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GFP Real Estate has made its first major transaction since changing its name from Newmark Holdings in October.
The Gural family-run company purchased 7 Hanover Square in the Financial District from The Guardian Life Insurance Co. for $310M with the Northwind Group, the New York Post reports. The deal amounts to nearly $350/SF.
Guardian had leased the entire office portion of the 27-story, 905K SF building since at least 1998, when its then-owners, Milstein Properties, Weiler Arnow Management Co. and The Swig Co., offered the company a $147M purchase option as part of the lease. Guardian exercised that option in mid-2017 for the purpose of selling the building.
Guardian will be moving into a 148K SF sublease with Coach at 10 Hudson Yards in October 2019 when the 7 Hanover Square sale is expected to close, according to the Post. It had long since shrunk its space within its FiDi home, with most of the floors subleased to other firms. When Guardian exits the property, the office portion will become entirely vacant.
The red-brick 7 Hanover Square was built in 1982 and last renovated in 2005, according to the Post, but despite its style being out of step with new construction across the city, the office vacancy gives GFP and Northwind the ability to completely renovate the interior without displacing tenants. That could explain why the property had a suitor list including the Vanbarton Group, Apollo Global Management and Savanna, The Real Deal reports.
Right before Newmark Knight Frank went public, Jeffrey Gural stepped down as chairman in October to assume the same position at GFP, which spun off as a separate entity, rebranded to prevent confusion between NKF (which is attempting to rebrand simply to Newmark) and Newmark Holdings. Gural remains chairman emeritus at NKF.
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