NYC players make $1.3B-plus bids for 650 Madison Ave.

Major New York players such as Vornado Realty Trust, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. and Crown Acquisitions have moved to nab Carlyle Group’s 650 Madison Avenue office tower, with some bids coming in at north of $1.3 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.

If the 595,016-square-foot, 27-story building located at 16 East 60th Street does sell at the $1.3 billion mark, it would be the highest price paid for a single office building since Google paid $1.9 billion for Its 111 Eighth Avenue headquarters. Carlyle put the building on the market in March.

Carlyle bought the building – which is now fully-leased according to CoStar– with Ashkenazy for $680 million in 2008, and proceeded to bring in new tenants and invest in the retail space. Ashkenazy later sold its stake, but is once again interested in the building, sources told the Journal. [WSJ, 1st item] – Hiten Samtani