Brookfield Office Properties has paid $200 million to buy the headquarters of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and integrate the building at One North End Avenue into its Brookfield Place.
Following months of unconfirmed reports, the company announced yesterday (Tuesday) that is has closed on the purchased of the 15-story, half million square-foot office building.
At the same time, NYMEX signed a lease back agreement for the lower 222,000 s/f of space in the building for a 15-year term, including the NYMEX Trading Floor as well as office and trading floor support space.
“One North End Avenue has always unofficially been a part of Brookfield Place and the opportunity to acquire and integrate the property was compelling for us as we continue our $250 million repositioning program,” said Dennis Friedrich, chief executive officer of Brookfield Office Properties.
“One North End is a highly specified office/trading building featuring a great waterfront location and which further benefits from the accelerating vitality in the area, including the introduction of new restaurants from celebrated chefs and luxury brand retail.”
Seller, CME Group, NYMEX’s parent company, were represented in the sale by Holly Duran and Jeff Mulder of Holly Duran Real Estate Partners LLC, CME’s global real estate advisor since 1980. The pair worked with James D. Kuhn, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank president and head of the firm’s Capital Markets group, and Capital Markets senior managing director Jennifer Schwartzman. NGKF vice chairman Neil Goldmacher handled the leaseback transaction.
One North End Avenue was developed in 1996, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and was the City’s first LEED EB certified building.
It has two, 35,000 s/f column-free open outcry trading floors with 37-foot-high ceilings, an asset CIM has coveted as it maintains a commitment to old-school verbal trading, according to Kevin Lennon, managing director Real Estate at CME Group.
Lennon said, “We are very pleased to sell the NYMEX building to Brookfield Office Properties … who will be great landlords for us and the other tenants in the building. With this sale, we will continue to update our New York offices to reflect the innovation and quality of our CME Group offices around the world.”
Brookfield plans to undertake a renovation on one of the trading spaces to create a modern, double-height galleried trading floor alongside the additional infill of a slab to create offices.
When NYMEX completes its consolidation in the lower half of the building, Brookfield will offer the 322,000 s/f of at the top of the building for lease.
The space includes a valuable signature rooftop terrace overlooking the Statue of Liberty and North Cove Marina.
