RXR buys former Macklowe tower for $400M

From left: Harry Macklowe, Scott Rechler and 1330 Sixth Avenue

A group of investors led by Scott Rechler’s RXR Realty has signed a contract to purchase 1330 Sixth Avenue — the 40-story office building that Canadian lender Otera Capital took back from Harry Macklowe last year — for roughly $400 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The price, though far below the $500 million Macklowe paid for it in 2006, would likely put the deal amongst the largest of the year for New York City office buildings, sources said, and could be a sign of the commercial property market’s rebound. While Rechler’s group is paying around $750 per square foot for the property, which is 70 percent leased, by comparison, the Worldwide Plaza office tower went for below $500 per square foot last year. RXR is said to have beat out SL Green — the company that bought out Rechler’s family business prior to his founding of RXR — in the bidding for the tower. [WSJ]