Benchmark Properties, Bentex, HIS pays $40M for upper floors of B. Altman building, to lease as office

Benchmark Properties in partnership with the families that own Bentex and HIS through the entity 198 Madison Ave Realty NY LLC, paid $40 million to Oxford University Press for the approximately 165,000 square foot office condominiums that have space on the ground floor, mezzanine, and the entire upper portion of the B. Altman Building at 198 Madison Avenue from the eighth floor to the 13th floor. The building, in the Grand Central neighborhood, has an alternate address of 365 Fifth Avenue.
Other occupants of the building include the City University of New York and the Church Pension Group.

Michael Beyda is a principal of Benchmark Properties. In a post on LinkedIn, Beyda said the building was, “designed during the early 1900’s for department store B. Altman, the building features a magnificent neoclassical exterior…” The Benun, Dweck, Rahmey and Zirdok families are owners of the apparel companies, Bentex and HIS.

The deal closed on November 25, 2025 and was recorded on December 8, 2025. The two properties have 119,876 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data, which does not use loss factor.
The signatory for Oxford University Press was Antony George H. Willott and Charles Scobie. The signatory for the partnership was Morris Dweck . The contract date was August 5, 2025.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Benchmark Properties had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Oxford University Press had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The specialty condo in Grand Central has 119,876 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has a total lot size of 99,730 square feet. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $37.2 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have not received any significant violations in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Grand Central, The majority, or 83 percent of the 44.4 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space. In sales, Grand Central has the 7th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.7 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Grand Central is the 7th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 9.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 21 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 355 5th Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the 10 commercial properties representing 212,579 square feet of the 278,829 square feet. The largest owner is Erica Lerner, followed by Hilson Management and then Community Church Of New York.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 172,797 square feet. It is a 137-unit, 172,797 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Continuum Company and filed by Jeff Loveland with plans filed June 13, 2024 and permitted May 9, 2025.

The majority, or 44 percent of the 278,829 square feet of built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 38 percent of the space.

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