NEW YORK (September 7, 2007)—Thelen’s Real Estate and Corporate Finance teams assisted Circle Properties in the $350 million acquisition and financing of the landmark New York office building known as "14 Penn Plaza." The purchase price for this 22-story, 558,000-square-foot commercial office building on the south end of midtown Manhattan represents approximately $625 per square foot.
Thelen’s client was offered the opportunity to bid on 14 Penn Plaza. Due to the highly-competitive nature of this bidding process, our client had to act quickly once their bid was accepted. In two days, Thelen helped complete due diligence and negotiate a purchase and sale agreement with the seller.
With the agreement stipulating that the deal would have to be closed in less than a month, Thelen’s real estate team went to work readying the closing, while our corporate lawyers went to work on the financing for the acquisition. The transaction was also structured as a Section 1031 exchange, and both forward and reverse 1031 exchange documents were readied to prepare for either eventuality. Despite these and other last-minute hurdles, the Thelen team successfully closed the deal by the August 23 deadline.
The Thelen transaction team was led by New York Private Equity and Venture Capital partner E. Ann Gill. New York Real Estate counsel Dick Kane and partner Larry Brownridge, along with Business partner Steve Kinney, all lent their prodigious skills to this transaction, and were ably assisted by associates Marie Landsman, Dan Borden, Ying Li, and Josh Gelfand. San Francisco Tax associate Mark McCleary handled the 1031 issues. Compensation and Benefits chair Ben Delancy, and associates Theo Gould and Suzanne D’Amato helped with labor and union pension fund issues. Real Estate partner Scott Weinberg and associate Troy Fuhriman pitched in on due diligence and contract review prior to the signing.
For more information, contact:
Kevin Livingston
National Manager of Public Relations
Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP
415.369.7224
klivingston@thelen.com