New York REIT [TRDataCustom] hired RKF’s investment sales division to oversee the selloff of its standalone retail properties as the troubled real estate investment trust liquidates its $2.78 billion office-and-retail portfolio.
RKF vice chairman Jeff Fishman will lead a team marketing the assets, the bulk of which are concentrated on Bleecker Street. The buildings are located in such neighborhoods as Midtown West, Tribeca and Greenwich Village.
“We’ll be marketing them both individually and as a portfolio – whatever will bring best results for the seller,” said Fishman, who declined to comment on pricing.
New York REIT, whose board last summer approved a plan to dissolve the company amid an accounting scandal that caused share prices to plummet, was formed in 2009 as a vehicle to acquire real estate at the bottom of the market.
The REIT acquired the seven standalone retail properties between 2010 and 2012 for a total of $99 million, records show.
In late 2010, it bought six retail condominiums at 367-369, 382-384 and 387 Bleecker Street from Beck Street Capital for $35 million. The REIT increased its holdings on the trendy shopping corridor in 2013 when it picked up a retail co-op and parking garage at 350 Bleecker Street for $10.9 million.
The properties are tenanted with fashion brands Burberry, Michael Kors, Havaianas, APC and Sarah Pacini. The 480-square-foot condo at 387 Bleecker, however, is vacant. And amid high retail availabilities across the city, Bleecker stands out as one of the more troubled areas.
Fishman referred to Bleecker as the “more the value-add part of the portfolio” and could attract a separate buyer from the other properties.
Those include a retail condo at 416 Washington Street in Tribeca, the retail portion of the One Jackson Square condo building at 122 Greenwich Avenue in the Village and a retail condo and parking garage at 350 West 42nd Street at the base of Extell Development’s Orion apartment building in Midtown West.
Wendy Silverstein, who was appointed head of NYRT in February to oversee its liquidation, said the decision to select Fishman and RKF to sell off the retail was one she made “shortly after I came on board as CEO.”
The REIT is in the midst of liquidating its 3.3 million-square-foot portfolio, which it expects to be completed by the end of March.
Eastdil Secured and CBRE are handling the sale of crown jewel in the portfolio – the 1.8 million-square-foot One Worldwide Plaza – as well as the 756,000-square-foot 1440 Broadway. Eastdil is also marketing the 240-key Viceroy Hotel on West 57th Street, and CBRE is overseeing the sale of the parking garage at the base of the Centurion condo building at 33 West 56th Street. Cushman & Wakefield is marketing the remainder of the portfolio.
(To view more of New York REIT’s commercial sales transactions, click here)