'Fort Knox' fetches $92m.With most buyers in wait-and-see mode, a private investment group with ties to a real estate management and consultant firm that specializes in large floor plate space took a classic pre-war commercial building off the east side market, with an approximately $92 million buy.The Parkoff Organization sold the building to an investment group led by David Berley, chairman of real estate management firm Walter & Samuels, Inc. Walters & Samuels will handle both the management and leasing of the 250,000 s/f property located at 80-88 West End Avenue, which has approximately 12,630 s/f of vacant space. "It's got 35,000 s/f plates, so it's a super-wide industrial type building," said Peter Weiss Peter Ulrich Weiss (November 8, 1916 – May 10, 1982) was a German writer, painter, and artist of adopted Swedish nationality. He is particularly known for his play Marat/Sade and his novel The Aesthetics of Resistance. , executive managing director at Walter & Samuels. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Weiss, with ongoing construction at Lincoln Center Lincoln Center New York’s modern theater complex. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1586] See : Theater diminishing office space in the neighborhood, along with the firm's experience with large loft buildings, the acquisition was an obvious decision for the investment group. The site was formerly home to the Sherman Tank factory. With 15-foot ceilings and its sturdy industrial uses, Weiss likened the six-story building to Fort Knox Fort Knox [for Henry Knox], U.S. military reservation, 110,000 acres (44,515 hectares), Hardin and Meade counties, N Ky.; est. 1917 as a training camp in World War I. It became a permanent post in 1932. In the steel and concrete vaults of the U.S. . The building, which also includes a 13,000 s/f penthouse penthouse Enclosed area on top of a building. A penthouse can be an apartment on the roof or top floor of a building or a structure on the roof housing the top of an elevator shaft, air-conditioning equipment, or stairs leading to the roof. , occupies a full block; it faces the park and is just a stone's throw stone's throw n. A short distance. stone's throw Noun a short distance Noun 1. from Lincoln Center. It also offers 200 feet of frontage along West End Ave., and 125 feet of frontage on West 63rd and 64th streets. "We look at this as a buy and hold," Weiss said, "The area's only going to get better." Meridian provided financing for the acquisition and no brokers were involved in the transaction. Existing tenants include the Transit Workers Union, the Metropolitan Opera and a large furniture company. Rents at 80-88 West End Ave. typically go for the mid $50s psf range. Weiss, who's firm has completed close to 40 residential, co-op, condo and loft office conversions in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , said the investment group does have cancellation rights and that the space is ideal for television studios. But there are no major renovations--or a residential conversion--planned for the building. "We've converted these types of loft buildings before and they're a pain to do," he added, "We're happy with what we have." |
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