Frank McCourt, the former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers who made his name in Boston real estate, has made his first New York City buy: a $167 million development site on Manhattan’s Far West Side where he plans to build a 730,000-square-foot mixed-use tower.
McCourt will pay more than three times the $43.5 million that the current owners, a partnership between New York-based Sherwood Equities and Boston-based Long Wharf Real Estate Partners, paid for the site at 10th Avenue and 30th Street in 2011.
“The surge in value on this site was so dramatic — it was unprecedented — that our rate of return could never have been higher,” Jeffrey Katz, chief executive of Sherwood Equities, told the Wall Street Journal.
In January, McCourt’s Los Angeles-based real estate investment company, McCourt Group, set up shop in Midtown and has been actively looking for investments, according to the newspaper.
Their Far West Side bet is bolstered by the city’s $3 billion push – which will include new parks and the extension of the No. 7 subway line west of Times Square – to transform the area into a top business district.
McCourt’s site is directly opposite the Related Companies’ 46-story South Tower, which will be anchored by luxury retailer Coach. [WSJ] – Hiten Samtani