SL Green sells New York REIT stake, adds new tenants

SL Green Realty shed its stake in New York REIT, the company announced Wednesday.

The real estate investment trust previously held 4.77 million New York REIT shares, worth round $45 million as of Wednesday. In December 2015 Bloomberg reported that SL Green was in talks to buy New York REIT outright, but the firm later denied the report.

After the SL Green deal failed to materialize New York REIT’s board decided to sell of the struggling REIT’s assets one-by-one. Last year, the company became embroiled in a tussle for power between the management and activist investors Michael Ashner and Steve Witkoff that ended with Wendy Silverstein becoming its external manager.

SL Green also announced leasing deals with a financial trade group and a nonprofit at two Midtown properties. The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, a trade group representing companies that sell derivatives, signed a 15-year lease for 32,814 square feet at 10 East 53rd Street. Meanwhile the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a Jewish relief organization, is taking 28,939 square feet for 30 years at 220 East 42nd Street.

The company sold a 90 percent stake in the retail building 102 Greene Street to an unnamed investor, valuing the entire property at $43.5 million, or $4,728 per square foot.

(To see more sales transactions from SL Green, click here)