David Werner extends Pfizer building lease by 60 years, valued at $406M

David Werner Real Estate Investments as ground tenant through the entity 42nd & Second Holding Co. LLC executed a ground lease extension valued at $406.6 million with the fee owner through the entity Seaver Realty LLC for the leasehold under the office building (O4) at 235 East 42nd Street in Grand Central, Manhattan.
The deal closed on July 30, 2021 and was recorded on August 26, 2021.
The property has 672,462 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $604 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The signatory for Seaver Realty was Michael Field. The signatory for David Werner Real Estate Investments was David Werner.

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. There were 24 renovation/alteration projects (A2) applied for with a total estimated value of $11.9 million.

David Werner in this transaction executed an option given in 2018 to extend the ground lease expiration by 60 years from 2057 to 2117, according to a review of city records. The deal included a payment, though the amount was not disclosed. The transaction was structured by Cushman & Wakefield’s Adam Spies and Joshua King. A Cushman team including Spies brokered the original ground lease sale to Werner in 2018. Werner bought the ground lease in 2018 for a reported $360 million, though the the recorded value in Acris was $228 million. The original lease was from January 1, 1959. The ground lease terminated in 2057 according to this 1981 document.

The 2018 transaction included an option to extend to December 31, 2117, and this is the execution of that option. The fee is owned by trusts affiliated with Sandra K. Lambert, Jerold S. Kayden, Joelle Kayden, Amy Spielman and Thomas Schwartz of the Alvin Schwartz trust.

Within a 400-foot radius of 235 East 42nd Street, PincusCo identified five commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those five items, five were loans above $5 million totaling $949 million. The most recent of the five was Durst Organization which borrowed $300.0 million from Citibank secured by 19 condo units in the 289,356-square-foot, 32-unit industrial (RI) on 205 East 42nd Street and two other properties on May 26, 2021.

Direct link to Acris document. link