From left: SL Green co-CIO Isaac Zion, 711 Third Avenue and Darcy Stacom, vice chairman of CBRE

SL Green Realty is putting its leasehold on 711 Third Avenue, and a 50 percent interest in the underlying ground, on the market, sources told Crain’s. The 580,000-square-foot building, between East 44th and East 45th streets, may likely command a high asking price — between $200 million and $225 million, according to experts — because of its proximity to Grand Central Terminal. Darcy Stacom, vice chairman of CB Richard Ellis, is handling the sale on behalf of SL Green. The property has a well-known mosaic in the lobby designed by abstract expressionist painter, Hans Hofmann. Tenants include Crain Communications and Parade Magazine, the latter of which has eight years left on its lease. [more]

From left: CBRE’s Darcy Stacom and William Shanahan, 2 Grand Central Tower and 299 Park Avenue

It’s been a good week for CB Richard Ellis’ Darcy Stacom and William Shanahan. The Alaska Permanent Fund has agreed to pay $1,075 per square foot for a 49.5 percent stake they were marketing in 299 Park Avenue, sources told the New York Post, in a deal revaluing the property at $1.25 billion.

The pair were hired by the Rockpoint Group to market their share in May. Rockpoint purchased the stake from Swiss bank UBS in January 2010. That earlier deal had valued it at just over $600 million, or $625 per square foot.

Developer Fisher Brothers still holds the majority share and runs the Class A building. [more]

From left: Steven Roth, Stephen Ross, Darcy Stacom, Marc Holliday and Norman Sturner

From the July issue: These days — with credit tight and lawsuits sprouting like weeds — no real estate transaction is simple. Whether it’s a one-bedroom condo or a distressed office building, sales are often slower and more complicated than expected.
That said, some deals have so much “hair” on them that they deserve special recognition. This month, The Real Deal took a behind-the-scenes look at some of the most complicated deals in the last year. These include some of the city’s highest-profile transactions, such as Google’s $1.77 billion purchase of the Chelsea office building at 111 Eighth Avenue. The building’s owners were able to lure the technology behemoth into an all-cash deal, but only after they spent a nerve-racking two weeks — during which the property was not actively marketed — waiting for Google’s top brass to approve the record-setting sale.

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Two Grand Central Tower, a 667,000-square-foot office building at 140 East 45th Street between Lexington and Third avenues, has hit the sales market and could bring in more than $370 million, the New York Post reported. The building is currently owned by Boston Properties, Goldman Sachs and Meraas Capital, which is controlled by Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid. Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan of CB Richard Ellis have been hired to market the property. As The Real Deal previously reported, the 44-story tower was built in 1982 and later sold by developer Harry Macklowe to the team led by Boston Properties for $237 million and the assumption of $190 million in mortgage debt in 2008.

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From left: Mary Ann Tighe, MaryAnne Gilmartin, Pamela Liebman and Dottie Herman

Brokering Conde Nast’s relocation to 1 World Trade Center earned CB Richard Ellis’ Mary Ann Tighe the top spot on this year’s Crain’s list of the 50 most powerful women in New York City. Tighe, who is also the first female to lead the Real Estate Board of New York, came in third on the list last year, but that was before the $2 billion Conde lease, which is widely considered a catalyst for the Financial District’s rebirth. Earlier this month, when Tighe became the first female recipient of the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate’s Urban Leadership Award, James Kuhn, president of Newmark Knight Frank, said the lease “might turn out to be the biggest transformational deal in [his] lifetime.” More powerful New York females after the jump. [more]

Seattle-based Sabey Data Center Properties has purchased a controlling interest in the former Verizon Tower at 375 Pearl Street for $120 million, according to Crain’s. The 32-story processing center, widely considered one of the city’s worst eyesores, had once been slated to undergo an office conversion under Taconic Investment Partners, which bought the property from Verizon for $173 million in 2007. Those conversion plans never materialized, as Taconic wound up defaulting on its mortgage payments, and M&T Bank took control of the mostly-empty building last year. Sabey has no intention of reviving the offices idea, instead opting to transform the 29 floors it’s taking over into a data processing center that can handle 40 megawatts of power — enough for 40,000 homes — by 2012. [more]

The developers of the Corner, the popular Upper West Side rental tower that opened last year at 72nd Street and Broadway, have already cashed in, selling their 196-unit property to retirement system TIAA-CREF for $209 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. The developers, a joint venture of Philips International and Rhodes Associates for the Corner, had spent more than 20 years assembling the prime development site and will hold onto the 48,000-square-foot retail space in the building, currently home to Trader Joe’s and Duane Reade. The sale price for the rest of the building — including its generous amenity spaces — works out to more than $1 million per unit, or around $1,400 per square foot, which is about double that of the typical rental apartment transaction, thanks to the Corner’s high rental rates: one-bedrooms there go for between $5,000 and $6,000 per month. [more]

Kuwaiti investment firm Fosterlane Management, the former owner of the Lipstick Building and 350 Park Avenue, is getting back into the New York City real estate game with the purchase of Hines Interests’ 750 Seventh Avenue for $485 million, or roughly $808 per square foot, the Post reported. Earlier this week, the Observer reported that the 600,000-square-foot tower near 49th Street tower was in contract to sell to an anonymous offshore investor. Hines purchased the 36-story tower, half of which is occupied by Morgan Stanley, for $150 million in 2000 through a partnership with General Motors. [more]

Hines Interests is in contract to sell off 750 Seventh Avenue, the 600,000-square-foot tower at 48th Street, to an offshore investor after drawing interest from at least 20 to 30 bidders, according to the Observer. It’s unclear what the still-anonymous buyer has agreed to pay for the 36-story building, which was acquired by Hines for $150 million in 2000 through a partnership with General Motors and is half-occupied by Morgan Stanley. Other tenants include Ernst & Young and Mendes and Mount. CB Richard Ellis brokers Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan had been quietly shopping the property to investors, and according to one source, prospective buyer activity was “through the roof.” [NYO]

From left: David Noonan, Jennifer Schwartzman, Robert Eisenberg, Barry Gosin, Mark Weiss and Steven Spinola

Newmark Knight Frank brokers David Noonan and Jennifer Schwartzman took home the top prize last night at the Real Estate Board of New York’s Most Ingenious Deal of the Year Awards. The ceremony honored the most creative commercial deals made in the last year, as judged by a panel that includes brokers and property owners, according to REBNY President Steven Spinola.

Taking home second place were Robert Eisenberg, Barry Gosin and Mark Weiss, also from Newmark, while CB Richard Ellis’ Darcy Stacom and William Shanahan nabbed third place. [more]