Entity tied to George Soros protege sells Chelsea commercial building for $43M

An LLC tied to hedge funder Mark Sonnino has sold the commercial office building at 555 West 25th Street for $43.3 million to a London-based developer.

High Line Realty LLC, controlled by Sonnino, sold the six-story, 51,000-square-foot loft building to Mactaggart and Family Partners, according to property records. Sonnino’s firm bought the property at 555 West 25th Street five years ago for $27 million. Last May, High Line Realty listed the building for $52 million.

With the sale to Mactaggart, Sonnino’s High Line Realty LLC obtained about $843 a square foot for the Chelsea property.

The Real Deal previously reported that the building generated $1.8 million in annual rental revenue in 2017, though those leases were under market-rate. Douglas Elliman’s Yoko Sanada, the listing broker, told TRD last year that all of the current leases are set to expire by 2021; if renewed, she projected net operating income would hit $3 million by 2022.

Sonnino, a George Soros protege, co-founded Satellite Asset Management, which had close to $7 billion under management in early 2008 before it closed following the financial crisis.

Mactaggart is currently locked in a legal struggle with the Ponte family over the luxury hotel at 456 Greenwich Street. Last year, it looked to sell the leasehold interest in 589 Fifth Avenue, which is anchored by retailer H&M.

The sale at 555 West 25th Street compares favorably to another sale on West 25th Street in December, when Savanna bought a 126,000-square-foot commercial office building at 48 West 25th Street for $90 million ($715 a square foot).