Normandy buys Flatiron District office building for $50M

Manhattan-based investor plans to redevelop property, purchased following a foreclosure

119 West 25th Street
119 West 25th Street

Real estate private equity firm Normandy Real Estate Partners has acquired a 135,000-square-foot Flatiron District office building for around $50 million, The Real Deal has learned.

Normandy, which owns other trophy office assets at 575 Lexington Avenue and 1370 Broadway, partnered with Joel Schreiber’s Waterbridge Capital to purchase the commercial building at 119 West 25th Street, sources said. The two companies plan on redeveloping the property into a Class A office building with a ground-floor retail component, according to a person close to the deal.

The redevelopment, property management and leasing will all be overseen by Normandy.

A Normandy spokesperson declined to comment on the deal, while Schreiber was not immediately available for comment.

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The property was previously the subject of a foreclosure proceeding, as The Real Deal reported. Brooklyn-based investors Miriam and Michael Chen had purchased it for $34 million in 2006 but later defaulted on a $34 million loan granted to them by California-based lender Cathay Bank. A foreclosure judgment was issued against the property in September 2012.

The partnership negotiated deals with both the noteholder and the Chens in order to take control of the building, which is located between Sixth and Seventh avenues, a source said. The building was previously home to an artist-run exhibition space named Silvershed.

The New Jersey-based investment firm has been on somewhat of a buying spree in recent months. It bought the 35-story office property on Lexington Avenue from Silverstein Properties and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System for $360 million and The Broadway building from Sitt Asset Management and Carlton Associates for $125 million. Both deals closed in 2012.