A group of Israeli investors is set to purchase the 1.5 million-square-foot Long Island City office tower One Court Square from SL Green Realty, sources told Real Estate Weekly. Among the investors is Joel Schreiber, owner of real estate investment firm Waterbridge Capital, and David Werner, a private real estate investor from Brooklyn.

SL Green took control of the property when it acquired the real estate investment trust Reckson in 2006, REW said. Citibank leases the entire 50-story building. The value of the transaction was not immediately clear, though the New York Post, which previously reported that the building was in contract, estimated it would close for slightly less than $500 million.  [more]

From the November issue: The Manhattan office leasing market began the year on a tear, leading executives as recently as four months ago to predict that volume could top 30 million square feet in relocation and expansion deals. Now, however, professionals — who have seen demand wane in the second half of the year — expect activity will fall far short of that.

Indeed, the fourth quarter — often a bright seasonal spot as firms try to wrap up leases before the end of the year — won’t deliver, sources say.

Leasing for 2011 is expected to reach only 25 million or 26 million square feet, barely ahead of last year’s 24 million square feet, figures from commercial firm CBRE show. The last three months of the year are not expected to help. “We are anticipating it being a slightly softer quarter than we have seen in the last three or four quarters,” Matthew Van Buren, president of CBRE’s Tri-State region, said last month at a media briefing. [more]

Beacon Capital may have to rethink the sale of the News Corp. building at 1211 Sixth Avenue, one of the largest Midtown Manhattan office towers to hit the market since the economy turned in 2008, Crain’s reported, after bids came in around 16 percent below the property’s asking price.

Beacon, which purchased the building in 2006 for $1.5 billion, put the 1.9 million-square-foot office tower up for sale in June for a reported $1.9 billion, but may instead look for an equity partner, Crain’s said, though the company wants to retain majority control in any partial sale.

Some high-profile potential buyers were said to have dropped out of the bidding. SL Green Realty and Vornado Realty Trust made offers, sources told Crain’s, but then decided against pursuing the deal. [more]

SL Green Realty has found a buyer for its leased fee interest in a 26-story, 193,000-square-foot property at 292 Madison Avenue and 41st Street for $85 million, or $440 per square foot, GlobeSt.com reported, the sale of which is expected to generate approximately $22.7 million in net proceeds for the company.

Eastdil Secured represented the company in the pending transaction.

SL Green paid Gramercy Capital $19 million for the interest in the building in 2010 as part of a deal for $391 million worth of office and retail, including the land and lease fee for the Lipstick Building at 885 Third Avenue and for 2 Herald Square. [more]

Potential buyers are offering about $130 million for the 16-story office building 1370 Broadway, owned by office landlord Sitt Asset Management and investor Carlton Associates, multiple sources said.

Sitt Asset, controlled by president Ralph Sitt, partnered with the Cohen family’s Carlton Associates to buy the property in 2003 for $57.18 million from property giant SL Green Realty.

Bids for the property, being marketed by Doug Harmon and Adam Spies, senior managing directors of Eastdil Secured, are coming in this week, sources said.

Sitt Asset, Carlton and Eastdil did not immediately return calls seeking comment. [more]

The Starrett-Lehigh Building

From the October issue: In December 2007, less than a year before the fall of Lehman Brothers and as the vise of the credit crunch was tightening, SL Green Realty closed on one of the biggest deals of the decade: $1.575 billion for 388 and 390 Greenwich Street, the 2.6 million-square-foot office complex then occupied largely by Citigroup.

But SL Green, New York’s biggest commercial landlord, did not act alone in the $598-a-square-foot purchase. It had a little help from some loonies, or Canadian dollars. The REIT’s minority partner on the deal, taking a 49.4 percent stake, was SITQ, the real estate investment wing of Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, a Montreal-based pension fund. (SITQ has since merged with Caisse’s other real estate subsidiary, and now goes by the name Ivanhoe Cambridge.) [more]

Joe Moinian and 3 Columbus CircleJoseph Moinian’s 3 Columbus Circle is close to landing its first major tenant since undergoing a $100 million renovation, the New York Post reported. The Y&R division of ad company WPP Group, which also owns Ogilvy & Mather and Grey, among others, is reportedly in talks for 350,000 square feet in the building through CB Richard Ellis tri-state CEO Mary Ann Tighe.

It would mark a major milestone for Moinian, who had deals aligned last year with the WIlliam Morris Agency and HQ Global Workplaces for a total of 110,000 square feet, before the Related Companies moved to foreclose on the property. [more]

From left: Wharton Properties President Jeff Sutton, SL Green President Marc Holliday, Stonehenge Managing Partner Ofer Yardeni, 724 Fifth Avenue and 760 Madison Avenue (building credits: PropertyShark)

A total of eight buildings were part of SL Green, Jeff Sutton and Stonehenge Partners’ previously reported bulk New York City buy.

According to new details reported today by MarketWatch, the total price of the eight-building portfolio was $416 million — $16 million more than originally reported — and includes 44 West 55th Street, 400 East 57th Street, 752 Madison Avenue and 19 and 21 East 65th Street, in addition to headliners 724 Fifth Avenue, a 12-story retail location that houses Prada, and 762 Madison Avenue, a five-story building with retail, including an Armani store, and office space. [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]

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]