Safra behind priciest NYC office deal of 2010

The buyer of the 254,000-square-foot office condominium atop Barneys New York at 660 Madison Avenue was an investment entity controlled by Brazilian billionaire Joseph Safra, Bloomberg News reported. At $285 million, or $1,100 per square foot, the transaction was the priciest for a New York City office building on a per-square-foot basis last year, said Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics. The seller was Italian real estate firm Risanamento SpA, which had said in November that the plaza district office, between East 60th and East 61st streets, was the last U.S. building in its portfolio. The company bought the property for $375 million in 2007, a record at the time. [Bloomberg]