Mexican Investor Carlos Slim Helu Buys 417 Fifth Avenue Office Building for $140 Million

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According to Cushman & Wakefield (C & W), foreign buyers now account for 15% of all Manhattan investment sales in 2010.

To further demonstrate that point, C & W also announced today the completion of the sale of the 417 Fifth Avenue office building for $140 million.

The seller was a joint venture operating as W2007 417 Fifth Avenue Realty, LLC.  The buyer was Inmobiliaria Carso, S.A. DE C.V., an investment company controlled by Mexican businessman and investor Carlos Slim Helu.

The 11-story, 412,000-square-foot building is located at the southeast corner of East 38th Street in the Grand Central submarket.  The building has approximately 380,000 square feet of above-grade space including 23,500 square feet of Fifth Avenue retail.

A Cushman & Wakefield team including former Executive Vice Presidents Richard Baxter, Jon Caplan, Yoron Cohen and Scott Latham, along with current Executive Vice President Helen Hwang and Executive Director Karen Wiedenmann represented the seller.

The buyer was represented by Soly Halabi of Venture Capital Properties.

Year to date through June 1, $4.2 billion of Manhattan commercial properties have been sold or put under contract.  Of the total, foreign buyers have accounted for 15 percent of all sales closed or under contract; private capital has accounted for 35 percent; REITs have accounted for 34 percent; pension funds and owner-occupants have each accounted for 8 percent.  For the full year 2009, foreign buyers accounted for 10 percent of the $3.5 billion in transactions that were closed.

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