Atlas Capital buys Soho office building for $62M

Real estate investment firm Atlas Capital Group acquired a 58,500-square-foot Soho office building on the bustling Broadway corridor for $62 million, according to city property records filed today.

The seller, the Georgetown Group, a privately held real estate investment and development company in the Upper East Side, had purchased the nine-story building at 434 Broadway near Howard Street for $41 million in 2010. The purchase by Midtown-based Atlas went from a contract signing to an all-cash closing in just 10 days, at a price 50 percent higher than the building traded for just three years ago.

Jones Lang LaSalle broker Yoron Cohen handled the sale. The brokerage heads up marketing at the building. Valley National Bank leases retail space in the building, with an agreement that was set to expire in 2017 prior to the deal.

“We sold it to Jeffrey Goldberger [of Atlas Capital] and he sold his contract to [real estate investment firm] Savanna for a higher price, creating value by relocating Valley National Bank on the ground floor,” Cohen told The Real Deal.

The buyer and seller were listed in property records as 434 Broadway Property Investors III LLC and Broadway Howard Owner LLC, respectively.

Before Georgetown Group, Newport Beach, Calif-based KBS Realty Advisors was the owner, having paid $37.5 million for the building in 2007. The structure was built in 1910 and holds six commercial units.

Neither the Georgetown Group nor Atlas Capital Group could be immediately reached for comment.

Last month, Atlas Capital Group was in talks to buy a 1 million-square-foot commercial building at 47-44 31st Street in Long Island City valued at more than $102 million from property investor Mark Karasick, as The Real Deal reported.