CIM Group agreed to buy SL Green Realty’s Downtown Brooklyn office tower at 16 Court Street for $171 million.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter, SL Green said in a statement Thursday. The real estate investment trust and City Investment Fund bought the 36-story, 317,600-square-foot building for $107.5 million in 2007. Six years later, SL Green bought out its partner for $62.5 million, valuing the building at $96.2 million.
Last year, Andrew Chung’s Innovo Property Group and San Francisco-based DivcoWest were close to buying the property, but that deal never materialized.
The tower is currently 96 percent occupied, according to SL Green. Tenants include the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York City College of Technology and Walgreens. At 38 stories, it is the tallest office tower in the borough.
CBRE’s Darcy Stacom brokered the sale to CIM.
The deal marks the California-based fund manager’s second big investment in the Brooklyn office market within a year. Last August it partnered with Kushner Companies and LIVWRK to buy the Watchtower building at 25-30 Columbia Heights in Dumbo for $340 million.
In December The Real Deal broke down the firm’s unusual strategy and its rise to become one of New York’s most aggressive new development players. –– Konrad Putzier