Amazon pays $978M to WeWork’s ARK Capital Advisors for Lord & Taylor building in Garment District

Amazon through the entity Amazon.Com Services LLC paid WeWork’s ARK Capital Advisors’s 424 Fifth Avenue LLC $978.1 million for 424 5th Avenue in Garment District, according to city records. The deal closed on March 12, 2020, and was recorded on March 13, 2020. The transaction consists of 1 parcel, including the tax class multi-story department store (K3). The property is 697,029 square feet. The parcel(s) have total development potential of 697,029 square feet.
The average sale price per square foot is $1,403.

The transfer shows the contract date as the same as the closing date, March 12, 2020. There is no debt recorded with this purchase, although it’s not uncommon for loans to be obtained or recorded at a later date. The existing $389 million in first mortgage debt provided by JPMorgan Chase Bank and Starwood Capital Mortgage was paid off simultaneously with the sale.

The New York Post and others reported the sale price as $1.15 billion, composed of a $750 million construction loan and $350 million in equity. There is no construction loan recorded in Acris, though there could be unrecorded mezzanine debt. There was an acquisition loan of $389 million provided by JPMorgan and Starwood when WeWork bought the building February 8, 2019 for $850 million.

Over the past five years, there have been 24 NYC Department of Buildings permit applications filed for this parcel valued at more than $20,000. Of those there was one major renovation application including a certificate of occupancy change (A1) filed with a total estimated value of $31,078,224. There were 23 renovation/alteration projects (A2) applied for with a total estimated value of $14,628,203.
Direct link to Acris document. link
Direct link to the city’s interactive property map, ZOLA. link