Clarion to buy Midtown South tower for $225M

Clarion Partners, a real estate investment manager, has agreed to buy the 270,000-square-foot 100-104 Fifth Avenue in Midtown South for $225 million, Bloomberg News reported. Kaufman Organization and Invesco are the property’s sellers. They bought the 17-story building, between 15th and 16th streets, in 2010 for $93.5 million.

The deal, which is valued at over $800 per square foot, shows how much buyers will shell out to acquire office space in the tech-heavy neighborhood, Bloomberg said.

“Employers want to be in Midtown South because their employees want to be there,” Ben Thypin, director of market analysis at Real Capital Analytics, told Bloomberg. “As a result, employers are willing to pay significantly higher rents in Midtown South than they have historically, and, in turn, the anticipation of further rent growth makes Midtown South an attractive place to buy property.”

Woody Heller, Will Silverman and Eric Negrin of Studley represented the seller in the deal.

Online reviews site Yelp is a tenant at the building, and last year tripled its office presence, as previously reported. Apple’s iAd mobile advertising division is another tenant, which also upped its space.  [Bloomberg News] —Zachary Kussin