SL Green Realty pays $160M to former Brooks Brothers owner for dev site in Grand Central

SL Green Realty paid $160 million to Claudio Del Vecchio, the former owner of Brooks Brothers, for a development site in Grand Central, Manhattan, through two transactions for the adjacent properties at 346 Madison Avenue and just to the west, 11 East 44th Street. SL Green Realty said in a release that the site could hold an 800,000 square foot development.

To finance the purchase, SL Green Realty borrowed $50 million from Wells Fargo.

In the first transaction, SL Green Realty through the entity 346 Madison Avenue Owner LLC paid $85 million to Claudio Del Vecchio through the entity 346 Madison Avenue, LLC for the retail building (O6) at 346 Madison Avenue in Grand Central, Manhattan. The expected use is ground up development.
The deal closed on October 15, 2025 and was recorded on November 18, 2025. The property has 140,280 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $605 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 seller bought the property on August 8, 2007, for $137.5 million.

In the second, SL Green Realty through the entity 11 East 44th Owner LLC paid $75 million to Claudio Del Vecchio through the entity 11 East 44th Street, LLC for the office building (O6) at 11 East 44th Street in Grand Central, Manhattan. The expected use is ground up development.
The deal closed on October 15, 2025 and was recorded on November 18, 2025. The property has 110,999 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $675 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 seller bought the property on January 9, 2019, for $105.8 million.

The signatory for Claudio Del Vecchio was Vito Giannola . The signatory for SL Green Realty was Andrew S. Levine . The contract date was August 18, 2025. The Commercial Observer reported on this in September after it went into contract.

SL Green put out a release September 2, 2025, stating that upon the two parcels could be built an 800,000 square foot tower.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer SL Green Realty purchased 39 properties in six transactions for a total of $556.3 million and sold 11 properties in eight transactions for a total of $853.7 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Claudio Del Vecchio had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 140,280-square-foot property generated revenue of $13.6 million or $97 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The retail building in Grand Central has 140,280 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 85 feet and is 145 feet deep with a total lot size of 13,125 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C5-3 which allows for up to 15 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $71.7 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a $1 million money judgment concerning a contract filed on September 15, 2025, by RFR Holding against Claudio Del Vecchio. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $1,000 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 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 $1.6 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 this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 13 commercial properties representing 1,007,035 square feet of the 1,770,975 square feet. The largest owner is Rfr Holding, followed by Boston Properties and then Brause Realty.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 750,400 square feet. It is a 750,400 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Elizabeth Reilly with plans filed August 5, 2022 and permitted October 2, 2025.

The majority, or 90 percent of the 1.8 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 9 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Sl Green Realty owned at least 37 commercial properties with 796 residential units in New York City with 18,166,025 square feet and a city-determined market value of $7.8 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 94 percent of the 18,166,025 square feet of built space are office properties, with elevator properties next occupying 3 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

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