SJP Properties, in partnership with Mitsui Fudosan America, just closed on the purchase of a large development site at 200 Amsterdam Avenue, according to sources familiar with the transaction. Zoning allows for a 600-foot-high residential tower of nearly 400,000 square feet, and the partners intend to build luxury condominiums on the site.
When reached by phone late Thursday, SJP president Allen Goldman confirmed the purchase. He declined to comment on the purchase price, but sources familiar with the deal said it closed for close to $750 per buildable square foot, or nearly $300 million.
The condo project between West 69th and West 70th streets, Goldman said, will cater to New Yorkers and families from the suburbs looking to downsize and move into the city. The design, he added, would be “highly contextual with the architecture of the Upper West Side,” and the property boasts protected views of Central Park.
The seller, according to property records, was American Continental Properties. Founded by Daniele Bodini, the firm has substantial holdings in the neighborhood, and was represented in the deal by CBRE’s Darcy Stacom, Bill Shanahan and Paul Leibowitz. In January, CBRE began marketing the property, the former home of the Lincoln Square Synagogue, asking north of $400 million.
The 55-story project is slated to be the tallest building on the Upper West Side, a neighborhood where new condo product fetched an average price of $1,898 per square foot during the third quarter of the year, according to Halstead Property Development Marketing.
Manhattan–based SJP, led by Steven Pozycki, has developed over 25 million square feet of office and residential space since 1981. It recently sold a noncontrolling interest in 11 Times Square to Norges Bank.
Mitsui Fudosan America, the U.S. investment arm of Japanese development firm Mitsui Fudosan, paid more than $250 million in December for a large stake in Related Cos. 55 Hudson Yards. The firm’s other holdings in the city include 1251 Sixth Avenue at Rockefeller Center and 160 Madison Avenue.