Goldman exits stake in GM Building in $1.4bn deal

The New York investment bank, along with a Dubai-based investment firm, are selling a 40 percent stake in 767 Fifth Avenue in a deal that eclipses Carlyle’s recent sale of 650 Madison.


In a deal that immediately eclipses the sale of 650 Madison Avenue as the largest single-asset property deal in the US in recent years, Goldman Sachs is exiting its ownership stake in the General Motors Building in midtown Manhattan in a deal valued at approximately $1.4 billion. 

Goldman and Dubai-based real estate investment firm Meraas Capital have sold their combined 40 percent stake in the 50-story, 2 million-square-foot office tower at 767 Fifth Avenue to Sungate Trust, a joint venture between Zhang Xin, chief executive of developer SOHO China, and the New York-based investment arm of the Safra family. Sungate Trust also assumed all debt connected to the Class A asset.

Goldman owned its stake in the building on behalf of its US Real Estate Opportunities (USREO) fund. Boston Properties continues to hold the other 60 percent interest in the asset and will continue to manage the property. 

Built in 1968, the GM Building currently is 98 percent leased. Tenants include Weil Gotshal & Manges, Estee Lauder Companies, Promark Global, Icahn Enterprises and Apple's glass cube retail store on Fifth Avenue.

News of this deal immediately follows the announcement that Washington DC-based The Carlyle Group has sold 650 Madison Avenue in midtown Manhattan for $1.3 billion. Single-asset sales of this size have not been seen in the US since Google acquired 111 Eighth Avenue for $1.8 billion in 2010.