Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has expanded its New York City real estate portfolio by acquiring a 23-story Manhattan office building.
According to combined media reports, the 600,000-square-foot property at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 44th Street was constructed in 1896 and is entirely vacant. The property was the headquarters of Morgan Stanley when it was purchased in 2020 for $350 million by RFR Realty, which took out a $224 million mortgage to finance the purchase. The company defaulted on the loan and faced a foreclosure lawsuit last year when SL Green acquired the loan at a discount and became the plaintiff in the foreclosure suit, which was settled in March.
The acquisition price for the property was not disclosed, and the initial announcement of the sale did not identify Amazon as the buyer. Since last fall, Amazon has either purchased of leased nearly 1.5 million square feet of Manhattan office space. The company’s New York City headquarters, the former Lord & Taylor building, was acquired in 2020 for $1 billion and is a short walk from the newly acquired site.
Photo courtesy of LoopNet
