As the city’s investment-sales market slowed to a crawl last year, Walton Street Capital attempted to sell its 49 percent stake in one of Midtown’s trophy buildings, 237 Park Avenue.
After a few months passed without a deal, the Chicago-based private equity firm took it off the market, and, along with partner RXR Realty, opted for a refinancing of $850 million. The move proved to be one of the prime examples last year of owners scrapping sale plans and instead tacking on fresh debt.
Now, Scott Rechler’s RXR and Walton Street want to sell the tower in full, with an unofficial price tag of around $1.4 billion, sources told The Real Deal.
The 21-story, 1.25 million-square-foot office tower at East 46th Street is home to JPMorgan Chase, advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, the Canadian consulate and New York-Presbyterian Hospital. The medical center paid $250.8 million last year for a 30-year, 500,000-square-foot leasehold condominium. And in recent months, JPMorgan signed for a renewal and expansion — by an undisclosed amount — at the building, sources said.
Sources said the recent leasing boost – from New York-Presbyterian and JPMorgan – led the owners to reconsider their shelved sale plans. Depending on the bidders and their offers, the firms will decide whether to sell at all, sources said.
RXR and Walton Street have also pumped significant capital into the property. They bought it from Lehman Brothers Holdings in 2013 for $800 million, and sunk $100 million into a renovation. Morgan Stanley and Societe Generale provided the refinancing last year.
If the tower were to sell for $1.4 billion, it would be one of the priciest commercial deals of the year so far – behind Google’s $2.4 billion purchase of the Chelsea Market building and Maefield Development’s $1.53 billion buyout of its partners at 20 Times Square.
A Cushman & Wakefield team led by Adam Spies and Doug Harmon is marketing the property for sale. Cushman was previously retained to market the minority stake, and brokered the refinancing.
Representatives for RXR, Cushman and JPMorgan declined to comment, and a Walton Street spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
RXR recently partnered with Olayan Group for a $300 million redevelopment of the Sony Building at 550 Madison Avenue and teamed with LBA Realty to buy three Queens development sites for $72 million.