The New York Institute of Technology is looking to cash in on Manhattan real estate prices by selling an academic building located a block west of Central Park.
The college has owned 1855 Broadway — a 12-story building near Columbus Circle — since 1975, records show. Located at the corner of Broadway and West 61st Street, the 78,000-square-foot property currently serves as a satellite campus for the Long Island-based school. Sources said the NYIT is seeking between $80 million and $100 million for the building, which is zoned for office and residential.
“The bones are an office,” said a source familiar with the property, which the school will seek to lease back for a one- or two-year period. “Or you can tear it down and build condos with some park views.”
The building is being marketed by a Newmark Grubb Knight Frank team that includes Jimmy Kuhn, Alex Foshay and Bill Lee. Neither the brokerage team nor school immediately returned calls seeking comment.
But sources said the school, based in Old Westbury, recently decided to focus investment on the Long Island campus by selling the prime Upper West Side asset.
The building is on the same block as several new residential towers. At 15 West 61st, AvalonBay recently launched sales for the Park Loggia, a 172-unit condo tower with a projected sellout of $550 million. (The developer paid $300 million in 2015 for the property, the former home of the American Bible Society.)
Across the street, Eyal Ofer’s Global Holdings — which backed Zeckendorf Development’s 15 Central Park West and 520 Park Avenue — filed plans for a mixed-used tower at 1841 Broadway. The project will rise 24 stories with 173 units, according to plans filed with the city.