Here are NYC’s Top Investment Sales of 2024

Deep discounts, mortgage problems — and even a glimmer of optimism — characterized the biggest investment sales of the year.

Some of the year’s largest sales involved maturing mortgages that were difficult to refinance, or other problems behind the scenes with lenders. Others traded for significant discounts compared to the last time they sold.

Still, 2024 had its share of big price tags that gave the industry something to smile about. Jeff Sutton’s sale of 715 Fifth Avenue (nearly $1 billion) had the retail sector buzzing. And SL Green’s sale of a stake at One Vanderbilt penciled out to a $4.7 billion valuation — making it possibly the most valuable office building in the country.

The top 10 sales of the year totaled $4.6 billion, slightly lower than 2023’s total of $4.8 billion.

Here, then, are the top 10 New York City investment sales of 2024:

715-717 Fifth Avenue

Price: $963 million

Seller: Wharton Properties, SL Green

Buyer: Kering

The list of 2024’s top CRE sales starts off where the previous year’s did: with another big Jeff Sutton deal.

Sutton’s Wharton Properties and his partners at SL Green sold the retail portion of the building at 715-717 Fifth Avenue in late January for $963 million to Kering, the French luxury group that owns Gucci, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen.

The building, which is currently home to Dolce & Gabbana and Armani stores, sits at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and East 56th Street — caddycorner from where Sutton a few weeks earlier sold the retail at 724 Fifth Avenue to the parent company of Prada and Gucci for $835 million.

That deal closed in mid-December, making it the second-largest sale of 2023.

Sutton’s sale of 715-717 Fifth was a sign-and-close deal that happened quickly without a deposit or contract period. Wharton had been fending off a foreclosure action by its lender, New York Life Insurance.

625 Madison Avenue

Price: $635 million

Seller: SL Green

Buyer: Related Companies

The high drama surrounding 625 Madison Avenue closed one chapter and opened a new one with SL Green’s sale of the Midtown office building to Related Companies.

The Marc Holliday-led REIT wrested control of the property from Ben Ashkenazy, who had grand ambitions to redevelop the land but ran into trouble when he fell behind on his ground-lease payments to SL Green.

SL Green took over the leasehold and wasted little time seeking out a buyer for the consolidated property. It found one in Related, which plans to tear down the aging office building and develop a 1,200-foot condo/hotel tower in its place.

980 Madison Avenue

Price: $560 million

Seller: RFR Holding

Buyer: Bloomberg Philanthropies

Aby Rosen’s had a tough year, but he’s also gotten his share of positive headlines.

As he struggles to hold onto one property after another, Rosen pulled off a massive deal with the sale of 980 Madison Avenue to Bloomberg Philanthropies, which leases the vast majority of the building.

320 Park Avenue

Price: $500-$525 million

Seller: Mutual of America

Buyer: Munich RE

The German reinsurance giant Munich RE took full ownership of this 760,000-square-foot office tower when it bought out its partner, Mutual of America.

Munich RE bought a 25 percent stake in the building in 2022 from Mutual of America, which had acquired the tower in the early 1990s and occupies it as its headquarters. Munich RE bought Mutual’s other 75 percent in a deal reportedly worth somewhere between $500 million and $525 million.

The purchase valued the tower at around $700 million.

One Vanderbilt

Price: $490 million

Seller: SL Green

Buyer: Mori Building Company

The sales price is only half the story on this one.

SL Green sold an 11 percent stake in its One Vandy office tower for $490 million. But the bigger significance is that the deal valued the skyscraper at $4.7 billion — making it quite possibly the most valuable office building ever.

The buyer was Japan’s Mori Building Company, which is not to be confused with the Mori Trust, a company that last year bought a stake in SL Green’s 245 Park Avenue.

SL Green had owned a 71 percent stake in the building prior to sale. The National Pension Service of Korea owns a 27.6 percent interest and Hines owns 1.4 percent.

250 Park Avenue

Price: $320 million

Seller: AEW Capital Management

Buyer: JPMorgan, Hines

Right across the street from where JPMorgan is finishing up construction of its new headquarters at 270 Park Avenue, the bank shelled out more than $300 million to buy the building at 250 Park Avenue.

JPMorgan teamed up on the deal with Hines to buy the 1920s-era building, which was about 76 percent occupied. It wasn’t clear what the buyers had planned for the property. AEW had marketed it as a potential development site that could accommodate a tower of up to 1 million square feet.

180 Maiden Lane

Price: $297 million

Seller: Clarion Partners, MHP

Buyer: 99c

Carlo Bellini, whose 175 Water Street may be the most peculiar office building in the Financial District, strikes again with this deal for the nearby 180 Maiden Lane.

Bellini’s 99c paid $297 million to buy 180 Maiden Lane from Clarion Partners and MHP, which had purchased the 41-story office tower for $470 million in 2015. Bellini’s plan for the tower wasn’t immediately clear, but if it’s anything like 175 Water, it’s sure to be talked about.

There, Bellini transformed the building into an exclusive hot spot that frequently hosts celebrity events. 99c offers tenants deeply discounted short term deals with the idea of inking more lucrative leases down the road.

119 West 56th Street

Price: $289 million

Seller: GFI Capital Resources, Elliott Management

Buyer: Gencom

Miami-based Gencom made its New York debut with this purchase of the Thompson Central Park Hotel.

The company bought the 587-key hotel, home to famous hamburger spot Parker’s, from GFI Capital Resources Group and Elliott Management. The sellers had purchased it about five years ago for $420 million, and recently spent about $100 million on renovations.

700 Eighth Avenue

Price: $275 million

Seller: David Werner

Buyer: Highgate

Highgate acquired David Werner’s stake in the 1,331-room Row Hotel, which is being used as a migrant shelter.

The deal caps off a tumultuous few years for the hotel, which suffered under a complicated ownership structure. Werner owned the ground underneath the building while a group of investors led by Highgate controlled the hotel under a long-term lease.

Werner’s group defaulted on its $275 million loan in 2020 and his lender reached an agreement to put the combined interests up for sale.

200 West 67th Street

Price: $265 million

Seller: A&R Kalimian

Buyer: Gotham Organization, Carlyle Group

The Gotham Organization and Carlyle Group picked up this 310-unit multifamily building, which had an expiring mortgage and an expiring 10-year tax abatement.

A&R Kalimian’s $194 million mortgage on the property matured late last year, though there were conflicting reports on whether the company technically defaulted. Kallimian was also at one point paying as little as $1.1 million on its annual tax property bill, but that figure has since climbed to $6.6 million.