Sotheby’s, the renowned auction house, has put its Upper East Side headquarters up for sale, the New York Post reported.
Eastdil Secured’s Douglas Harmon and Adam Spies are marketing the 500,000-square-foot glass and granite building at 1334 York Avenue that occupies the entire eastern blockfront between East 71st and 72nd streets. The 10-story building’s giant floorplates make it an attractive option for hospitals, residential developers, and office and hotel operators, the Post said.
In 2009, Sotheby’s bought the building for $370 million from RFR Holding’s Aby Rosen. It plans to sell and lease back the facility until it finds or builds a new headquarters. “They want to do a short-term leaseback between three and five years,” a source told the Post.
The auction house has hired Jones Lang LaSalle’s Peter Riguardi and Alexander Chudnoff to help it find another location, possibly in Midtown or even on Manhattan’s Far West Side at the Hudson Yards.
“Given the location of our building, the current real estate market, the unsolicited interest we’ve received in our property and our responsibility to our shareholders, we are exploring our options,” Sotheby’s spokesman Andrew Gully told the Post. [NYP] – Hiten Samtani