Vornado makes another play in Penn Plaza

$29M deal for 265 West 34th St. gives REIT three-parcel assemblage that could hint at bigger plans

265 West 34th Street
265 West 34th Street (inset: Steven Roth)

UPDATED, 6:05 p.m., Oct. 26: Steven Roth’s Vornado Realty Trust recently picked up a commercial building near Penn Station for $28.5 million in a move that expands the real estate investment trust’s sizable footprint in the area and could hint at greater plans to come.

Vornado acquired the property, at 265 West 34th Street, from a group led by Manhattan attorney William Silverman, according to property records filed with the city Monday. The deal, which closed Sept. 25, gives the company three contiguous properties on the block between Seventh and Eighth avenues that are ripe for redevelopment.

Though the single-story building at 265 West 34th Street spans only 1,690 square feet, the property features 16,900 buildable square feet – which values the transaction at just over $1,686 per buildable square foot.

Vornado also owns the adjacent four-story building at 267 West 34th Street, which it bought in 2013 for $3.1 million, as well as the four-story building at 484 Eighth Avenue, on the corner of Eighth Avenue and West 34th Street. Combined, the three properties have nearly 69,000 buildable square feet.

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Silverman is listed on property records as the “managing member” of a group that has owned the property since 1975. He did not immediately return requests for comment.

Vornado owns roughly 9 million square feet in the neighborhood surrounding Penn Station and acquired the nearby Old Navy Building, at 144-150 West 34th Street, for $355 million in June.

The REIT has looked to upgrade the area through investments in public plazas and infrastructure, as well adding value to its office space holdings there.

A spokesperson for Vornado declined to comment on the 265 West 34th Street acquisition. The property is home to fashion accessories store Cinderella Club.