Ian Schrager and the Clock Tower at 5 Madison AvenueHotelier Ian Schrager appears to be returning to the Clock Tower at 5 Madison Avenue.

According to Real Estate Weekly, Marriott International purchased the 220,000-square-foot office tower overlooking Madison Square Park from Africa Israel and plans to turn it into an Edition Hotel, the boutique hotel line it launched with Schrager. Africa Israel was previously reported to have sold the tower for $165 million, but the buyer was only identified as “a credit-worthy” one.

Though Marriott typically does not own its real estate, the hotel operator wants to buy property for its struggling Edition line, which it hopes will compete with Starwood’s W Hotel brand, to help get it off the ground [more]

Africa Israel USA is selling the Clock Tower building at 5 Madison Avenue to an undisclosed buyer for $165 million, the company announced today.

The transaction is expected to close Dec.15, or upon extension of the agreement and an additional $1 million, around Jan.16, 2012.

“We are delighted to have reached an agreement with a very credit-worthy buyer to secure the future of this remarkable building and support the burgeoning vitality of the Madison Square Park neighborhood,” Tamir Kazaz, CEO of Africa Israel, said in a statement, declining to provide information besides what was in the release.

According to Laurie Golub, general counsel and managing director of business affairs of Africa Israel, the buyer has made a $5 million deposit — $2 million of which is non-refundable. — Miranda Neubauer [more]

The penthouse triplex at 1 Main Street in Dumbo

The now somewhat famous Clock Tower triplex penthouse by developer
David Walentas at 1 Main Street in Dumbo has been chosen as Esquire
magazine’s bachelor pad, the magazine said today. The unit will be
host to various celebrity and charity events throughout the fall and the magazine’s annual design showcase. This will
be the first time the bachelor pad has come to Brooklyn.

“The Esquire Apartment concept was conceived in New York in 2003,”
noted Jack Essig, senior vice president, group publishing director and chief revenue officer of Esquire. “Although we create our house every other year in Los
Angeles, this is the first time we’ve taken our New York project to a
location outside of Manhattan. We really challenge ourselves every
year to find a new prime neighborhood and a building that represents
the essence of the magazine.” — Katherine Clarke [more]

From left: Fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, Lev Leviev Africa Israel chairman and 5 Madison

Tommy Hilfiger’s plan to buy the Clock Tower building for $170 million
has fallen apart because he has been unable to secure financing, Crain’s
reported. Together with real estate investment company JSR, he had
intended to purchase the property at 5 Madison Avenue between 23rd and 24th streets from Africa
Israel, and convert it in to a luxury hotel and condominium. JSR Capital said there were other reasons apart from financing
problems for why the deal fell apart. “Virtually everyone in the real
estate business has looked at Clock Tower as a hotel, residential,
and/or office,” said Ari Schwebel, vice president of operations at JSR
Capital. “Some of those were even all-cash buyers. There are reasons
not one of them has closed on the building, and it isn’t about
financing.” [more]

The penthouse triplex at 1 Main Street in Dumbo

David Walentas’ famous Clock Tower triplex in Dumbo has been pulled from the rental market less than a week after making headlines as the priciest apartment up for lease in Brooklyn.

The 7,000-square-foot spread, which is still listed for sale for $23.5 million, had been asking $50,000 per month. The Post reported yesterday that listing broker and “Selling New York” star Michele Kleier, of Gumley Haft Kleier, was seeking a renter to sign a two-year lease with an option to buy, but she confirmed to The Real Deal this morning that time has already run out for that opportunity. She declined to comment further on her reasoning, but once again, if you want views of the New York Harbor and Brooklyn Bridge through those 14-foot glass-faced clocks, you’re going to have to buy them. [more]

From left:Hilfiger, Lev Leviev (Africal Israel’s chairman) and 5 Mad.

Clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger is to buy the Clock Tower building at 5 Madison Avenue for $170 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, though current owners Africa Israel USA, the stateside branch of Africa Israel Investments, an international holdings and investments group, did not disclose the buyer in securities documents filed Thursday in Israel.

Africa Israel had previously intended to turn the building into condos, said the Journal. [more]

Africa Israel USA’s condominium conversion at the Clock Tower building near Madison Square Park is back on track — in modified form — and set to open within two years, the developer told Real Estate Weekly. The former MetLife building at 5 Madison Avenue, once envisioned as 55 luxury apartments designed by Donatella Versace, has been reconceived as a 99-unit project with smaller units of around 2,000 square feet each, said Peter Rosenberg, managing director of development for AFI USA. Versace is now out of the picture, and Mark Zef Design Interiors has been tapped to take her place. [more]

Real estate developer Africa Israel USA made major investments in residential conversion projects during the boom years. Two of its Downtown condominium projects, 111 Fulton Street and 20 Pine Street, hit successful milestones last month, but serious challenges remain for two others, the Upper West Side’s Apthorp and the Clock Tower, formerly the Metropolitan Life headquarters at 5 Madison Avenue.
This week, Lori Ordover, a sales and marketing consultant to Africa Israel, talks to Insights from The Real Deal about how the company cut prices by as much as 30 percent to attract sales at 20 Pine Street, where prices ranged from a low of $666 per foot in 2009 to more than $1,000 per foot recently. Forty units remain for sale.

Asked if she thought the company left money on the table as she compared the low $700 per foot deals to the $1,000 per foot deals, she said, “We really try hard to sell at the market. If I were starting sales today in this building, instead of three years ago — right when the market took its downturn — we would be pricing at a higher number.” (Note: correction appended).

She also addresses why Shvo Marketing, the former exclusive sales agent at 20 Pine Street, was replaced as announced last week by Warburg Realty Partnership, despite hitting the 90 percent-sold mark. She would not discuss any aspects of the 163 condominium units being marketed at the Apthorp at 390 West End Avenue or the 100-unit Clock Tower, which is looking to secure construction financing. [more]

From left: former New York Times building at 229 West 43rd Street; Richard Marin, CEO
of Africa-Israel; and the Clock Tower

Africa-Israel USA is negotiating with less than six management companies about running the hotel portion of the former New York Times building at 229 West 43rd Street and hopes to choose one next month, said Richard Marin, the company’s CEO. The company is also working to secure financing so it can redevelop the Clock Tower — formerly the Met Life headquarters — on Madison Square Park, into more down-scale condos, a different project than the more upscale model the company proposed in 2007, Crain’s reported. Before the recession hit in 2007, Africa-Israel was one of the most prodigious buyers of high-profile properties, purchasing the former New York Times Building, the Apthorp complex on the Upper West Side and the Clock Tower. But since the recession, the company has run into problems with its holdings. As part of its efforts to redesign its projects, Africa-Israel hired Peter Rosenberg as managing director of development. The Clock Tower will be among the projects he’ll supervise. [Crain's]

[more]

From the February issue:
Thirty years ago, the notion that the largely industrial area at the foot of the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges would one day command some of the highest prices in Brooklyn real estate might have seemed about as plausible as an elephant taking wing. Nowadays, of course, Dumbo is well established as one of Brooklyn’s most sought-after neighborhoods. So much so that it has weathered the real estate downturn better than Brooklyn as a whole — a reality that the few developers planning projects in Dumbo hope continues. In December, the publicly traded luxury home builder Toll Brothers closed on a parcel of land at 205 Water Street where the firm intends to develop a condo with approximately 70 units. Toll paid $8.6 million for the land and hopes to start building by the end of the year. “Dumbo is fairly unique within the Brooklyn market,” said David Von Spreckelsen, a senior vice president with Toll Brothers. “It’s really been holding value better than the other neighborhoods in Brooklyn, and if you look at [condo] resales they’re at really strong numbers.”  [more]