Commercial Real Estate & Advisory
Commercial Real Estate & Advisory
Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) — Carlyle Group and a partner purchased a retail and office building in Manhattan’s Meatpacking district for $70 million, almost four times what the seller paid last year.
Carlyle, the private equity firm that raised $3 billion for U.S. real estate investments, joined Sitt Asset Management to buy 414-418 West 14th St. The 26,000-square-foot, four-story building was sold by The Icon Group, broker Sinvin Realty LLC said today in a statement.
The building is in a former manufacturing zone that has been transformed into a hotspot with affluent residents, art galleries, trendy nightspots and upscale stores including furniture designer Vitra and apparel by Theory and Stella McCartney.
“It’s a recognition of that block of 14th Street as an extremely desirable destination for world renowned fashion,” said Michael Glanzberg, managing director for New York-based Sinvin, which arranged the sale. “There’s an increased level of confidence in this area.”
Icon Group paid $18.5 million for the property in March 2006, according to a deed filed with the New York City Department of Finance. The building, between 9th and 10th Avenues, is undergoing a 20,000-square-foot expansion that will give it five floors and a new retail basement.
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attan’s far West Side, between the art galleries of Chelsea and the leafy streets of Greenwich Village.
With Gucci Group NV and Apple Inc. opening stores in the neighborhood, 14th Street west of 9th Avenue has become “a two-block Meatpacking District gold coast,” said Chris Owles, a Sinvin principal. “It’s the place to be. This property will hold its value and increase.”
The Carlyle Realty Partners V Fund will invest in office, hotel, industrial and residential properties. The private equity firm’s real estate team is headed by Robert Stuckey.
“We are hoping to make investments in instances where the capital markets are under-pricing the fundamental value of the properties that we are trying to buy,”Stuckey said in a statement announcing the fund on Sept. 7.
Sitt Asset Management, based in New York, is run by brothers Ed, Ralph, David and Jack Sitt.
Terrence Lowenberg, a principal with the Icon Group, declined to comment.
Hypo Real Estate Capital Corp., a German property investment bank, provided financing, according to Real Capital Analytics, a real estate data service.