Simons says: Buy 160 Fifth
T HE
office portion of 160 Fifth Ave. is in contract to be purchased by one of its major tenants, the Simons Foundation, for around $185 million.
Sources said the retail, which has been majority-occupied by Club Monaco (since 1996) and a small Toby’s Estate Coffee in the building’s former lobby entrance, will be kept by the seller, Aby Rosen’s and
Michael Fuchs’ RFR Holdings.
The deal pencils out at a whopping $1,500 per square foot for the office portion of the 150,000-square-foot building in one of the hottest areas of the city, the Flatiron District between Madison
Square Park and Union Square.
RFR took control of the property in 2005 for $34,260,468, and it currently has a $110 million mortgage.
The recent Con Ed steam pipe explosion occurred right outside, but the building is now clean and open.
RFR is being represented by the Cushman & Wakefield investment team of Douglas Harmon, Adam
Spies and Michael Collins, along with a JLL team. The sale is expected to close in the early fall.
Cushman & Wakefield also represents Simons Foundation in its leases at the building, which is located on the southwest corner of West 21st Street, with a lobby at 2 W. 21st Street.
According to CoStar data, the foundation moved there from 101 Fifth in 2009, to the sixth through ninth floors, and added the second floor in 2011 to total more than 76,000 square feet — but it is growing and needs more room.
Jim Simons, a genius mathematician who employed computational mathematics at his hedge fund, Renaissance Technologies, is now worth $20 billion and is a generous philanthropist.
He and his wife, Marilyn, created the foundation in 1994; with an annual budget of $300 million, it provides grants and supports programs to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences — including, now, autism research.
The building has a commercial property tax exemption through an ICIP, which peels off in 2022. But taxes have climbed from $1.63 million in 2015 to a current $2.73 million.
As a nonprofit owner, the foundation could apply for a full exemption of its occupied portions. The companies declined comment.
The law firm Schwartz Sladkus Reich Greenberg Atlas will expand to 33,115 square feet in a move to 444 Madison Ave. between East 49th and 50th streets.
Under a 12-year lease, the attorneys will occupy a portion of the fifth floor and the entire sixth floor, which will be built out by the Westbrook Partners ownership.
In the last three years, the firm has grown from 33 to 44 lawyers in real estate, litigation, health care, trusts and estates, corporate, intellectual property, nonprofits and matrimonial law.
The firm is currently located in 22,000 square feet at 270 Madison Ave. on the northwest corner of East 39th Street, which is south of Grand Central Terminal.
Its new Midtown building was previously known for tenants Newsweek and later New York magazine, but the 42-story tower’s signage now lists Burberry as a key tenant.
“The lobby was recently redone, and there is space on first floor and lower level that is being turned into an amenity,” noted SSRGA partner Steven Sladkus.
His partner Jeffrey Schwartz says the space will have an open feeling, with a layout that has perimeter offices for all the lawyers and views overlooking St. Patrick’s Cathedral. “Open plan doesn’t really work for law firms,” Schwartz added. SSRGA was represented by Mitchell Konsker, vice chairman of JLL, along with colleagues David Dusek and Harley Dalton. The building owner, an af- filiate of Westbrook Partners, was repped by a CBRE team led by Vice Chairman Paul Amrich, with Patrice Meagher and Meghan Allen. Sources said the asking rents are in the $60 per square foot area.
Israeli-born and now New York-based designer Nili Lotan will open a showroom and office at 142 Duane St. in Tribeca, in the base of the residential co-op between Church and West Broadway. Brandon Singer and Michael Cody of Cushman & Wakefield represented Lotan in the lease for the 7,668 square feet on the ground, mezzanine and lower levels. The retail co-op ownership was represented inhouse by Helen Chang and Michael Ashkenazy. The asking rent was $250 per square foot.