The triangular-shaped landmark Flatiron building on 23rd Street at the junction of Broadway and Fifth Avenue has long been a mainstay, both for the people who work there and those who live nearby. Despite the fact that its current design is less than ideal for an office environment — with bathrooms on alternating floors and awkwardly shaped spaces ill-suited for modern furniture — an Italian developer’s idea to convert the building to a luxury hotel has been met with opposition from those who work there, the New York Times reported. “Everyone will be dragged kicking and screaming from here,” said Airie Stuart, publisher of Palgrave, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers, which rents most of the building. Stuart, like many of her co-workers, has a special allegiance to the 180,000-square-foot Flatiron. Though it is hard to configure office space in a triangle, she said, “the charm makes up for it.” [NYT]

[more]

Veronica Mainetti, head of the Sorgente Group’s U.S. office and 62 White Street (Source: PropertyShark)

Rome-based investment firm the Sorgente Group has purchased three commercial cast iron buildings at 60, 62 and 66 White Street in Tribeca’s East Historic District for $23 million. The company does not plan to renovate the fully-occupied buildings at this point but may give them a “green” rehab in the future, the company said. The publicly-traded company, which has a majority stake in the Flatiron Building, is one of the biggest real estate groups in Italy, controlling more than $2 billion worth of property around the world. TRD [more]

34 Greene Street and Sorgente’s Veronica Mainetti

Sales launched recently at the Sorgente Group’s 34 Greene Street, a new seven-unit Soho condo with plenty of elegant touches, and foreign buyers have since been paying it a lot of attention. Sorgente, which purchased the Flatiron Building last year and has been rumored to be zeroing in on the Woolworth Building, acquired 34 Greene in 2007. “Initially, it was primarily Europeans [looking for] a pied-a-terre,” said Jason Karadus of Prudential Douglas Elliman, who is the listing broker. “Europeans are less interested in things like a spa, a concierge and cold storage, and a lot of bells and whistles. They want something a little more quintessentially New York.” The condo may not have fancy amenities, but it does have a 5,000-square-foot duplex penthouse with 15-foot ceilings and 2,200 square feet of private outdoor space — which has been readied for the installation of a swimming pool. The penthouse is listed at $13.75 million and has already received a $10 million all-cash offer, which Sorgente’s Veronica Mainetti turned down. Downstairs, a European buyer has already snapped up a two-bedroom, 1,997-square-foot unit. It is in contract for about $4 million. [Post] [more]

Veronica Mainetti heads the Sorgente Group’s U.S. office.

From the January issue:
For more than a year, foreign investors have been sitting on the
sidelines waiting for a sign that the capital markets were beginning to
thaw and the time was right to invest in New York real estate.
One of the first big tests for them may be coming from an unlikely
source: the Sorgente Group, a Rome-based investment firm that has
already acquired some of the city’s most iconic properties and is
currently negotiating to buy another — the famed Woolworth Building in
Lower Manhattan.
In addition to those Gotham properties, the group, headed by
investor Valter Mainetti, is reportedly in talks to acquire some of the
most sought-after buildings in the United States, including San
Francisco’s TransAmerica Pyramid.  More

With commercial property values spiraling downward, foreign investors are looking to inject capital into Manhattan’s premier buildings, but some experts say they’re too eager for their own good. There’s not enough product to go around, said columnist Lois Weiss, and foreigners are having trouble securing bids on properties, or even getting their calls returned. “Everyone shows up wanting to buy trophies on the cheap and thinks they’re going to steal the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building,” said Will Silverman of Studley’s capital markets group. Nonetheless, many foreign investors are succeeding in their efforts, and benefiting from exchange rates to boot. Recently, Joseph Cayre partnered with Israeli IDB Associates in purchasing 452 Fifth Avenue from HSBC at $400 per foot, and another Israeli company, Gilmore and Optibase, is acquiring SL Green Realty’s 485 Lexington Avenue at $560 per foot. The Middle Eastern Safra family is in serious talks to buy a 49 percent interest in 299 Park Avenue from UBS, and the Italian Sorgente Group purchased a piece of the Flatiron Building this week. [Post, 1st item]

Italian real estate and financial firm Sorgente Group is the latest among a series of international investors eyeing Manhattan office buildings. Sorgente CEO Valter Mainetti told Bloomberg that his group is in talks to purchase a 51 percent stake in the 57-story Woolworth Building at 233 Broadway in the Financial District. Sorgente, which is also invested in the Flatiron Building, is reportedly in talks to invest in two other New York City buildings, but Mainetti said he could not disclose what they were.

Buildings in the Flatiron District

Real estate prices in the Flatiron District began falling in 2008, and transaction volume has plunged over the last six months, according to an analysis of the neighborhood by investment services firm Eastern Consolidated. For the majority of the last seven years, the average price per square foot in the Flatiron District ranged from about $250 to $350 per square foot. The average price per square foot for office buildings in the neighborhood peaked at $600 per square foot in 2007. One of the few commercial transactions of this year in the Flatiron District took place when real estate developer Sorgente Group purchased a more than 50 percent stake in the Flatiron Building at 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue. The company plans to turn the building into a hotel. TRD [more]