CBRE sells 49% stake in ex-Macklowe office

Roughly 20 months after buying the office portion of 1540 Broadway for $355m, CBRE Investors has sold a 49% stake in the property to Edge Fund Advisers and HSBC. The deal values the tower at $520m – almost half the price paid by Harry Macklowe in 2007.

CBRE Investors have sold a 49 percent stake in the Bertelsmann office building in New York just 20 months after acquiring the property out of foreclosure.

The Los Angeles-based firm sold the stake in 1540 Broadway to HSBC Alternative Investments and Edge Fund Advisers, which was acting on behalf of a syndicate of HSBC private banking clients. The deal values the 905,533-square-foot building at $520 million or $575 per square foot, the firm said in a statement.

1540
Broadway

CBRE Investors acquired the property – which does not include the property’s retail section – from Deutsche Bank in March 2009 after the lender seized the asset from developer and investor Harry Macklowe. According to data provider Real Capital Analytics, CBRE Investors paid $355 million for the “condo interest”. The firm bought the property through its $2.1 billion value-added vehicle, CBRE Strategic Partners US Value 5 fund.

In February 2007, Macklowe paid $967.6 million for the same interest in 1540 Broadway, as part of a seven-office portfolio acquired from The Blackstone Group’s Equity Office Properties. CBRE Investors said the 44-storey office building was currently 85.4 percent occupied compared to 78.1 percent at the time of the 2009 deal.

Vance Maddocks, CBRE strategic partners’ president, said the sale was spurred by increased demand for core real estate in prime markets, such as New York. “It was an appropriate time to sell a partial interest in the property,” the firm added in the statement. CBRE Investors retains a majority stake in the office property and will continue managing the building.