Amazon is buying the Lord & Taylor building from WeWork for $1.15 billion.
The bulk of the purchase price comes in the form of a $750 million construction loan WeWork took out to renovate the massive property, which Amazon will pay down, according to the New York Post. The rest is approximately $350 million in equity the e-commerce giant will shell out for the building at 424 5th Avenue.
The Real Deal first reported in late February that Amazon was in talks to buy the 660,000-square-foot building, which WeWork had acquired to use as its corporate headquarters.
Negotiations on the property heated up over the past 60 days as Amazon’s tech competitors stared inking big leases in the city, according to the Post.
“Jeff Bezos toured three properties in Manhattan at Hudson Yards, the Farley [Building] and the Lord & Taylor property, and he chose Fifth Avenue,” a source with knowledge of the deal told the newspaper.
WeWork bought the building for $850 million in 2017, before the company’s botched initial public offering attempt sent the company into a tailspin. Former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann, who had invested in the purchase, won’t make any money on the sale, a source told the Post.
Amazon’s purchase price works out to about $2,000 per square foot. [NYP] — Rich Bockmann