Ashkenazy in $400M contract for 625 Madison land

Ashkenazy Acquisitions is in contract to buy the ground under 625 Madison Avenue for roughly $400 million. SL Green Realty currently has a long-term lease at the 563,000-square-foot, 17-story building.

Ashkenazy – headed by Ben Ashkenazy and Michael Alpert – already own the leasehold at 635 Madison Avenue, the retail condominium rented out to Barney’s at 660 Madison Avenue and the retail condo occupied by Prada at 841 Madison Avenue.

The land is being sold by its longtime family owners, the New York Post reported, but the newspaper did not name them.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Helen Hwang, Steve Kohn, Nat Rockett, Karen Wiedenmann and Sujohn Sarkar were marketing the property. SL Green’s lease ends in 2054, and the current $4.6 million rent is due for a reset in 2022, which could see it jump to $50 million, according to the Post.

Polo Ralph Lauren currently occupies 70 percent of the office space, while the 30,500-square-foot retail space is leased by high-end stores including Lavo and Swarovski.

Over the past year, Ashkenazy has spent $90.5 million acquiring a Midtown portfolio from Emmes Management, as The Real Deal reported. [NYP]  – Hiten Samtani