Clarion takes $100M haircut in Midtown South deal with Sovereign Partners

Cyrus and Darius Sakhai land another bargain

Sovereign Partners Buying Clarion Partners’ 100-104 Fifth Avenue
Clarion CEO David Gilbert and 100-104 5th Avenue (Clarion, Google Maps)

Cyrus and Darius Sakhai’s Sovereign Partners are sniping another New York office building.

The brothers are in contract to buy the 20-story office building at 100-104 Fifth Avenue in Midtown South for around $125 million, The Real Deal has learned. That’s close to half off the $230 million that seller Clarion Partners paid for the property a decade ago — another indicator of the deep pain being felt in the city’s office market.

Clarion, headed by CEO David Gilbert, had offered to help buyers by providing seller financing when it put the property up for sale. But Sovereign is buying the deal all-cash, according to a source.

Representatives for Sovereign and Clarion did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

A Newmark team led by Adam Spies and Doug Harmon brokered the sale. The brokers declined to comment.

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The deal works out to more than $450 per square foot for the 270,000-square-foot building, which dates back to the early 1900s. Clarion bought the property in 2013 at about $800 per square foot.  

Apple is a major tenant at the property, and the upper floors could be converted into residential condos.

This is the second big discounted office buy for Sovereign this year.

In April the company paid $113 million to buy the 1980s-era Tower56 at 126 East 56th Street from Pearlmark Real Estate, which had trouble refinancing the building when its mortgage came due. It was one the first heavily discounted office buildings to trade after the Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates last year.

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