German investment manager Deka Immobilien is shopping a 16-story office building in the heart of Midtown for around $200 million.
The building, at 19 West 44th Street, spans 293,000 square feet and is being marketed by Colliers International, Real Estate Alert reported.
Built in 1917, the Berkeley Building — located between Fifth and Sixth avenues — is 86 percent occupied with tenants including FSS Staffing Solutions, Lazare Kaplan International, Robert Derector Associates and PR shop Kaplow. Over the past few years, Deka spent millions of dollars upgrading the lobby, corridors, elevators and roof, and it built out 16 office suites.
Deka bought the building for $123.2 million in 2010 from SL Green Realty, which paid $91.2 million for the property in 2005. (Before that, Morgan Stanley Real Estate bought it for $69 million from a partnership between Emmes Group and Blackacre Capital.)
The Midtown office market has struggled due to competition from new spaces Downtown and on the Far West Side.
In May, leasing activity in the submarket totaled 420,000 square feet, down sharply from 1.86 million square feet in May 2016, according to a recent Colliers report. Availability in May was 10.9 percent with an average asking rent of $81.77 per square foot. [REA] — E.B. Solomont