An Israeli investor has signed a contract to buy the top 25 floors of the Woolworth building for about $70 million, Crain’s reported. The deal comes six weeks after reports first emerged that Steve Witkoff’s Witkoff Group and Ruby Schron’s Cammeby’s International were considering a sale of the upper portion of the property, which has remained vacant for years in advance of a residential or hotel conversion.
The bottom 32 floors, which contain most of the building’s 936,000 square feet at 233 Broadway, will remain in the hands of Witkoff and Schronn, who lease the space to office tenants. The exact identity of the buyer of the upper floors could not be obtained. Crain’s said the deal represented a price per square foot of $700.
Witkoff and Schron were not actively seeking a sale of the tower, but decided to accept one of several offers for the property, as interest has soared in the wake of the hotel, rental and high-end condo markets’ revival. The pair purchased the entire property for $137.5 million in 1998. [Crain’s]