From left: Adam Spies, Robert Knakal, Woody Heller, Richard Baxter and Harry Krausman

Sources: CoStar Group, PropertyShark.com and The Real Deal.
Footnotes: Sales data is for Manhattan deals published on the city property record site Acris in September and provided by PropertyShark.com. Brokers and additional information is from CoStar Group and The Real Deal.

The top commercial deal to be recorded in city property records in September
was JPMorgan Chase Asset Management closing on the $719 million acquisition of the 14-story office and commercial building
200 Fifth Avenue, (part of the former International Toy Center buildings),
PropertyShark.com data shows. Eastdil Secured’s Adam Spies and Douglas
Harmon brokered the sale (see chart above). The purchase drove much of the
monthly total transfer value, which was $2.9 billion in commercial deals reported
on the city property record site Acris, an analysis of PropertyShark.com figures
show. [more]

From left: Steve Witkoff, founder of the Witkoff Group, 1107 Broadway, Yitzhak Tessler of Tessler Developments and Eastdil Secured’s Adam Spies and Douglas Harmon

Steve Witkoff’s Witkoff Group has completed its purchase of part of the former International Toy Center building from Lehman Brothers Holdings for $191 million, Lehman announced yesterday, following a bankruptcy auction by Eastdil Secured in June. Witkoff is planning a $290 million condominium conversion of the property, at 1107 Broadway, featuring 145 units, in collaboration with a Morgan Stanley real estate fund.

Eastdil Secured brokers Adam Spies and Doug Harmon represented the seller in the deal, and brought the buyer and seller together.

The closing of the 16-story office building follows the sale of 200 Fifth Avenue earlier this month, which was previously the main Toy Center building, for $726 million. [more]

Vornado Realty Trust Chairman Steven Ross and 11 East 68th Street (building credit: PropertyShark)Vornado Realty Trust went into contract to buy an Upper East Side rental building for $170 million, the New York Post reported.

The 11-story, 41-unit apartment building at 11 East 68th Street, with two rental units along Madison Avenue, hit the market in July, with some experts predicting it could fetch as much as $220 million, in part because of its potential for a condominium conversion. Adam Spies and Doug Harmon, senior managing directors at Eastdil Secured, marketed the property. [more]

The Daily News’ publisher could soon be the New York Post’s landlord. According to the Wall Street Journal, Mortimer Zuckerman-led Boston Properties was one of at least seven groups that bid for the News Corp. building at 1211 Sixth Avenue in Midtown last week, along with SL Green Realty, Vornado Realty Trust and Tishman Speyer among others.

In June, Beacon Capital, which purchased the building for $1.5 billion in 2006, enlisted Eastdil Secured to market the 2 million square foot building for about $900 per square-foot, in what is widely seen as a test of whether the trophy tower market has returned to peak prices. [more]

Clockwise from top left: Eastdil Secured’s Adam Spies, the Helmsley Building at 230 Park Avenue, Eastdil Secured’s Doug Harmon, Howard Michaels of the Carlton Group and Anthony Westreich of Monday Properties

From the August issue: For the owners of distressed properties, it’s a harrowing ride to stabilization. Note sale, foreclosure, bankruptcy or recapitalization, there is no easy path from financial trouble to stable footing. And while some savvy investors have seized control of valuable New York City properties, many owners and lenders have lost billions of dollars through distressed real estate sales and restructurings since the financial crisis began.
This month The Real Deal examines five deals and how they unfolded.
In the second part of the series, Monday Properties held onto a stake in the iconic Midtown tower at 230 Park Avenue but took a large hit to its equity share in the property. At the same time, other former owners such as one of Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall Street funds, bowed out entirely when Invesco Institutional and a Korean pension fund bought a 95 percent interest in the building. Click here to read the story. [more]

A pre-war Upper East Side rental building that just hit the market could draw $220 million, real estate experts predict, because of its potential to be turned into condominiums and the value of its prime 10,000 square feet of Madison Avenue retail space, according to Crain’s.
“There is a limited amount of properties on the market in general so investor interest should be through the roof for something like this,” Dan Fasulo, managing director at Real Capital Analytics, said of the 11-story property at 11 East 68th Street, which is owned by Abro Management. The building is considered a perfect target for conversion given the lack of pre-war condos in the city. [more]

Despite the sharp contrast between the steady rise in investment sales prices for New York City’s trophy buildings over the past year and a sputtering national economy, a group of local real estate professionals said the Manhattan market was still heating up. Adam Spies, a sales broker and senior managing director at Eastdil Secured, moderated a four-person panel last night on the rooftop of the Olivia residential rental building, at 315 West 33rd Street, that touched on property values, office rent pricing, hotel occupancy and residential development, sponsored by the real estate division of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (see photos above). The four panelists were David Schonbraun, co-CIO of office landlord SL Green Realty; Neil Luthra, principal with hotel owner Highgate Holdings; Scott Alper, principal at the property investment firm Witkoff Group; and Avi Banyasz, managing principal at private equity firm TPG Capital. Compiled and condensed by Adam Pincus Click here to read the Q & A.
[more]

Having just leased the first 10 apartments at 25 Broad Street last month, Lehman Brothers Holdings lives on and is looking to make some profit from prime New York properties, and perhaps pay off some creditors, according to the New York Observer.
Set to update a bankruptcy court on plans next week, Lehman has apparently shifted its tactics. The firm is moving to sell its share of key Manhattan assets such as the old International Toy Center at 200 Fifth Avenue and 1107 Broadway, and is quietly considering a new development at 235 West Broadway in Soho, the Observer reported. [more]

Beacon Capital Partners is seeking to sell all or a partial stake in the News Corp. building 1211 Sixth Avenue, one of the largest Midtown Manhattan office towers to hit the market since the economy turned in 2008, according to the Wall Street Journal. Eastdil Secured is slated to begin marketing the 2 million-square-foot building, between 47th and 48th streets, in the coming days.
Beacon is to aiming get “well north of $900 a foot” for the building, said Roy March, CEO of Eastdil, placing its value at more than $1.8 billion. It will determine whether to sell a stake or the entire building later in the process. [more]

From left: Jeff Sutton, SL Green CEO Marc Holliday, 141 Fifth Avenue

SL Green Realty and partner Jeff Sutton are selling their retail condominium at 141 Fifth Avenue, between 20th and 21st streets, in the Flatiron District, a spokesperson for the real estate investment trust told Crain’s. HSBC and a Cole Hahn store are currently tenants at the 20,000-square-foot storefront.
Eastdil Secured is marketing the property. The asking price was not immediately available.
Retail condos have been a hot commodity in the city lately, Crain’s said. Inditex, owner of Spanish clothing retailer Zara, broke national records in March when it paid $8,300 per square foot for a retail condo at 666 Fifth Avenue. SL Green list retail condo at 141 Fifth Avenue” class=”read-more-link”>[more]