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New York

I-sales recap: Midtown offices sell for steep discounts

One property on West 55th Street went for 40 percent below ask

Joseph Moinian with 11 East 76th Street and 245 West 55th Street
Joseph Moinian with 11 East 76th Street and 245 West 55th Street (Getty, Google Maps)

A pair of Midtown office buildings once valued above $40 million recently sold for about half of that amount, dragging the properties into the mid-market range and topping the list of commercial real estate deals between $10 million and $40 million that hit city records last week.

DuArt Media, an Academy Award-winning film studio, sold its longtime home on West 55th Street for $28.5 million, a whopping 40 percent discount from the $48 million it sought when it placed the building on the market last year. And a few blocks south, TA Realty sold a Diamond District office building for just over half the $43 million it paid for it in 2017.

Below are more details on all six mid-market deals from last week, ranked by dollar amount:

  1. Having permanently closed after 100 years, DuArt unloaded its 11-story office building at 245 West 55th Street in Midtown for $28.5 million. The identity of the buyer, listed only as 245 West 55th Street LLC, is unclear.

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  1. TA Realty took a massive haircut on a Diamond District office building at 1200 Sixth Avenue, selling it for $22.3 million after buying it in 2017 for $43 million. According to Crain’s, the buyer is Josh Rahmani and Ebi Khalili’s Empire Capital Holdings, which has picked up a slew of Midtown properties in recent months.
  1. An East New York shopping center swapped hands for $15.2 million. Located at 1110 Pennsylvania Avenue, the 12-unit, two-story property is home to a number of medical offices and was marketed as such. Multiple members of the Bokhour family are listed as sellers, and Crain’s reported that the buyer was Newark-based RHS Realty. The building has an alternate address of 98 Cozine Avenue. The First National Bank of Long Island provided a $9.3 million mortgage.
  1. Sowa Kousan, Inc., purchased a 10-unit, five-story apartment building at 506 East 84th Street in Yorkville for $12 million. The seller, Susa Makoto, bought the 8,065-square-foot building in 2017 for $11.2 million. It was built in 1910 and renovated in 1960.
  1. JAI Studio, Inc. paid $11.5 million for a townhouse at 154 East 71st Street on the Upper East Side with two residential units and one commercial space. The property was the home of ophthalmologist Stephen E. Kelly, who passed away in 2019. His estate sold the townhouse, which was known for being filled with Kelly’s pricey Art Deco collection.
  1. Another Upper East Side townhouse, at 11 East 76th Street, sold for $10.2 million after being listed for $12.5 million. The property, which was built in 1896 and received a Landmark Designation in 1982, was sold by Don Wise, who had owned it since 1968, according to property records. The buyer is The Moinian Group, which last month took over most of a 24-story office building at 245 Fifth Avenue and sold a 467-unit Flatbush apartment complex for about $325 million.