SL Green Sells Midtown Office Building For $312 Million

SL Green has sold a Midtown office building for $312 million as part of a strategy to reduce debt, the real estate investment trust announced on June 1.

The 37-story building at 10 E. 53rd St., which spans 390,000 sq. ft., will be sold to the real estate investment manager Meadow Partners later this year. SL Green will continue to serve as property manager. The building is considered a “Class A” office building by industry professionals, meaning that it is deemed a sought-after and high-end space for tenants.

Yet SL Green is seeking to shrink its Manhattan portfolio by $2.5 billion, in order to pare back debt amid a high-interest-rate environment that is making mortgage refinancing more expensive. SL Green says that the newly-announced sale of 10 E. 53rd St., which will be finalized later this summer, will net $100 billion in cash flow for that purpose.

The E. 53rd St. tower hosts a number of significant office tenants, including: the real estate firm Compass, the asset management firm Magnetar Capital, Swarovski North America, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, and the luxury brand Zegna. On the retail side of things, it hosts an Equinox gym branch and a Metropolitan Bank branch.

“We positioned the asset to capitalize on strong investor demand for high-quality, well-located Midtown assets, and we look forward to continuing to manage the property moving forward,” SL Green President and Chief Investment Officer Harrison Sitomer said in a statement.

SL Green had first acquired a 55 percent majority stake in the building back in 2012, when it led a partnership alongside the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) to acquire it for $31.5 million.

Renovations followed, and SL Green bought out the stake held by the CPPIB in 2024. They also refinanced the building’s debt with a $15 million principal paydown that year, as well as extended its mortgage maturity date to 2028.

SL Green conducted two other portfolio trimmings as part of its debt reduction strategy in March—a $222.6 million sale of a FiDi building at 7 Dey St. to GO Residential Reit, and the $54.5 million sale of 690 Madison Ave. to the Swiss luxury group Richemont. Richemont owns the brand Van Cleef & Arpels, which is the sole tenant at 690 Madison Ave.

By March 31 of this year, SL Green still owned interests in 55 buildings, spanning 30.8 million square feet. As Crain’s New York Business noted, SL Green has been on a leasing tear in recent months as New York City’s office market has recovered.

Yet concerns over AI-induced job reductions has reportedly led to an expectation that demand for office space will lower, which has depressed the stock price of publicly traded companies such as SL Green; the stock price has nearly halved since an $80 high in Nov. 2024.The stock closed on June 2 at $45.14, up .89% 40 cents per share.

Meadow Partners, meanwhile, has a portfolio of properties worth $6.6 billion. This includes office buildings such as the “Class A” 295 Fifth Avenue in NoMad, otherwise known as the Textile Building, and the 10-story 860 Washington St. in the Meatpacking District.