Midtown Tower Sold for $332.5 Million

NEW YORK — Columbia Property Trust has sold a 25-story office tower at 222 East 41^st Street in Midtown Manhattan to Commerz Real, the real assets investment manager of German Commerzbank, for a gross sales price of $332.5 million.

The 390,000-square-foot Midtown East tower had been essentially fully occupied by one tenant since 2007, in a lease that was set to expire in 2016. Upon learning that the tenant would be vacating, Columbia launched a marketing campaign for the tower, which helped it land a 30-year lease to NYU Langone Medical Center for the entire building, with almost no downtime in occupancy.

Originally constructed in 2001, the 25-story office tower has been converted by NYU Langone over the past two years into a multispecialty ambulatory care facility that began accepting patients last month.

“We were very pleased to secure an esteemed tenant on a long-term lease, which significantly increased the value of the property,” said Nelson Mills, president and chief executive officer of Columbia. “Proceeds will further strengthen our balance sheet in the near term and will eventually be recycled into higher growth investment opportunities.”

Columbia Property Trust owns and operates Class-A office buildings concentrated in New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Its portfolio includes 19 properties with approximately nine million square feet.