GM Building sale lifts some clouds over market

Harry Macklowe’s sale of the GM Building to a Mort Zuckerman-led group has restored a bit of confidence in the investment sales market. “This is all good news for the market, and I think people will be relieved,” Eric Anton, executive managing director of Eastern Consolidated, told the Observer. “I think it will be quiet for the summer, and then, hopefully, building sales will start picking up.” Parsing the GM Building’s sale isn’t so simple. The buyers, which include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Middle Eastern investors, took on the $1.9 billion in debt that Macklowe owed on the building. Raising that $1.9 billion in capital would have been challenging, brokers say.