Rockpoint, Highgate slice $75M off price of Meatpacking site

Developers sought $350M for leasehold interest in 2018

Nusret Gökçe aka Salt Bae, 413-421 West 14th Street (foreground) and 412 West 15th Street (Credit: Getty Images, iStock)
Nusret Gökçe (aka Salt Bae), 413-421 West 14th Street (foreground) and 412 West 15th Street (Credit: Getty Images, iStock)

An office-and-retail development in the Meatpacking District is back on the market — and this time, it’s freshly packed with meat.

Rockpoint Group and Highgate Hotels are once again looking to sell their office development in the Meatpacking District, according to Crain’s. The developers told the publication that the property has inked a brand new retail lease for Turkish restaurateur Nusret “Salt Bae” Gökçe’s Nusr-Et steakhouse.

The partners are seeking $275 million for the leasehold interest on the three buildings at 412 West 15th Street and 413-421 West 14th Street. When the properties first hit the market in 2018, the asking price was $350 million.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Adam Spies, Doug Harmon, Kevin Donner, Adam Doneger and Josh King are marketing the leasehold.

The new price comes out to $1,074 per square foot. In addition to an overall decline in commercial real estate prices, uncertainty around the building’s retail space is another factor contributing to the reduction.

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“Few buyers truly know where retail rents are today in the neighborhood, and much fewer can intelligently hypothesize where they are headed,” Aurora Capital Associates’s Jared Epstein told Crain’s, adding that his firm might submit a bid for the offering. Taconic Investment Partners also expressed interest in a potential bid.

The 256,000-square-foot development still has about 11,000 square feet of vacant retail space, following the 12,000-square-foot Nusr-Et lease. Meanwhile, the project’s office space is nearly fully leased at above-market-average rents, including a deal for $200 per square foot on a penthouse floor.

Longtime property owner Meilman Family Real Estate owns the ground underneath the buildings. The Meilmans originally teamed up with Highgate to build a hotel on the site.

As the Meatpacking District began to show signs of evolving from a tourist destination to an office market, Rockpoint took over the leasehold in 2014, signing a 99-year deal with the Meilmans. Construction was completed in 2018.

The project consists of a new office building at 412 West 15th Street, a two-story retail building at 436 West 15th Street and a renovated office and retail building at 413 West 14th Street. [Crain’s] — Kevin Sun