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Monday, July 02, 2007

Record Price for Office Building

by Calculated Risk on 7/02/2007 11:55:00 AM

From the WSJ: New York Building's Record Price Shows Office Market's Strength

... investors agreed late last week to buy 450 Park Ave., ... for $1,589 a square foot, or about $510 million.

The price -- believed to be the most expensive on a per-square-foot basis for an office building in U.S. history -- demonstrates that trends like strong foreign currencies and the availability of equity are helping the market for commercial office space, at least in premium markets such as New York, despite concerns over tighter lending practices.
....
The 33-story building at 57th Street and Park is being sold by a partnership that includes New York State Common Retirement Fund and Taconic Investment Partners LLC, which paid $158 million, or about $492 per square foot, in 2002.
...
The contract shatters the per-square-foot record set just four weeks previously, when Italy-based Gruppo Zunino agreed to pay $1,476 a square foot for New York's 660 Madison Ave....
It doesn't look like tighter lending standards have slowed the NY commercial real estate market yet.