Princeton, Dune, Empire to buy Plaza District building for $170M-plus

Plans involve conversion for big box retail

11 East 59th Street with David Tawfik, Jeremy Nazarian and Vikram Jambu (inset)
11 East 59th Street with David Tawfik, Jeremy Nazarian and Vikram Jambu (inset)

Princeton International Property and its partners are in contract to Buy The Plaza District office building owned by nonprofit Lighthouse International for more than $170 million, sources told The Real Deal.

David Tawfik’s Princeton International, Dune Real Estate Partners and Empire Capital Holdings are paying between $170 million and $180 million to buy the blindness-advocacy organization’s 14-story, 200,000-square-foot headquarters at 111 East 59th Street, sources said.

The plan appears to be to convert the lower floors of the building, also known as the Sol and Lillian Goldman Building, to make way for a big-box retail tenant.

Andrew Mandell’s Ripco Real Estate has a listing marketing the property in the “Bloomingdales Corridor” with 26,000 square feet across the lower level, ground and second floors.

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Lighthouse occupies the majority of the property, located between Park and Lexington Avenues.

Jeremy Nazarian and Vickram Jambu of Venture Capital Properties represented the buyers in off-market deal. The brokers declined to comment.

Correction: A previous version of this post identified the buyer as Princeton Holdings. The buyer is Princeton International Property.