300 Park Avenue South Has New Owner and New Direction

Yesterday morning I posted our weekly report on new space availabilities in Midtown South, and I received a few calls and e-mails asking why 300 Park Avenue South was not mentioned in my report. The question is valid, since numerous commercial real estate listing services added the 2nd - 15th floors of 12,671 RSF each to the available inventory at 300 Park Avenue South last week. The availability of the space is not really new however. Rather, the owner of the building is (sorta), which is what caused the space to be temporarily delisted. But now it is back. Are you confused yet? Let me explain.

Back in 2008, ownership of 300 Park Avenue South announced that they wanted to explore the possibility of turning the building into either a single tenant or two-tenant building. An outside real estate firm was hired by the owners to begin marketing the property to large space users, who were told that most of, if not the entire building, could be made available in January 2011. In other words, none of the building's existing tenants were going to be renewed once their leases expired. At that time, the space officially hit the market.

Than two things occurred which would change the aforementioned course of direction - the economy crashed and ownership of 300 Park Avenue South decided to break the company apart.

Fast forward to January 10, 2010, and a press release was sent out announcing that "Henry Elghanayan’s Rockrose Development Corp. is in contract to acquire, and now controls," 300 Park Avenue South. Henry Elghanayan had previously owned the property jointly with his two brothers, Tom and Fred Elghanayan, who now head TF Cornerstone.

The release went on to say, per a quote from Rockrose Senior Vice President Patricia Dunphy, that Rockrose plans "to renew existing leases, all of which are up for renewal at the beginning of 2011, while initiating upgrades." The capital improvement program for the building calls for an extensive makeover of common areas, including a new lobby and new elevators.

So basically, all office space at 300 Park Avenue South is on the market, as it previously was, except now the ownership entity is slightly different and existing tenants are welcome to stay. At the right price.