Time Warner has reached out to two additional firms, Eastdil Secured and Jones Lang LaSalle, to help it value its 1 million-square-foot Columbus Circle headquarters, having already solicited the services of Studley last week, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The media behemoth is preparing to move into a new location or consolidate its more than 4 million square feet of New York City office space. If the company does decide to sell, the building could command prices of roughly $1,000 per square foot for a total price north of $1 billion dollars. The intense bidding interest likely from a sale announcement would mean that brokers could reap rich rewards from commissions, typically below 1 percent on a deal of this size.
Being tapped for the valuation could give brokerages an inside edge if Time Warner does sell, experts told the Journal. But the move could backfire if the market doesn’t match the sale price expectations. “We do lose assignments” to competitors who say they can get higher prices, Peter Hauspurg, chief executive of Eastern Consolidated, told the Journal. But, he added, “what you really should be concerned with is whether it’s marketed properly and exposed to the right people and the market will speak.” [WSJ] – Hiten Samtani