LA investment fund buys Meatpacking office building for $65M

Blackrock Realty Advisors has closed on the sale of an office and retail building at 428 West 14th Street in the Meatpacking District for $65 million, according to public records filed with the city today.

The five-story, 47,3000-square-foot building, which is currently 100 percent occupied by retail and office tenants such as Scoop, Alexander McQueen and Hogs & Heifers, sold to a Los Angeles-based private investment fund called the Yucaipa Companies, the records show. The deal, which closed Dec. 29, was made for “portfolio considerations” on Blackrock’s behalf, a source with knowledge of the deal told The Real Deal, saying the company was rearranging some of its assets.

Yucaipa, which reportedly has an ownership interest in Scoop, saw the purchase as a long-term investment strategy, the source said, as the majority of the building’s retail leases were significantly below market rate. Yucaipa is owned by business magnate Ron Burkle.

“They were done many years ago,” the source said, “so there’s a great opportunity to improve the [leasing income] when they expire.”

There is 9,460-square-foot of retail space in the building in total, according to data from PropertyShark.com, and 37,840-square-foot of office space.

Richard Baxter, Jon Caplan, Scott Latham and Ron Cohen, all vice chairmen at Jones Lang LaSalle represented the seller in the deal. Baxter declined to comment on the transaction. A representative for Yucaipa, which represented itself in the deal, was not immediately available for comment. Mario Mirabelli, a director at Blackrock, declined to comment.