Mack makes $273m entry to NYC market.

Mack-Cali Realty Corporation will buy SL Green's condo interests in 125 Broad Street for $273 million. The condominium units being acquired include floors 2-16, and collectively comprise 39.6%, or 524,500 s/f, of the property.

The New Jersey-based REIT was also sell a Greenwich, Conn. property at 500 West Putnam Avenue to SL Green for $56 million. The property being sold to SL Green is a four-story, 121,500 s/f office building that is 96% leased. Mack-Cali acquired the property in 1998 for $17.8 million.

The investment in 125 Broad Street will be Mack-Cali's entry into the New York City office market. The company owns a large property portfolio with additional development sites on the Jersey City waterfront, and recently indicated that it would seek to complement that presence and fuel its growth as a company by investing in Manhattan.

125 Broad Street is a 40-story class A building in the heart of the Financial District. It 100% occupied by tenants that include Citigroup, Oppenheimer and Ark Asset Management.

Mitchell E. Hersh, president and chief executive officer of Mack-Cali, commented, "125 Broad provides us with a starting point from which we can increase our presence and take advantage of a market that has been improving rapidly."

Andrew Mathias, chief investment officer of SL Green, said the sale of the firm's interests in 125 Broad was consistent with its 2007 disposition plan. "Following the acquisition of Reckson Associates, we indicated that we expect to sell as much as $1 billion of our existing portfolio this year," said Mathias. "This is our fourth sale so far, and we are identifying other non-core holdings that will provide opportunity to harvest gains, while maintaining our Manhattan office market leadership position.

"At the same time, the sales proceeds from 125 Broad will be reinvested in a tax efficient manner into the recently acquired Reckson Portfolio."

SL Green plans interior and exterior upgrades at the Connecticut property whose acquisition follows the firm's entry into the Connecticut office market in January 2007, when it completed the acquisition of Reckson Associates Realty Corp.