Columbia Property Trust takes haircut on 149 Madison

Columbia Property Trust is taking a haircut on one of its Manhattan office buildings.

The REIT sold the 12-floor, 121,000-square-foot property at 147-149 Madison Avenue in Midtown South for $77 million to the consumer products company Enchanté Accessories, according to city records filed Wednesday.

The sale price was nearly $11 million less than when Columbia paid $87.7 million for the land beneath the office building in 2017. The REIT took full control of the building in 2018 when the 60-year leasehold expired.

Newmark’s Brett Siegel and Evan Layne represented Columbia in the latest transaction, while Kassin Sabbagh Realty’s Albert Sultan and Ike Bibi represented Enchanté, according Columbia. Sultan, Bibi and Enchanté did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Founded in 1986, Enchanté is a consumer products company that operates across 13 divisions that include jewelry, home decor and ceramics.

Columbia recently completed a full redevelopment of the 107-year-old office building. WeWork signed a lease in 2018 to occupy the entire property, but the co-working firm never moved in and abandoned the space in 2020 during the early months of the pandemic.

The deal comes as office investment sales have plummeted. Manhattan saw $1 billion in sales volume in the fourth quarter, an 85 percent decline from 2021. It was the largest annual decrease in five years, according to Colliers. The median sale price was $725 per square foot, down from $874 the previous year.