Munich Re Group, advised by MEAG, has agreed to acquire the 330 Madison Avenue building in New York City.
The seller was advised by CBRE. The parties have agreed to not disclose the purchase price.
The 39-story high-rise dates from 1963 and was designed by Ely Jacques Kahn, one of the fathers of the New York City skyline. It was renovated in 2012, including a new glass curtainwall façade, lobby, and updated systems that achieved LEED Gold certification.
The building is located adjacent to Grand Central Station near the New York Public Library and Bryant Park in the heart of midtown Manhattan. The area around Grand Central is undergoing a resurgence on account of its excellent access to public transit and recent rezoning for increased density. The appeal of the location is underscored by new projects in the neighborhood, such as the new 1,401-foot One Vanderbilt directly across the street and plans to build a new J.P. Morgan building.
330 Madison Avenue features 852,000 square feet of class A space that is 95 percent leased to prominent tenants, among them Guggenheim Partners, JLL, and HSBC.
Hans-Joachim Barkmann, managing director of MEAG, stated, “This investment is attractive for us for a variety of reasons. We are glad to invest in the United States, given the United States’ share of Munich Re’s insurance portfolio. The overall American real estate market is also currently outperforming continental Europe — and especially midtown Manhattan is really unique in the world in terms of status and prospects. Moreover, the fact that we will successfully close a transaction of this scale in such a short time underscores our agility in highly-competitive, global markets.”
