Office buildings at 140 and 150 Grand Street in White Plains, known as Grand Street Plaza, have been sold. The real estate services and investment firm CBRE represented the seller and also procured the buyer in the transaction.
The property sold for $42.5 million, according to CBRE. The seller was an entity owned by a fund managed by Westport Capital Partners LLC. The buyer is a joint venture between Jack Sitt Real Estate LLC and GII LLC.
Jack Sitt, the founder and CEO of Jack Sitt Real Estate LLC, is credited with contributing to the acquisition and management of a $2 billion portfolio of more than 20 properties totaling more than 2 million square feet, according to the company.
GII (Gulf Islamic Investments) is a financial services company based in the United Arab Emirates. It says it has a track record of managing $2.5 billion in assets, syndicating $5.5 billion in debt and raising $1.3 billion in equity.
GII said that there were more than 30 tenants in the buildings. It said the properties should generate “attractive” returns for its investors.
Mohammed Al-Hassan, co-founder and CEO, said, “GII”™s strong performance in 2019 underscore(d) by overseas acquisitions of over $300 million assets and recent exceptional exit of investment in Germany worth $150 million, GII continues to aggressively build on its expertise and capitalize on current market momentum.”
Al-Hassan said the White Plains properties attracted greater investor interest than expected and added, “GII has great confidence in the U.S. market given the attractive risk spread, strong liquidity and transparent business environment.”
Jeffrey Dunne, Steven Bardsley, Jeremy Neuer, David Gavin, Gene Pride and Stuart MacKenzie of CBRE”™s Institutional Properties section were involved in arranging the transaction.
Grand Street Plaza consists of two adjacent Class A office buildings totaling 217,628 square feet at 140 and 150 Grand St. The buildings are 90% occupied, according to CBRE. About 80% of the current tenants are law- or government-related. CBRE said that the building”™s cash flow has been stable and there is a weighted average lease term of nearly seven years.
The property is close to the Westchester County Courthouse and not far from the County Office Building.
Jeffrey Dunne, a vice chairman at CBRE, said, “Grand Street Plaza”™s institutional quality coupled with its unmatched proximity to the courthouses attracts diversified legal practices and government tenants, which should provide the buyer with long-term stable cash flow for the foreseeable future.”
In January 2016, the Business Journal reported that Westport Capital Partners, an investment management company in Wilton, Connecticut, had acquired the properties from SL Green Realty Corp. and its suburban Reckson division for $32 million. The Business Journal reported that the Reckson Operating Partnership LLC sold 140 Grand St., an approximately 120,000-square-foot property built in 1989, for $22.4 million to the Connecticut investors. Reckson acquired the property in 1998 from Westchester developer Louis Cappelli for $21.2 million.
The Business Journal also reported that SL Green Operating Partnership sold 150 Grand St., an approximately 84,000-square-foot property built in 1960, for $9.6 million and that the New York City real estate company paid $6.7 million for the property in 2007.
