The development firm Lexin Capital, which earlier this year snapped up a Chelsea office building and is constructing a hotel in the neighborhood, bought a pair of Financial District buildings from the Century 21 department store company for $46 million, according to public filings recorded today.
Metin Negrin’s development company went into contract on the buildings at 75 and 79 Nassau Street on December 18 and closed June 3. The buildings’ current tenants include a diner and a women’s clothing store.
Negrin said he plans to renovate the apartments and retail spaces at the properties.
“We believe in the area very much — the whole change of Lower Manhattan,” he told The Real Deal, adding that asking rents in the range of $130 or $140 a square foot should provide a discount to tenants looking for space near a newly-revamped Fulton Transit Center, slated to open June 26.
The seller, the Century 21 company, was represented by Massey Knakal.
“This transaction really demonstrates the strength of the market downtown,” Bob Knakal said. “There were a tremendous number of people interested and bidding on it, and that drove the price up to a very compelling level.”
Back in March, Lexin Capital paid $81.5 million for an office building at 229 West 28th Street. The company is currently shopping 12,786 square feet of space in that building at $54 a square foot, according to a newly launched website for the property.
Lexin began construction last year on a 30-story Hyatt House hotel on 28th Street, as TRD previously reported. Negrin said the foundation is 90 percent done. He expects work to begin on the ground floor within the next few weeks.