By Al Barbarino
The China Institute in America has purchased two condo units at 40 Rector Street for $18.3 million, city records show.
Floors in the 19-story, 600,000 s/f building range from 29,962 to 34,529 s/f, meaning that the Chinese school for continuing education paid as much as $265 psf.
The property, built in 1920, was renovated in 1996 and again between 2008 and 2010.
A team from Newmark Knight Frank led by Scott Klau is marketing the space for Philips International, a real estate development group that has converted several office buildings in the city from rental into condo space.
The Newmark team has worked with Philips before on an East Side building the firm converted on Second Avenue and a 100,000 s/f property at 110 East 40th Street, Klau told Real Estate Weekly last October. He declined to comment on the China deal for this article.
Other tenants in the building include the New York City offices of Labor Relations and Administrative Trials and Hearings, the Council of School Supervisors & Administrators and RVM, a legal technology consulting firm.
China Institute, founded in 1926, offers programs in culture, business and art. It was chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York in 1944, and is the oldest Chinese educational center of its kind in the US.
