The Blackstone Group is buying the top 11 floors of the former New York Times Building at 229 West 43rd Street for $160-million, four years after the 15-story building sold for $525 million to Africa Israel USA, according to an article in Friday's edition of The New York Times by Charles V. Bagli.
The seller had planned to convert the higher floors to a hotel an a residential condominium, but it has retained retail space on the lower floors where the tenants include a bowling alley, a clothing store, a restaurant and a science-focused exhibition hall, the article said.
When the deal closes in a few weeks, Blackstone will own the fifth though the 15th floors, and part of the fourth floor, a total of 450,000 of the building's 700,000 square feet. The building is an amalgam of four buildings, the first of which built in 1913. The building, originally designed by Mortimer J. Fox, of the firm Buchman & Fox, was originally called the New York Times Annex because it was designed to supplement the One Times Square Times Tower built in 1905 at Broadway and 42nd Street (which gives Times Square its name).
In 1922 the Ludlow & Peabody designed a 100-foot extension on the west side as well as a five-story setback attic level in the style of the French Renaissance including the Mansard roofs
In 1930-32 Albert Kahn designed a further expansion to the west including a second lobby and roof-top studio.
Further expansions included a 12-story New York Times North building adjoining it to the north on 44th Street
The newspaper company relocated to a new tower recently on Eighth Avenue and sold the 43rd Street building to Tishman Speyer Properties for $175 million in 2004.
Sight unseen, Lev Leviev, the merchant to how owns Africa Israel bought the building sight unseen from Tishman Speyer on 2007 for $525 million, the article said, adding that "real estate executives familiar with the deal said Blackstone believed that the buiding was once again ripe for office tenants."
The seller had planned to convert the higher floors to a hotel an a residential condominium, but it has retained retail space on the lower floors where the tenants include a bowling alley, a clothing store, a restaurant and a science-focused exhibition hall, the article said.
When the deal closes in a few weeks, Blackstone will own the fifth though the 15th floors, and part of the fourth floor, a total of 450,000 of the building's 700,000 square feet. The building is an amalgam of four buildings, the first of which built in 1913. The building, originally designed by Mortimer J. Fox, of the firm Buchman & Fox, was originally called the New York Times Annex because it was designed to supplement the One Times Square Times Tower built in 1905 at Broadway and 42nd Street (which gives Times Square its name).
In 1922 the Ludlow & Peabody designed a 100-foot extension on the west side as well as a five-story setback attic level in the style of the French Renaissance including the Mansard roofs
In 1930-32 Albert Kahn designed a further expansion to the west including a second lobby and roof-top studio.
Further expansions included a 12-story New York Times North building adjoining it to the north on 44th Street
The newspaper company relocated to a new tower recently on Eighth Avenue and sold the 43rd Street building to Tishman Speyer Properties for $175 million in 2004.
Sight unseen, Lev Leviev, the merchant to how owns Africa Israel bought the building sight unseen from Tishman Speyer on 2007 for $525 million, the article said, adding that "real estate executives familiar with the deal said Blackstone believed that the buiding was once again ripe for office tenants."
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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