someone throw down more than $1,200. The same might not be true right now, when lenders are balking and buyers are cautious.
Paramount, the real estate group owned by the Otto family in Germany, has been actively shuffling its portfolio. Two months ago, it sold 32 Old Slip for $750 million, after it acquired 60 Wall Street as a sale lease-back for $1.18 billion in May.
Tenants at 1177 Avenue of the Americas include law firms Dickstein, Shapiro, Movin & Oshinksy and Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel.
