Private equity firm Westbrook Partners just closed on the acquisition of a Midtown South office building at 31 West 27th Street for north of $80 million, The Real Deal has learned.
The 12-story, 126,024-square-foot building is located at Between Broadway And Sixth Avenue. The seller, San Francisco-based Walnut Hill Group, bought the building for $65 million in 2012 from Sharif El-Gamal, as TRD reported.
El-Gamal, the CEO of Soho Properties who grabbed headlines for his attempt to build an Islamic cultural center known as Park51 in Lower Manhattan, Acquired The West 27th Street building in 2009 for $45.7 million.
The Westbrook deal was first reported by Real Estate Alert.
Studley’s Woody Heller, Will Silverman and Eric Negrin represented Walnut Hill in the transaction. Silverman declined to comment. A representative for Westbrook did not comment by press time.
The Stella Adler Studio of Acting has about 30,000 square feet at the building, according to CoStar data. Other tenants include architecture firm Stonehill & Taylor Architects, as well as advertising firm Federated Media.
Walnut Hill, founded in 2010 by Albert Hwang, Jimmy Park and Stephen Yang, owns an interest in the Holiday Inn Express hotel at 13-15 West 45th Street.
In December, Westbrook sold two retail assets at the base of the Astor and Metro buildings for $130 million to Midtown-based investment fund Madison Capital.