NEW YORK CITY-Beating earlier estimates, SL Green Realty Corp.’s 28 W. 44th St. has sold to a joint venture between APF Properties and Prudential Real Estate Investors for $161 million. The 359,000-square-foot office tower had been expected to draw bids of about $150 million when it went to market in January.

“We particularly like the building because it has the characteristics of a core asset, but is trading at a price reflective of its current state as a class B building,” APF principal Berndt Perl says in a release. APF plans $12 million worth of capital improvements to the property, which is currently 87% leased.

For SL Green, the sale is in keeping with its long-term strategy of selling off assets that have reached maturity within its portfolio and then reinvesting in new acquisitions. “I think we’re one of the few REITs that sequentially and serially roll out mature properties, take gains, reinvest in some new buildings—we’ve done it throughout,” CEO Marc Holliday said during a conference call in January discussing fourth-quarter 2010 results. In a release on Monday, SL Green president Andrew Mathias says his company’s leasing and operations team “did a great job in repositioning this asset to its full potential.”

SL Green paid $105.5 million for the 22-story 28 W. 44th, which it acquired in May 2005 from Transwestern Investments, and recently identified the property as one of about a half-dozen in its portfolio that might go on the block in 2011. In announcing the 28 W. 44th sale, the REIT said Monday it would reinvest the $33.2 million in proceeds from the sale toward its recent acquisition of the fee interest at 885 Third Ave., the Lipstick Building.

APF sees its latest buy as an example of its strategy of acquiring, repositioning and operating well-located office properties that present opportunities for upgrades, according to a release. Perl says in the release that his company’s plan in buying 28 W. 44th, also known as the National Association Building, has four components: creating positive leverage by taking advantage of the low interest-rate environment, devising “a more appealing workplace” through the capital improvement program, launching an “aggressive” leasing campaign and implementing sustainable building management practices.

Adds APF principal Kenneth Aschendorf in the release, “Class B buildings in A locations are an attractive solution for smaller service firms that need to be close to their Midtown corporate clients and that at the same time have to carefully watch their bottom line.” APF owns three other office properties within a few blocks of 28 W. 44th: the 128,000-square-foot 286 Madison Ave. near 40th Street; 1156 Ave. of the Americas, an 82,000-square-foot office and retail structure at the corner of 45th Street; and the 185,000-square-foot 25 W. 45th St.

The investment sales team of Darcy Stacom and William Shanahan, vice chairmen with CB Richard Ellis, acted on behalf of SL Green in the transaction. A second-quarter closing is expected on the deal, subject to customary closing conditions.