Vornado assumes control of 608 Fifth Avenue

Vornado Realty Trust has taken over RFR Holdings’ mortgage at 608 Fifth Avenue, the mixed-use building in Midtown, also known as the Swiss Center, and is shopping some 44,000 square feet of retail space there, the New York Post reported. Vornado also signed a ground lease for the building with the land owner, the estate of the late Sarah Korein — a once-legendary Manhattan landlord whom CBRE tri-state chair Mary Ann Tighe once called “the toughest dealmaker imaginable” — in December.

Aby Rosen’s RFR had leased the building since 1998, the Post said.

Vornado has now begun to “quietly pitch” the retail space, which covers four floors at the building, between 48th and 49th streets, the Post said. [NYP] –Guelda Voien