Aussie developer raising $500M for Park Avenue Tower buy

65 East 55th Street
65 East 55th Street

Australian development titan Grocon is on the prowl for $500 million to finance its acquisition of a 95 percent majority stake at the Park Avenue Tower in Midtown East.

San Francisco-based investment firm Shorenstein Properties currently holds the majority stake at the tower, at 65 East 55th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues. The firm bought the building, along with 850 Third Avenue, for a total of $930 million from Macklowe Properties five years ago. Grocon, the largest privately owned firm of its kind in Australia, wants a fixed or floating rate loan with a five-year term.

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Jones Lang LaSalle is serving as an adviser, the New York Observer reported.

The 35-story, 615,857-square-foot property was built in 1986. Investment management firm Northern Trust left the Park Avenue Tower as a tenant this summer after signing a lease at LeFrak Organization’s 40 West 57th Street, as previously reported. [NYO]Mark Maurer