SL Green Realty is seeking to sell its office tower at 1350 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, aiming for a price of more than $360 million. The 600,000-square-foot property, located at East 55th Street, is about 80 percent leased. According to sources who spoke with The Real Deal, the asking price would value the building at roughly $600 per square foot.
The property is being marketed to investors interested in increasing occupancy by leasing out the remaining space, while avoiding the risk associated with high vacancy rates. The building’s availability increased after Amazon moved its offices from the site to its new campus in the former Lord & Taylor building nearby.
Darcy Stacom of StacomCRE is handling the listing. SL Green has not commented on the sale.
This move is part of SL Green’s broader strategy to divest more than $2 billion in assets as it seeks to reduce debt amid higher interest rates. Earlier this year, SL Green began this effort by selling a minority stake in its 100 Park Avenue office tower to Rockpoint, valuing that property at $425 million.
Additional planned sales include a 25 percent stake in the 1.8 million-square-foot 245 Park Avenue and a 65 percent stake in 750 Third Avenue, which SL Green is converting into residential apartments.
The Sixth Avenue corridor continues to attract demand from tenants moving over from Park Avenue but remains affected by elevated vacancy rates. Cushman & Wakefield reported that Sixth Avenue had an availability rate just under 17 percent at the end of last year. This compares favorably with Fifth and Madison Avenues, where availability was around 20 percent, and the West Side, where it approached 30 percent. Park Avenue’s rate was near 10 percent.
In another transaction, SL Green and partner Jeff Sutton sold a retail property at 690 Madison Avenue for $54.5 million to an undisclosed buyer. The nearly 8,000-square-foot building is currently leased by Van Cleef & Arpels, a French luxury jewelry company. Gary Phillips and Will Silverman of Eastdil Secured brokered that deal. In 2014, Sutton’s Wharton Properties acquired a half-interest in the Madison Avenue property for $34 million.
