Only buildings with top tenants are selling in this unicorn market

Tariff talk, interest rates and multi-family foreclosures are weighing down commercial real estate sales.But it’s not all doom and gloom.

Strong office and retail leasing are boosting select Manhattan building values creating a unicorn market for unique properties. In fact, Avison Young counted 84 sales transactions in Manhattan south of 96th Street valued at $5 million and up (retail sales above $1 million) in just the first quarter of the year.The total value of those was $2.7 billion and included 28 residential sales worth $440 million.“Rent spikes around Grand Central [Terminal] helped us trade 320 Park Ave.

in December,” said Andrew Scandalios of JLL about one office stake sale.That’s when investor Munich Re bought the remaining 75% stake in that Park Avenue building from Mutual of America for $506.25 million — thus revaluing the tower at $675 million.The Grand Central area boom is now poised for Savills to help Cooper Union cut a new lease with a new operator for the Chrysler Building. At 590 Madison Ave., leases by LVMH and Apollo Global Management boosted efforts by Eastdil to sell the trophy tower being purchased by Scott Rechler’s RXR for a price expected to reach $1.1 billion.“People understand what a good idea it is to own, and not just the best, but the best of the rest,” said Will Silverman of Eastdil who marketed 590 Madison. The sale of the tower by STRS Ohio also includes the adjacent land under 8 and 9 E.56th St.

which is long-term leased by the Trump Organization and currently subleased to LVMH.  And determined not to lose its retail space in Soho to a competitor, Ralph Lauren just paid $132 million to buy a 9,909-square-foot, multi-level space at 109 Prince St.that it had rented since 1999.

It was represented by Newmark.There’s even buyer interest in lower-occupancy office buildings, which are being eyed for residential conversion.Real estate investor David Werner, for instance, is buying 5 Hanover Squ...