David and Simon Reuben aren’t balking at the headlines.
Though retailers have been hit hard by the stay-at-home measures in light of the coronavirus pandemic, the London-based billionaires brothers and property investors just picked up a retail condo on Fifth Avenue for $170 million, Bloomberg reported.
SL Green Realty sold the retail condo at 609 Fifth Avenue, which is leased to Puma. The real estate investment trust — which was reportedly looking to sell the entire 13-story building — still owns the office portion above.
Since the pandemic lockdown began last month, SL Green saw its $815 million sale of the Daily News Building scuttled after the buyer, Jacob Chetrit, pulled out.
In an earnings call last week, the company announced a plan to beef up its cash balances to more than $1 billion in the next two months. SL Green CEO Marc Holliday acknowledged that had the sale to Chetrit gone through, the REIT would have already reached its goal. (The Daily News building deal is far from the only cancelled deal of late.)
In addition to that deal coming undone, SL Green’s stock has fallen more than 35 percent since last month. The company also suspended share buybacks and lowered its 2020 earnings guidance, Bloomberg reported.
In 2015, the Reuben brothers bought the Sahara Group’s debt on the Plaza Hotel and the Dream Hotel in New York and London’s Grosvenor House for $800 million. [Bloomberg] — Erin Hudson
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The Reuben brothers have paid about $117M for a London office building