SL Green has sold 49.5 percent of its interest in One Madison Avenue to Hines and the National Pension Service of Korea in a joint venture partnership, the companies announced Tuesday.
SL Green and Hines will co-develop the project, which will span 1.4 million square feet and cost $2.3 billion. Hines and the National Pension Service of Korea have committed at least $492.2 million in equity to the project.
The three companies have also partnered on a massive office tower under construction next to Grand Central Terminal, One Vanderbilt Avenue. SL Green CEO Marc Holliday said in a statement that he was “extremely pleased to bring this world-class team and partnership together again.”
The existing property at One Madison will be demolished down to its ninth floor and the firms will build 17 new floors above it. Architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox will lead the redesign of the building, which SL Green is redeveloping as-of-right using 218,000 square feet of development rights.
SL Green is looking to increase its cash balances to at least $1 billion as a cushion against the coronavirus pandemic, CFO Matthew DiLiberto said on the real estate investment trust’s first-quarter earnings call in late April.
The company had reached an agreement to sell the former Daily News building at 220 East 42nd Street to Jacob Chetrit for $815 million, but Chetrit backed out in late March after his lender in the deal, Deutsche Bank, withdrew.