Waterman Interests, USAA look to sell Garment District buildings for $140M

Partners bought properties for $118M 4 years ago

From left: 142 West 36th Street, Waterman Interests founder Philip Waterman, USAA CEO Len O'Donnell and 234 West 39th Street (Credit: Google Maps)
From left: 142 West 36th Street, Waterman Interests founder Philip Waterman, USAA CEO Len O'Donnell and 234 West 39th Street (Credit: Google Maps)

A pair of office buildings in the Garment District is on the market with an asking price of $140 million.

Owners Waterman Interests and USAA Real Estate are looking to sell the buildings, which span more than 200,000 square feet combined, according to marketing materials.

The larger of the two buildings, 142 West 36th Street, stands 17 stories tall on the block between Seventh Avenue and Broadway with a total of 119,203 square feet. A few blocks north between Seventh and Eighth avenues, 234 West 39th Street spans 91,943 square feet across its 10 floors.

Representatives for Waterman Interests and USAA Real Estate could not be immediately reached. A Cushman & Wakefield team of Adam Spies, Doug Harmon, Adam Doneger and Kevin Donner is marketing the buildings. The brokers couldn’t be reached for comment.

According to Cushman’s marketing materials, the properties are 100 percent occupied, and can be sold separately or as a pair.

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Tod Waterman’s Waterman and USAA paid $117.75 million when they bought the buildings in 2015, and has since spent another $8 million upgrading the properties.

Waterman late last year teamed up with Brookfield Property Partners to acquire a long-term ground lease at 390 Park Avenue, where Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty has had difficulties refinancing the landmarked Lever House amid an upcoming rent escalation on its ground lease.

In the Garment District, meanwhile, lawmakers last year struck a deal to lift regulations that require landlords to rent certain spaces to fashion-related manufacturing buildings. The long-awaited move allows landlords to increase the value of their properties by renting office space to higher-paying tenants.

Investor East End Capital last year formed a partnership with a longtime Garment District landlord to upgrade and modernize its $120 million portfolio.