RFR, RE Capital JV Acquire 281 Park Ave. South

NEW YORK CITY—A joint venture of RFR Holding, LLC and Real Estate Capital Partners has closed on the purchase of the 281 Park Ave. South office building in Midtown South.

The purchase price was in excess of $50 million, according to Savills Studley, which brokered the deal for the pre-war 44,000-square-foot building on behalf of the seller—the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies.

Savills Studley's senior managing director Howard Poretsky and senior managing director Patrick Gardner, along with John Ciraulo and Robert Shapiro of Cushman & Wakefield, represented FPWA, which has owned and managed the landmark property for more than 50 years.

FPWA will reinvest the money from the sale in the organization to tackle social issues that affect the poor and working poor, and to support member agencies, according to the brokerage firm. Savills Studley's Poretsky says the transaction, which closed just before the end of the fourth quarter of 2014, was one of the largest deals in the neighborhood during the quarter.

"This building, located in one of the most happening areas of Manhattan, is a building I've always admired as art,” Poretsky says. “I've covered the Midtown South area long before the media/tech wave and have walked past this building over 1,000 times in my career; not once could I walk past it without stopping to admire its magnificence and stature.”

The 106-year-old six-story building was officially designated a New York City landmark in 1979 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. New ownership plans to reposition the property for future office use, Savills Studley says.