Michael Bloomberg affiliate pays RFR $560M for Lenox Hill office tower

An entity affiliated with Michael Bloomberg through the entity 980 Madison Avenue Holdings LLC paid $560 million to Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding through the entity 980 Madison Owner LLC for the office building (O5) at 980 Madison Avenue in Lenox Hill, Manhattan.
The deal closed on June 5, 2024 and was recorded on June 6, 2024. The property has 118,635 square feet of built space and 85,230 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 203,900 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $4,720 and the price per buildable square foot is $2,746 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.)

Bloomberg recently sent a note to tenants informing them that a year after his philanthropy leased a portion of the building, he had bought it.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 204 feet and is 99 feet deep with a total lot size of 20,390 square feet. The zoning is C5-1 which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is in the Upper East Side Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $97.2 million. The most recent loan totaled $197.6 million and was provided by Credit Suisse on July 6, 2021.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $5,975 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Lenox Hill, The bulk, or 35 percent of the 52 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space. In sales, Lenox Hill has the highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $3.8 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Lenox Hill is the 8th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 5.5 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 11 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other office buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 11 commercial properties representing 487,418 square feet of the 530,087 square feet. The largest owner is David Grogan, followed by Hotel Carlyle Owners Corp. and then Joseph Esmail.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 55 percent of the 530,087 square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with office buildings next occupying 22 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link