Columbia Property Trust pays $88M to Onyx Equities, GMF Capital for leasehold in Penn Plaza

Columbia Property Trust as owner of Normandy Real Estate Partners through the entity Maple 1 Farley Owner, LLC paid Onyx Equities and GMF Capital’s 320 West 31st Associates, LLC $88 million for the leasehold and a purchase option on 320 West 31st Street in Penn Plaza. The deal closed on February 6, 2020, and was recorded on February 20, 2020. The transaction consists of 1 parcel, including the tax class schools or academies (W3). The property is 116,000 square feet. The parcel(s) have total development potential of 233,122 square feet.
The average sale price per square foot is $335.

Columbia Property Trust acquired the leasehold through two transactions, one for the ground lease valued at $78 million, and another to acquire a purchase option agreement, valued at $10 million.

Onyx signed as a ground-lease tenant with landlord Andrew Edelman in 2017, with the lease valued at $80 million. The lease runs for 134 years until 2151. As part of that 2017 deal, Onyx signed an option agreement to purchase the land from Edelman, at the time valued at $51.5 million. (No taxes were paid on the 2017 option agreement, but $320,000 was paid for the 2017 ground lease agreement.)

Over the past five years, there have been 8 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 $100. There were 7 renovation/alteration projects (A2) applied for with a total estimated value of $411,300.
Direct link to Acris document. link
Direct link to the city’s interactive property map, ZOLA. link