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Normandy to buy ABC Carpet & Home’s longtime HQ
Rug purveyor would lease back a portion of 888 Broadway, 38 East 19th Street
UPDATED, Sept. 1, 11:39 a.m.: Normandy Real Estate Partners is in contract to acquire ABC Carpet & Home’s longtime headquarters in the Flatiron District for roughly $130 million, The Real Deal has learned.
The New Jersey-based investment firm, which has been active with New York City office repositionings, signed a contract for the rug purveyor’s home at 880-888 Broadway and the interconnected property at 38 East 19th Street in the past week, sources said.
Under the deal, ABC would continue to own the 20,600-square-foot retail condo at 888 Broadway and lease back a portion of both buildings. The retailer has owned and fully occupied the six-story building at 888 Broadway since 1981, sources said. ABC also owns the 10-story, 130,600-square-foot property at 38 East 19th Street, which houses the upscale restaurant ABC Cocina.
The space that Normandy is buying spans roughly 217,500 square feet, according to an offering memorandum.
ABC would still occupy the ground floor, basement and a small portion of the office space at 888 Broadway, sources said. Normandy plans to lease out the upper four floors of The Broadway building and floors four through seven at the 19th Street building, documents show.
The Broadway building consists of a retail condo and an 86,900-square-foot condo for office and manufacturing space. The square footage that each parties would own was not immediately clear.
ABC began quietly shopping the office-and-retail condominium at 880-888 Broadway last summer, and sources said Normandy has been circling the building since at least May.
Normandy is now seeking $94 million in senior mortgage financing and $46 million in future loan proceeds for both the acquisition and redevelopment of the buildings, documents show.
Arcturus Group’s Jonathan Mayblum advised ABC on the acquisition, and a Newmark Knight Frank debt team led by Dustin Stolly is handling acquisition financing.
The Weinrib family founded ABC in 1897, and in 1961 Jerome Weinrib took over the business and opened its first retail location at 881-887 Broadway in the Flatiron District. In 1981, ABC expanded and renovated the building across the street, at 880-888 Broadway, into its flagship location. Weinreb died last year.
In March, ABC signed a lease for 78,000 square feet at the Industry City office complex in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park, just months after closing a warehouse in the Bronx.
Representatives for Normandy, ABC and Newmark declined to comment, and Arcturus did not respond to requests for comment.
Normandy also owns the nearby 200,000-square-foot Class A office building at 797-799 Broadway, which it is considering either redeveloping and replacing with a new “51 Astor Place”-esque property.
Konrad Putzier and Hiten Samtani contributed reporting.