Tishman Speyer, Crown Buy Rock Center for $1.85 Bil

NEW YORK CITY-Rockefeller Center, one of the most venerable of New York City landmarks, has a new owner in a team formed by Tishman Speyer and the Chicago-based Crown Family. The partnership of Speyer and Crown previously held 5% of the facility, sharing ownership with Goldman Sachs, David Rockefeller, the Agnelli family and a Greek entrepreneur. The reported price for the complex was $1.85 billion, and the Speyer/Crown team gain all of their previous partners’ interests. The agreed-upon price is well below the $2.5 billion sought by current ownership.

The deal ends months of conjecture about the state of negotiations, most recently revolving around the possibility that the center would not be sold at all but rather refinanced in the face of dwindling acquisition offers. Just a week ago, GlobeSt.com reported that one of the leading acquisition candidates, Boston Properties, dropped out of the running and REIT Vornado Realty Trust had emerged as the frontrunner.

Also squeezed out of the bargaining were Equity Office Properties and Fisher Brothers.

In addition to its previous minimal stake, Tishman Speyer was also the complex’s management and leasing agent. As such, the company embarked on a successful redevelopment of the tired center, upgrading all 10 buildings and its total of 5.8 million sf of office space.