ABS to buy Hammacher Schlemmer building for $63M

ABS Partners Real Estate is in contract to acquire the famed Hammacher Schlemmer building in Midtown for $63 million, sources told The Real Deal.

The 13-story, roughly 65,000-square-foot office-and-retail building at 145-147 East 57th Street, just east of Billionaires’ Row, has been home to gadget store Hammacher Schlemmer since the 1920s. The seller, the U.S. subsidiary of Brazilian investment firm, Grupo Victor Malzoni Investimentos, bought it for $34 million in 2010 and has spent $10 million renovating it. The addition of a 13th-floor penthouse was completed earlier this year.

Glenn Tolchin and Yoav Oelsner

ABS [TRDataCustom] co-managing partner and president Gregg Schenker and partner Randy Modell are handling the acquisition in-house. JLL’s Glenn Tolchin and Yoav Oelsner marketed the building for sale.

ABS, which is also a commercial brokerage, plans a long-term hold and leasing up the remaining space at market rents, sources said.

The building is about 70 percent occupied, and four full floors near the top are vacant. Office asking rents range from the mid-$50s per square foot to $90 per square foot. Hammacher Schlammer, which occupies 8,000 square feet at the base of the building, has another seven years left on its lease. Asking rent for that space is $225 per square foot.

The deal is slated to close for $970 per square foot in October, sources said.

A spokesperson for ABS could not be immediately reached, while JLL and Grupo Victor Malzoni declined to comment.

ABS has been busy recently, planning a Bushwick office conversion with the Hudson Companies and buying a two-tower Miami office complex for $150 million. Grupo Victor Malzoni also has several holdings in Miami.