Abu Dhabi Wealth Fund Selling Madison Avenue Trophy For More Than $850M
Months after taking a massive hit with the sale of the Chrysler Building, an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund is reportedly getting rid of another Manhattan asset.
German reinsurance company Munich RE has agreed to buy 330 Madison Ave. from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for between $850M and $900M, The Real Deal reports.
The authority had originally set the asking price at $800M. ADIA had previously owned 75% of the building alongside Vornado, and was shopping around its stake. However, in June it reached a deal to buy Vornado out, per TRD, clearing an easier path to a sale.
This deal with Munich RE comes after the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, which spun off from ADIA in 2007, sold the Chrysler Building for a significant loss. RFR and Signa Holding GmbH bought the building from ADIC and Tishman Speyer in March for just over $150M. ADIC had paid $800M for its stake in the tower back in 2008.
CBRE’s Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan marketing 330 Madison for ADIA. This sale could add a much-needed jolt to this year’s sluggish investment sales market in Manhattan.
A total of $22.4B worth of commercial properties sold in the first half of the year, per a Real Estate Board of New York analysis released last month. That represented a slight overall increase in dollar volume from 2018, but a 17% drop in the number of transactions. A major part of the drag has come from the multifamily sector. Total dollar volume among apartments dropped 37% between the first half of 2018 and 2019, and transactions dropped 31%.
