NYC commercial brokerages miffed about direct $167M deal

Former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt’s $167 million purchase of 360 10th Avenue earlier this month turned heads but not just because of the price. The deal was also missing a key component in most pricey real estate transactions: a broker.

Some commercial brokerages were unhappy with the exclusion. Commissions, which are usually about 1 percent of the sales price, would have been roughly $1.7 million. These days, sellers are increasingly likely to accept a lower price if the deal can be done quietly and quickly. About 20 to 25 percent of commercial property sales in New York are off-market deals, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“We want to break records,” Eric Anton, managing partner of Brookfield Financial Management, told the Wall Street Journal. A broker’s incentive to earn high commissions and to attract the attention of other would-be buyers and sellers means they get their client the best price possible. “Owners are not good brokers,” Anton insisted.

The $167 million deal was the debut New York City purchase of McCourt, who made his name in Boston real estate. He plans to build a 730,000-square-foot mixed-use tower on the Far West Side site. [WSJ] – Mark Maurer