Vornado Realty Trust has sold 2 Park Avenue, a 965,000 sq. ft. office building in midtown Manhattan, for $292 million. The buyer was German real estate investment firm SEB Immobilien-Investment GMBH.
Vornado will realize a gain of roughly $157 million after the sale has closed, which isn’t expected to occur until the fourth quarter of this year.
"The Germans started off slow this year but they have picked up the pace recently," says Bob White, president of Real Capital Analytics. According to White, German investors have over $1.3 billion worth of Manhattan office properties under contract as of early August.
White says that over the past 60 days, some "significant" properties have come to market in Manhattan. This suggests that pent-up demand to buy office buildings is being met here, despite reports that sellers are holding back.