Safehold Inc. pays $451M to Unizo as part of ground lease transaction for 685 Third Ave.

IStar’s Safehold Inc. through the entity 685 Third Avenue Ground Owner LLC paid Unizo Real Estate’s Unizo Real Estate NY Four, LLC $451.25 million for 685 3rd Avenue in Grand Central. The deal closed on December 20, 2019, and was recorded on January 2, 2020. The transaction consists of 1 parcel, including the tax class office building tower type with 20 or more stories (O4). The property is 559,755 square feet.
The average sale price per square foot is $806.

The Safehold purchase of the building was part of a two-part exchange, which included Unizo selling the entire property to Safehold, and then Safehold leasing the building to Unizo.

Last week, Unizo recorded the $271.25 million leasehold it signed as a tenant with the fee-owning landlord, Safehold. The Safehold ground position was valued at $180 million, which is the difference between this total price of $451.25 million and $271.25 million value of the ground lease.
The DOB issued a major alteration (A1) initial temporary certificate of occupancy for the building on May 7, 2013.
Over the past five years, there have been 75 NYC Department of Buildings permit applications filed for this parcel valued at more than $20,000. There were 75 renovation/alteration projects (A2) applied for with a total estimated value of $35,273,033.
Direct link to Acris document. link
Direct link to the city’s interactive property map, ZOLA. link