SL Green Buys $108M Brooklyn Tower

BROOKLYN, NY-SL Green Realty Corp. has announced it will acquire Brooklyn’s tallest office tower, 16 Court St., for $107.5 million. Court Street Investors is the seller, and was represented by Darcy Stacom of CB Richard Ellis.

This will be SL Green’s first property in Brooklyn. The 38-story, 317,625-sf tower was built in 1928 in Cadman Plaza. Six subway lines are at Borough Hall next door to the property, and another three are two blocks away.

Joseph P. Day Realty Corp. is the current manager and leasing agent, specifically vice presidents Robert James Oliver and Douglas Becker of that company. Its website lists 48,675 sf in vacancies, mostly in small portions throughout the building, plus a 685-sf retail vacancy in the lobby. Given Day’s own total of 275,000 sf of office space in the building, the current office occupancy at 82%. The asking rent was not listed.

SL Green, the largest landlord in Manhattan, plans a repositioning to modernize the building, originally constructed in 1928. Both the office space and the lower-floor retail space will be retooled, to increase its appeal to Manhattan companies looking to escape Manhattan rents.

“16 Court S. represented a unique opportunity for us to establish a presence in Brooklyn at a substantial discount to replacement cost and be able to offer our customers another convenient, high-quality alternative to Manhattan’s rising rents,” says Andrew Mathias, SL Green president and CEO. “In addition to office upside, the retail redevelopment opportunity is significant. Our ability to capture this asset was based on the seller’s confidence in us given our pre-existing relationship.”