UPDATED Jan. 31, 02:47 PM: Jared Kushner sold his equity stake in 666 Fifth Avenue, once the most expensive office building in America. According to a spokesperson for Kushner Companies, the stake was sold to a family trust, but the company declined to comment on who exactly would control it.
“Mr. Kushner’s ownership interests were sold using a third-party appraisal for fair market value to a family trust, of which he is not a beneficiary,” the spokesperson said.
Earlier this month, Kushner’s attorney Jamie Gorelick announced that upon taking the position of senior adviser in Donald Trump’s White House, Kushner would divest from more than 35 assets, selling many of them to either his brother Josh or a trust controlled by his mother, Seryl Kushner.
Reuters first reported on Tuesday afternoon that he had sold his equity stake in 666 Fifth Avenue.
“Mr. Kushner divested his equity interest in 666 Fifth Avenue, and has no role in the management or operations of the property,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters.
Although Kushner paid $1.8 billion for the building in 2007, he soon sold off a major stake in the retail portion to Carlyle Group and Crown Acquisitions for $525 million. In 2011, Kushner brought in Vornado Realty Trust as a partner during a debt restructuring.
The Kroll bond rating agency appraised Kushner’s building in July 2016, concluding that the office tower — which, at the time, was 20 percent vacant — was worth about $982.1 million.
George Gellert, the New Jersey food importer who cosigned the deed for 666 Fifth Avenue and has an interest in the Kushner stake, did not have any purchasing option, a spokesperson for Gellert told The Real Deal on Monday.
In early January, the New York Times reported that Kushner had met with top executives at Anbang Insurance Group to discuss bringing the opaque Chinese conglomerate on as a partner at 666 Fifth Avenue. That meeting took place shortly before the election, sources told the Times. A representative for Anbang could not immediately be reached for comment.
While President Donald Trump’s transfers of properties into his revocable trust have already hit public records, Kushner’s divestment may not register for a number of weeks.