SL Green, Sutton partner for $400 million, 10-building portfolio

From left: Wharton Properties President Jeff Sutton, SL Green President Marc Holliday, Stonehenge Managing Partner Ofer Yardeni, 724 Fifth Avenue and 760 Madison Avenue (building credits: PropertyShark)

The retail investment team of SL Green Realty and Jeff Sutton, president of Wharton Properties, have struck again, according to the Wall Street Journal, paying more than $400 million for a 10-building portfolio that includes prime retail on Fifth and Madison avenues.

The investment pair will take control of 724 Fifth Avenue, which has a Prada store at its base, and the building at 760 Madison Avenue, which includes an Armani store. The Armani store is just across the street from a Valentino store at 747 Madison Avenue that SL Green and Sutton combined to purchase in July for $65 million, while the Prada store is nearby the pair’s 717 Fifth Avenue property, which recently inked Dolce & Gabbana as a tenant. In May, the duo agreed to acquire 1552 Broadway in Times Square.

Stonehenge Partners teamed with SL Green and Sutton in the transaction, which also included several apartment buildings on the Upper East Side, with the intention of converting two of the rental buildings to condominiums, the Journal said. The seller was family-owned real estate company David Frankel Realty.

The initial yield on the portfolio is just 4 percent, the Journal said, but that was partly because the residential properties were valued by the buyers based on what they would be worth in a conversion. The value of the Armani store is also mitigated by the upcoming expiration of the fashion retailer’s lease. [WSJ]