Vornado acquires Carlton House retail for $280M

Vornado Realty Trust is in contract to purchase all 33,389 square feet of retail space at 680 Madison Avenue, formerly the Carlton House Hotel, for $280 million, according to the New York Post. The retail is at the base of a condominium conversion planned by Gary Barnett’s Extell Development and Angelo, Gordon & Co. The deal works out to about $8,235 per square-foot.

About 13,000 square feet of the retail space has leases out, according to the Post, and asking rents were $1,500 per foot for the ground floor and $350 per foot for the second floor. After purchasing the site for $164 million in 2010, Extell and Angelo, Gordon initiated a renovation that would add two stories and a townhouse to the hotel and apartment building and convert it into 57 condos. But the most significant upgrades were planned for the retail space, which got larger windows and doors, in part to justify the high asking prices.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Ironically, while Vornado and Extell were able to work out this deal, the two development firms are maneuvering to compromise each other’s plans for projects along Central Park South.

The Madison Avenue purchase comes on top of Vornado’s deal earlier this month to purchase the retail space at 666 Fifth Avenue. The Post said the real estate trust is also on the verge of acquiring 75 Rockefeller Plaza, a nearly vacant building at West 51st Street that requires significant upgrades, from Mohamed Al Fayed, the former owner of Harrod’s. [Post, 2nd item]