A joint venture between Metro Loft Management and Eastbridge Sarl has closed on the acquisition of 70 Pine Street for $205 million, according to public records filed with the city today, and is planning a hotel and residential conversion of the 66-story Art Deco building. Real Estate Weekly said that the building will be transformed into 700 luxury apartments and a high-end hotel, with the conversion slated to be completed in 2013.

As The Real Deal previously reported, Korea’s Kumho Investment Bank, which first purchased the building along with 72/74 Wall Street, from AIG for $150 million, was facing litigation from a former developer of 70 Pine Street in December, in a battle that could have threatened the scheduled sale of the building. [more]

As expected, the Landmarks Preservation Commission made 70 Pine Street a city landmark today, and the long-awaited designation didn’t come without the requisite celebrations. In the words of Commissioner Margery Perlmutter, the Art Deco Financial District tower that most recently served as the headquarters of the American International Group is “our other Chrysler and Empire State building.” Or, as Robert Tierney, chairman of the LPC, put it: “This building defies words.” The 66-story building, now mostly vacant, was originally built as the headquarters of the Cities Service Company (now Citgo). It is among Lower Manhanttan’s tallest skyscrapers. – Sarabeth Sanders

70 Pine St, Young Woo of Youngwoo & Associates

As 70 Pine Street heads to the Landmarks Preservation Commission for recognition of its historic past, the future of the 66-story Art Deco skyscraper is up in the air. According to the Post, a plan to convert the former American International Group building’s upper portion into high-end condominiums while keeping the lower portion of the building as offices has been scrapped by the new owners of the tower, who purchased it, along with the adjacent 72 Wall Street, for $150 million from American International Group in 2009. Those owners are a group led by Korea’s Kumho Investment Bank — not, as previously reported, New York developer Young Woo, of Youngwoo & Associates, who was previously believed to have bought the properties with some equity from KIB. In fact, KIB now says its group owns 100 percent of 70 Pine Street and that Woo is “just part of the [group of] advisers” created to manage the building. Comments

70 Pine St, Young Woo of Youngwoo & Associates

The 66-story Art Deco tower at 70 Pine Street, the former American International Group tower where developer Youngwoo & Associates is planning a partial condominium conversion, is going up for landmarking. According to the Post, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a public hearing next month on the skyscraper, which was built by Clinton & Russel, Holton & George in 1932 and is currently the tallest building in Lower Manhattan. Peers of 70 Pine, like the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and Donald Trump’s 40 Wall Street, all enjoy protection as landmarks, meaning any changes to their structures must be first approved by the LPC. [more]

SouFun Holdings, a Chinese property website based in Beijing, plans to spend $46 million to acquire a former training center of American International Group in Manhattan, with the purchase expected to be completed in the first half of 2011. The training center includes a 250,000-square-foot building at 72 Wall Street, one of a pair of adjoining AIG properties purchased last year by Youngwoo & Associates and Korea-based Kumho Bank. In 2009, Youngwoo and Kumho paid $150 milliion for 72 Wall and neighboring 70 Pine Street. SouFun, which has 65 offices in China, said it will partner with selected universities and colleges in the U.S. to train its expanding management, staff and clients in the former AIG center. [China Knowledge]

From left: 85 Broad Street, 70 Pine Street, One New York Plaza and Elizabeth Berger, president of the Alliance for Downtown New York (left two photos, source: PropertyShark)

Lower Manhattan office leasing activity through the first three quarters of the year has continued to outpace 2009, according to the Alliance for Downtown New York’s quarterly real estate market overview, even as third-quarter data shows moderat [more]

From left: Kenneth McCarthy, Joe Harbert and 85 Broad Street (building photo source: PropertyShark)

Manhattan landlords received positive news last quarter as leasing deal volume remained high, but the market continued to show evidence of weakness through a slight rise in the amount of available office space for rent, figures released [more]

Embattled real estate developer Kent Swig is set to ink a deal to sell
140 William Street for $11.5 million within the next few weeks, the
Wall Street Journal reported. It was unclear who was buying the
seven-story, 48,000-square-foot building, but experts suggested it
would likely be turned into condos. Though Swig had been hoping to get
$14.2 million for the vacant downtown property, the $239 per square
foot price is better than what other buildings downtown have fetched
recently. Only two buildings in the area changed hands last year, both
owned by American International Group; AIG sold 72 Wall Street for $37
million, or $114 a square foot, and 70 Pine Street for $113 million, or
$103 a square foot. The $11.5 million sale is likely to make only a
dent in Swig’s debt since there are at least $50 million in judgments against him for a variety of failed projects,
and Swig has hinted in the past that he may file for personal
bankruptcy. Most recently, Swig was reportedly in danger of losing 80 Broad Street after one of his lenders foreclosed
on the property last week, because Swig had defaulted on the $12
million loan. [Crain's]

[more]

Deutsche Bank is in the process of acquiring one of the former AIG
headquarters buildings from Youngwoo & Associates and its Korean
banking partners, Kumho Investment Bank, according to the New York Post.
The deal involves breaking down the walls that separate four to five
floors between 72 Wall Street and 60 Wall Street, the bank’s adjacent
leased building. The plan also calls for leveling out and extending the
bank’s trading floors into the two buildings. CB Richard
Ellis’ Bill Shanahan and Darcy Stacom sold the AIG two-building
headquarters at 72 Wall Street and 70 Pine Street
to Youngwoo and Kumho for $150 million last August.
The lower floors of 70 Pine Street are being marketed by Cushman &
Wakefield for rent at $35 per square foot as office space, with the top of the
1.1-million-square-foot Art Deco tower slated for hotel and residential use. [Post]

[more]

The financial reform bill finalized in Congress last week is impeding the recovery of New York City’s suffering office market, the Wall Street Journal reported. Major financial firms accounted for about 46 million square feet of Manhattan office space two years ago, enough to fill up more than 16 Empire State Buildings, according to CoStar. But the finance bill, which is set for a vote this week, may force big banks to cut back their proprietary trading units and reduce investments. Though most Wall Street firms have recovered, they aren’t hiring enough to make up for the tens of thousands of jobs lost and millions of square feet of office space they abandoned during the banking crisis in 2008 and 2009. Companies are still dumping big
blocks of space on the market, like the 500,000 square feet in the former headquarters of American International Group at 70 Pine Street.
[WSJ]

[more]