Rock Center gets its price

Real Estate Weekly, Dec 27, 2000 by Doug Miller

Speyer pays $1.85B for trophy

A group of investors, led by Tishman Speyer's Jerry Speyer and Lester Crown of Chicago, will pay $1.85 billion for Rockefeller Center, according to a report published Friday in the New York Times.

The subplot to this story is the deal will end the Rockefeller family's involvement with the landmark complex after 70 years.

Rockefeller Center encompasses ten buildings and 8 million square feet of office space, the headquarters of General Electric and its subsidiary, the National Broadcasting Company, plus Radio City Music Hall and, of course, the famous skating rink and annual Christmas Tree. A mecca for tourists, the center was purchased by Goldman Sachs for about $900 million five years ago from Japanese investors who had run the center into bankruptcy.

As reported in Real Estate Weekly this month, bids for the center failed to match the expected $2.2. billion Goldman was looking for, but the 100 percent price increase the Times reported should ease the investment company's pain.

The Rockefellers sold 80 percent of the complex to Mitsubishi Estate in 1985, but a drop in tourism devestated the center, and the company let it fall into bankruptcy. Goldman Sachs and a group including Speyer bought the outstanding mortgage for $300 million and assumed another $845 million in debt, then turned around and sold a part of the center to NBC. Speyer has been managing the center since.