Vornado Realty Trust has struck a $173 million deal to sell its Center Building office property in Long Island City, where the office market has held up favorably compared to Manhattan’s.
The Steve Roth-led REIT is in contract to sell the roughly 550,000 square-foot building at 33-00 Northern Boulevard to a partnership led by 60 Guilders, sources told The Real Deal.
The property is near fully leased to government agencies including the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the city’s Human Resources Administration. Such agencies are generally long-term tenants that pose no relocation risk, particularly in this area of Long Island City, which has a large concentration of government offices.
Vornado purchased the building for $142 million in 2015.
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A spokesperson for Vornado declined to comment and a representative for 60 Guilders did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The deal was brokered by a Cushman & Wakefield team led by Adam Spies and Doug Harmon, who declined to comment. An Eastdil Secured team led by Steven Binswanger represented 60 Guilders in the deal.
Led by Kevin Chisholm and Bastien Broda, 60 Guilders is teaming up on the deal with a fund run by Sixth Street Partners overseen by Jonathan Klein, formerly the co-head of the real estate group at Fortress Investment Group.
Last year, 60 Guilders bought the Downtown Brooklyn office property at 12 Metrotech Center for $128 million in partnership with the hedge fund Davidson Kempner.
With all the uncertainty facing office landlords, Long Island City’s market is trending in a positive direction.
Availability in the Queens neighborhood has been falling for three consecutive quarters while Manhattan availability is on the rise, according to first-quarter reports from Newmark.
Long Island City asking rents climbed 4.5 percent from the end of 2021 through the first three months of the year to an average of just over $54 per square foot. Manhattan asking rents gained just 0.4 percent during that time.