NYC office tower sale sets a record

Another day, another Manhattan real-estate record.

Photo: NYC office tower sale sets a record

This time, a Fifth Avenue skyscraper is shredding previous prices for a single office building anywhere in the country.

A New Jersey real-estate family confirmed a deal to buy 666 Fifth Ave. from Tishman Speyer Properties. Published reports said the $1.8 billion (Ђ1.36 billion) price beats a $1.72 billion (Ђ1.3 billion) record that Tishman Speyer itself set in buying the MetLife Building elsewhere in Manhattan.

The buyers, Kushner Companies, say the prominent midtown office tower will raise their profile in Manhattan. The company also owns the Puck Building downtown, but the bulk of its holdings are in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

"This is a great acquisition for our company," said Jared Kushner, a principal.

Tishman Speyer, whose corporate predecessors built 666 Fifth in 1957, also applauded the sale.

"We're thrilled with the outcome and wish the Kushners great success," said Rob Speyer, a senior managing director.

Occupying a high-profile block between 52nd and 53rd streets, the tower rubs shoulders with such Fifth Avenue landmarks as Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick's Cathedral.

It's distinctive for its patterned-aluminum facade and was known for decades as the home of the swanky Top of the Sixes restaurant, which was on the top floor. A cigar bar is there now, reports AP.

Current tenants include the financial conglomerate Citigroup, the upper-crust clothier Brooks Brothers, law firms and others.

Tishman Speyer broke another real-estate record last month. It bought a massive Manhattan apartment complex, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, for $5.4 billion (Ђ4.07 billion), in the biggest real-estate deal of any kind in the country.