RFR Holding has paid $260 million for 477 Madison Ave. in Manhattan, reported The Real Deal.
The New York City–based company bought the 325,000-square-foot office building from Barbara Slifka, who took control of it with her late brother, Alan Slifka, after their father, Joseph Slifka, passed away in 1992.
Alan Slifka, a New York City–based investor and philanthropist, and a co-founder of the Abraham Fund as well as founding chairman of the Big Apple Circus, passed away in 2011 and left the fee position to his three sons — Randy, Michael and David Slifka.
The Real Deal reported Barbara Slifka owned the other half of the fee position, as well as 50 percent of the leasehold that runs through 2039. In 2013, Shorenstein Properties bought a 47.5 percent interest in the leasehold, and Alan Slifka’s three children owned the remaining 2.5 percent.
In April 2019, Barbara Slifka won a suit in which her nephews challenged her authority to act as the managing partner of the partnership that owns the fee to the property and her plans to sell the property. They filed suit in the Commercial Division of the New York State Supreme Court, raising numerous claims, including claims for alleged breaches of contract and fiduciary duty. After extensive oral argument on our motion to dismiss, Justice Joel Cohen dismissed all claims relating to Barbara Slifka’s authority, ruling that she indeed had the sole and absolute discretion to sell the building.