After being designated a landmark only two days ago, 70 Pine Street has been sold to Nathan Berman’s Metro Loft Management for $205 million, or $186 per square foot, according to the Post. Metro signed on to buy the 1.1 million-square-foot tower, the fifth tallest in the city at 66 stories, from Kumho Investment Bank of South Korea. Metro plans to turn the property into residential rentals.

Kumho previously purchased the building, along with 72/74 Wall Street, from AIG for $150 million.

The deal was brokered by a team of agents from Jones Lang LaSalle, including Richard Baxter, Ron Cohen, Scott Latham and Jon Caplan, which did not offer the building publicly but rather went straight to Metro. [more]

Lower Manhattan’s office market saw declining rents and record-low leasing activity during 2009, but ended the year with activity on the rise and vacancies on a recently-rare downward trend, according to the Alliance for Downtown New York’s Real Estate Market Year in Review for 2009 (click here for the full report). Rising from 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 9.9 percent in the third quarter of 2009, office vacancies dropped off to 9.6 percent by the close of the year.

Commercial office tenants in the Downtown market tended to sign on for smaller spaces and shorter terms, according to the report. “Downtown may need to adjust further to compete with low-priced sublease space and precipitously falling rents in the Midtown market,” the report noted.
In the residential market, sales volume dropped 52 percent over 2008, largely on a decline in inventory. Meanwhile, rentals held up relatively well: vacancies in Downtown rental units hovered at around 2 percent, which the report attributed to consistent demand for such inventory. TRD [more]

From the January issue: While the pipeline for condos has slowed to a near-stop, there are a
few daring developers out there picking up land and buildings in this
tough market. But those who are making purchases and starting up projects now are
doing so with revised cost projections — faced with the reality that
expenses must be contained in a weak sales market. The Related Companies, for example, restarted construction in the
fall on a long-delayed skyscraper at 440 West 42nd Street, which
includes a Frank Gehry-designed theater, a hotel and 800 apartments –
a mix of market-rate rentals, affordable units and condos. The deal was made possible with the help of $25 million from the
city for the theater and a citywide agreement between developers and
more than 40 labor unions to trim construction costs up to 20 percent.
The project had been on hold for months amid the downturn and limited
financing.