Vanbarton Group buys 425 Lexington Avenue for $700M

One of the largest investment sales deals of the year closed Tuesday when the Vanbarton Group bought the office tower 425 Lexington for $700 million.

The firm, led by Gary Tischler and Richard Coles, will take over the 780,000-square-foot office building, according to the New York Post.

Real Estate Alert reported in August that Vanbarton would be making the purchase on behalf of an unidentified fund. The seller is a client of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, and Hines manages the office tower. It last traded in 2013 for $665 million.

The 31-story building between 43rd and 44th streets is nearly fully leased, with just two vacant floors. Asking rents are reportedly priced between $80 and $90 a square foot. Last year, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce renewed its 138,000-square-foot lease in the building.

Vanbarton has made a handful of movements across the city in recent months. This week it lost a small amount on a Windsor Terrace rental building that it sold to Dermot Company for $75 million — $900,000 less than what it paid for in 2015. And in April, the firm purchased the UN-leased Albano Building for $117M at 305 East 46th Street. [NYP] — David Jeans