24-Branch Citibank Retail Portfolio Up for Bids

NEW YORK CITY-Citigroup Global Markets Inc. is marketing a 24-branch sale-leaseback transaction through Newmark Knight Frank. The properties are all centered in the New York City metro area.

“The portfolio consists of 214,000 sf,” says Kenneth Zakin, senior managing director of NKF. “Thirteen of the properties are leased only to Citibank, and 11 are anchored by Citibank but have other retail or office tenants. Each building, once sold, will be leased back to Citibank for 15 years, on separate leases. We’re offering the buildings as a package, or as individual properties, or they could be broken up into several smaller portfolios.”

Zakin tells GlobeSt.com that four of the properties are located in Manhattan, including a location at 91st Street and Madison Avenue and one at 79th Street and First Avenue. Brooklyn houses six locations, Queens four, the Bronx three, Westchester one, and the remaining properties are in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The properties range in size from 2,500 sf to 30,000 sf. Zakin says the best sites are those located in Manhattan. “They are really extraordinary branches.”

There is no asking price for the portfolio as the deal will be conducted through a bidding process. The initial bids will be collected by the end of the month, Zakin says. He expects bidders to be varied due to the quality of the portfolio. “Product of this quantity and quality will be attractive to any investor who wants to own multiple assets with both credit tenancy and future real estate value in multiple locations in the country’s strongest market.”

He goes on to say, “This is an especially attractive portfolio in that you very rarely see so much space, so diversified by location throughout the New York metro area, all of it occupied by a credit tenant like Citibank, which is rated AA+ by Standard & Poor’s and Aaa by Moody’s,” Zakin remarks.

In addition to Zakin, EVP Neil Goldmacher, senior managing director Geoffrey Rockhill, associate Randall Liberman, associate Justin DiMare and Richard P. O’Day, director in Investment Banking, are handling the transaction the portfolio.