The 450 Park Avenue office tower in Manhattan. (Google Street View)

Oxford Properties Group will sell one of its trophy properties, the 450 Park Avenue office tower in Manhattan, to SL Green Realty Corp. for $445 million US.

The 33-storey tower is located at the corner of 57th Street and Park Avenue. Designed by Emery Roth and Sons and completed in 1973, it features 337,000 square feet of luxury office and retail space.

Oxford Properties, the Toronto-based real estate arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), acquired the tower in 2014 for a reported $575 million US. At the time, it was one of the highest prices paid for a Manhattan office building.

“Our investment in 450 Park Avenue represents the ideal asset for our first office acquisition since 2018 and further demonstrates our conviction in the vibrant East Midtown office corridor,” said Harrison Sitomer, chief investment officer of SL Green, in the announcement. “As the most recognizable thoroughfare in East Midtown, Park Avenue continues to attract top-tier tenants and triple-digit rents.”

He said SL Green plans to bring additional partners into ownership of the building.

“Given the domestic and international appeal for blue-chip assets like this one, we expect significant interest from joint-venture partners who will capitalize this deal with us as we grow our investment management platform.”

The tower is Wired Silver certified and Energy Star certified.

The 450 Park Avenue tower

Offering expansive views of the Midtown Manhattan skyline, the property is home to several high-end boutique financial services and luxury tenants, including Banco Bradesco, BDT Capital Partners and Oxford’s New York office. The high-visibility corner retail location will soon be home to Aston Martin’s first Manhattan showroom.

As part of its planned capital investment plan, SL Green says it will develop a new amenity offering, providing high-quality, tailored programs and services for tenants.

As of April 21, Oxford’s website listed five blocks of vacant space in the property, totalling about 47,000 square feet. Typical floor plates range from 10,500 to just under 11,000 square feet. In a listing April 21 on VTS Marketplace, the 10,778-square-foot 10th floor was being offered for $135 US per square foot on a 10-year lease.

The transaction is expected to close during Q2 of this year, and remains subject to customary closing conditions.

Darcy Stacom, William Shanahan and Doug Middleton of CBRE advised SL Green on the transaction.

The sale is the second major asset Oxford has divested in the New York area in recent months.

In September 2021, along with joint-venture partner CPP Investments, it announced Google had exercised its option to acquire the St. John’s Terminal redevelopment at Hudson Square for $2.1 billion US.

The 12-storey, 1.3-million-square-foot St. John’s Terminal site encompasses two city blocks adjacent to Hudson River Park’s Pier 40 and is in the final stages of construction. Oxford had acquired the site in 2017.

About SL Green, Oxford Properties

SL Green is Manhattan’s largest office landlord and is a fully integrated REIT focused primarily on acquiring, managing and maximizing value of Manhattan commercial properties.

As of March 31, SL Green held interests in 72 buildings totalling 34.7 million square feet. This included ownership interests in 26.7 million square feet of Manhattan buildings and 7.2 million square feet securing debt and preferred equity investments.

Oxford Properties is based in Toronto and owns and operates an $80-billion Cdn portfolio of global assets.

Oxford and its portfolio businesses manage properties across four continents and seven sectors, representing nearly 164 million square feet of commercial space, 3,000 hotel rooms, 10,000 residential units and credit investments.

The firm also oversees a multi-sector, multi-market development pipeline.