Olayan Pays $1.5B For Chetrit's Sony Tower
Joseph Chetrit and his co-owners are under contract to sell 550 Madison Ave to Saudi Arabia’s Olayan Group for roughly $1.4B, netting about $300M profit in the five years since they bought the tower for $1.1B in 2011.
That, of course, is on top of the $200M Chetrit collected in rent from longtime tenant Sony before the firm jumped ship to 11 Madison Ave recently, the New York Post reports.
Chetrit and his partners bought the building with the intent of turning it into ultra-luxe condos, but that plan never really got off the ground. That might be for the best, given the state of the ultra-luxe market these days vis-a-vis A-list office towers.
Last year, Chetrit announced a 22k SF triplex penthouse at the building would be hitting the market soon for $150M, which would've made it the second-priciest home in the nation.
Construction lagged however, and as the current deal came into focus Chetrit apparently abandoned its conversion plans entirely, a development some market watchers called shortly after the penthouse was announced.
In a statement, Olayan and its European partner the Chelsfield property group said they plan to lease the office space to “high-quality commercial tenants.” The building has roughly 850k SF of Class A office space available. [NYP]
