Stonehenge Partners and Invesco Real Estate have sold the Brill Building at 1619 Broadway for $185 million to Eric Hadar and Merchants Hospitality, the New York Post reported.
Adam Spies and Doug Harmon of Eastdil Secured brokered the deal, which included 30,000 square feet of air rights, sources told The Real Deal. In addition, eight new signs for roughly 5,000 square feet of advertising space were approved, which will bring in about $2 million per year in revenue. Other firms–such as Taconic Investment Partners, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. and a joint venture between Starwood Property Trust and the Witkoff Group–mulled buying the property, sources said.
The off-market deal closed last week, sources told the Post, and may have begun as a play for a strong retail property. The buyers intend to lure music and entertainment companies to the 175,000-square-foot building with pre-built spaces. The 45,000-square-foot retail space, most recently occupied by Colony Records, could prove the most lucrative part of the building, the sources said.
In November of last year, Invesco, which has been on a deal spree in New York City, began moves to bring the building to market in early 2013, as The Real Deal previously reported.
Stonehenge is co-chaired by Ofer Yardeni and Joel Seiden. Hadar, who is the chairman of investment firm Allied Partners, also owns, through a partnership in Terra Holdings, a stake in brokerages Halstead Property and Brown Harris Stevens. [NYP, 1st item] —Hiten Samtani