As seen in Commercial Observer

BY NICHOLAS RIZZI APRIL 20, 2022

Deal marks major landlord’s first office purchase since 2018

SL Green Realty Corp. reversed its trend of selling off assets and will buy its first office property since 2018.

The real estate investment trust agreed to buy 450 Park Avenue in Midtown from Oxford Properties and Crown Acquisitions for $445 million, Commercial Observer has learned. The deal — which is set to close in the second quarter — marks SL Green (SLG)’s first purchase of an office property since it paid $440 million for 460 West 34th Street in 2018.

“Our investment in 450 Park Avenue represents the ideal asset for our first office acquisition since 2018 and further demonstrates our conviction in the vibrant East Midtown office corridor,” Harrison Sitomer, SL Green’s CIO, said in a statement. “Given the domestic and international appeal for blue-chip assets like this one, we expect significant interest from joint venture partners who will capitalize this deal with us as we grow our investment management platform.”

The 33-story 450 Park has 337,000 square feet of office and retail space and tenants include Brazilian bank Banco Bradesco, private equity firm BDT Capital Partners and Oxford’s corporate offices, according to SL Green. The retail space will soon be home to luxury car maker Aston Martin’s first-ever Manhattan dealership.

SL Green plans to start a capital investment plan once it closes on the deal to add a “new amenity offering” that will have “high-quality, tailored program” for its tenants, according to SL Green. A spokesperson for SL Green couldn’t say how much SL Green planned to spend in improvements yet (though landlords have been spending quite a bit to amenitize their office spaces).

The Real Deal first reported last month that SL Green was in talks to pick up 450 Park, and the final price is a deep discount from the $545 million Oxford and Crown paid for the property in 2015.

CBRE’s Darcy Stacom, William Shanahan and Doug Middleton brokered the sale. A spokesperson for CBRE declined to comment.

SL Green has been selling off assets at a quick clip around the city in recent years — while remaining the New York’s largest office landlord — to fund a stock buyback program and focus on newer developments including One Vanderbilt and the under-construction One Madison Avenue. Since 2019, the real estate investment trust has sold its interests in about two dozen properties around Manhattan, most recently a Morningside Heights apartment building at 1080 Amsterdam Avenue to A&E Real Estate for $42.5 million, as CO previously reported.

Nicholas Rizzi can be reached at nrizzi@commercialobserver.com.