Helmsley trust sells last two NYC stakes for $200M-plus

The Leona M. and Harry B. Charitable Trust sold its final two property interests in New York City for a total of more than $200 million, according to records filed with the city today.

Empire State Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust managed by Helmsley’s former partner Peter Malkin and his son Anthony, acquired the stakes in the sub-leasehold at 112 West 34th Street and the leasehold at 1400 Broadway.The 25 percent stake at the 916,111-square-foot building along Broadway was acquired for $77.5 million, records show. The 60.5 percent stake at the 762,927-square-foot office property along 34th Street cost nearly $127 million.

At the time of his death in 1997, Harry Helmsley had built up a $5 billion real estate empire in the U.S. His widow Leona began selling off his New York holdings, prior to her death in 2007.

The trust has already sold seven buildings to the REIT – one of them the Empire State Building interest. More than $2 billion in New York City assets have been sold between 2010 and now, as The Real Deal reported in a February analysis. There was a delay in some of the sales, as buildings were tied up in litigation.

Leona Helmsley’s 40-acre estate in Greenwich, Conn., hit the market earlier this month for $65 million, up from the $35 million for which it last sold in 2010, as previously reported.

Spokespeople for the Helmsley trust and Empire State Realty could not be immediately reached for comment.