RFR Holdings Sells 980 Madison Avenue for $560M

An entity, reportedly linked to Michael Bloomberg’s Bloomberg Family Office, has purchased the approximately 118,635-square-foot building for $560 million. The deal also included the land beneath the 6-story structure that spans the entire Madison Avenue blockfront between East 76th and 77th Streets. The seller, RFR Holdings had acquired the property in 2004 for $126 million and in 2021 Column Financial provided a refinancing and consolidation of $197.6 million in existing debt as well as originating a roughly $51.495 million gap mortgage according to city records. An October 2023 blog post by art organization Artnet, announced that RFR secured a proposed 30-year lease with Bloomberg Philanthropies for 115,824 square feet spanning the 2nd through 6th floors at $185 per square foot, which had been conditionally approved but at the time of the post was still pending approval by RFR’s mezzanine lender. As the leases of the existing tenants expired, Bloomberg Philanthropies would take over the space with 70% occupancy expected by the end of 2025. Reports in January by Morningstar Credit indicated that Gagosian Gallery, a tenant since 1987, occupies about 42% of the total office space at $117 per square foot under a lease set to expire in April 2025. The lease with Bloomberg Philanthropies came at an opportune time for RFR, satisfying the company’s loan servers to remove from the watchlist late last year the existing CMBS loan that had failed a debt service coverage ratio test in September 2022.

Source:    https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2024/06/06/aby-rosen-sells-980-madison-avenue-and-land-for-560m/

Source:  https://news.artnet.com/market/a-slew-of-rarefied-art-tenants-including-gagosian-gallery-will-have-to-relocate-after-980-madison-avenue-lease-deal-2369438