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Thor Equities continues to buy up chunks of real estate in New York City.
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Thor Equities has announced the purchase of 530 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan from a partnership led by Rockwood Capital and Jamestown for $590 million.
Built in 1957 and designed by Voorhees Walker Foley & Smith, 530 Fifth Ave is a 26 story office building located on the Avenue’s entire eastern block between 44th and 45th Streets. The tower has 480, 000 square feet of office space and 55, 000 square feet of retail with 26 stores, including JPMorgan Chase, Fossil and Desigual. It is right near the New York Public Library, Bryant Park and Grand Central Station.
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The building is said to be only 68% occupied, with 40, 000 square feet of retail space and 100, 000 square feet of offices available for lease. Its current office space tenants include Cablevision, Massachusetts Mutual, Lionsgate and Diageo North America.
Thor expects to officially close the deal in September together with its Chicago based partner General Growth Properties Inc., which is America’s second largest owner of shopping malls.
Those two companies plan to split the property in two, keeping the retail space for themselves and leaving the office section of the building to their other partner in the venture, Uniondale, New York based RXR.
The building’s previous owners sold it after they renovated its lobby and improved the internal facilities.
This latest acquisition gives Thor four properties in a 20 block length of Fifth Avenue, from 44th Street to 65th Street.
Founded in 1986 by Joseph Sitt, Thor Equities is a leader in urban real estate development, leasing and management, pursuing retail and mixed-use assets in high-density areas. Thor provides possible “High Street” retail and mixed-use building environments throughout the urban landscape across the United States, Latin America and Europe.
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Thor currently owns more than 60 properties in New York City alone, in addition to many more in Chicago, Miami, Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Outside of America it has assets in London, Paris, Cannes and Mexico City.
Last October it purchased the Barneys Department Store Building in Chicago for $154 Million.
Sitt named the company for the comic book hero Thor. As Sitt said of his company, “One of the most special things about Thor Equities is our integration of so many different processes that are so integral to the investment of real estate. We’re a platform with many legs that work together to create synergy to maximize value for our investors, partners, community, and associates.”
Joseph J. Sitt, 50, is the CEO of Thor Equities and the chairman and managing principal of the Thor Urban Property Fund. He was born in Brooklyn to a Syrian Jewish family and is also the founder of the retail chain Ashley Stewart. The name for that company was inspired by Laura Ashley and Martha Stewart.
Last November he closed a deal to buy 65-67 Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris with the Israeli institutional investor the Harel Insurance company for $343 million.
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