Canadian investment firm Oxford Properties Group, a division of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, is under contract to acquire a 330,000-square-foot tower at 450 Park Avenue for $575 million.
The seller is Somerset Partners LLC and British investor Michael Tabor, who jointly bought the 33-story office property at 57th Street for $509 million back in 2007. Adam Spies, Doug Harmon and Kevin Donner of Eastdil Secured are representing them in the deal.
“We felt comfortable investing a large amount of cash in this quality location and asset,” Keith Rubenstein of Somerset told Bloomberg News. “The thinking back then was this location was bulletproof, would withstand any downturn in the market and value would recover faster. Looking back, I guess we were right.”
The site is set to sell for more than $1,700 per square foot. The 2007 sale — $1,583 a square foot – set a record for an office building on a per-square-foot basis. The current record is held by 650 Madison Avenue, which sold for $2,235 per square foot last year.
Dow Chemical currently leases a 5,698-square-foot space on the 22nd floor of 450 Park, as previously reported. [Bloomberg News] and [NYT] — Mark Maurer