Rockrose buys out partner at 45 Wall St.

Rockrose Development Corp. became the sole owner of the apartment building at 45 Wall Street after buying out the controlling interest from an Illinois pension fund for a net price of $70.8 million, the fund’s spokeswoman Eva Goltermann confirmed today.

The Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois, which had owned 56 percent of the building, sold its share of the 28-story tower in February, she said.

The fund had invested in the building as early as 2004, city records show.

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The Financial District tower built in 1959 had gone from an empty office building to residential apartments after Rockrose bought it in 1996.

The structure was also part of an abandoned plan from 2001 to replace five buildings with a new $1.4 billion trading complex for the New York Stock Exchange, which would have been heavily subsidized by the city.
 
The city spent an estimated $6 million to move tenants out of the 435 units, but the plan fizzled after the attacks on the World Trade Center and subsequent tight city budgets.