1984: $400M sale sets record for NYC portfolio
The Gulf + Western Building
The Chicago-based charity John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation sold 19 commercial buildings in New York City to a Boston investment firm for $400 million 29 years ago this month. The move set a record at the time for the priciest commercial portfolio sale in the city.
The transaction included high-profile office towers such as the 407,767-square-foot 757 Third Avenue, the 134,706-square-foot 220 Fifth Avenue and the 521,228-square-foot Gulf + Western Building at 15 Columbus Circle (now 1 Central Park West).
The acquisition was the first in New York City for Winthrop, which is now known as Winthrop Realty Trust, and is based in both Boston and Manhattan.
The foundation — which supports a host of causes from human rights to conservation — needed to sell in order to conform to a 1969 federal law regulating excess holdings by charities.
The entire portfolio contained 4.5 million square feet and also included properties in Brooklyn and Queens.
The sale was not an overall investment sales record, however. In 1981, MetLife purchased 200 Park Avenue for $400 million, setting a record for a single-building sale. And in 1982, an investment firm structured an unusual sale-leaseback of the General Motors Building that valued the 50-story tower at a new single-building record of $500 million.
1951: NY Catholic Church launches $25M expansion
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York announced a $25 million development plan to construct 31 buildings, including hospitals, schools and convents, 62 years ago this month.
The church was in the midst of a post–World War II attendance boom that drove demand for new construction in its territory, which included Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island and seven upstate counties. The New York Archdiocese was headed by Cardinal Francis Spellman at the time.
The explosive growth was seen most clearly in school enrollment, which rose by 40 percent in the 10-year period ending in 1955 to about 200,000 students.
The projects included a $2 million wing for St. Vincent’s Hospital at 146 West 12th Street, as well as three convents in Manhattan and the Bronx, expected to cost $1.95 million.
The expansion plan was announced at a luncheon at the Building Trades Employers’ Association headquarters at 2 Park Avenue.
The development agenda was part of a larger church expansion plan. A few years earlier, in 1947, the church announced another postwar building initiative, also for about $25 million.
1924: Hearst secures Midtown headquarters site
William Randolph Hearst
The brash publishing giant, William Randolph Hearst, bought an option to purchase a large parcel of land near Columbus Circle 89 years ago this month. The site eventually became the location for his company’s landmarked headquarters.
Hearst purchased the right to buy the land lining the entire block front along Eighth Avenue between 56th and 57th streets. It’s unclear exactly when he purchased the land, but his architect began designing the building in 1926.
In 1928, the six-story International Magazine Building, constructed at a cost of $2 million, opened to house the offices of 12 magazines Hearst owned. The building was expected to be the base of a much larger tower, but the Depression forced Hearst to abandon those plans.
Hearst was one of the largest landowners around Columbus Circle, which he believed would become the next theater district. Among the many properties he owned was land that is now the Time Warner Center, which he purchased in 1920.
He lost control of his real estate holdings and his publishing empire in 1937 under a court-ordered reorganization that ultimately liquidated many of the non-publishing holdings, including the money-losing, luxury rental Ritz Tower at 465 Park Avenue.