Tishman in talks over $150M school site

Real Estate Weekly, Sept 28, 2005 by Tiffany Razzano

Tishman Speyer is eager to iron out the details of a $153 million deal with the New York Law School that would allow the developer to snatch up a prime piece of downtown real estate and possibly rejuvenate the development of downtown Manhattan.

The company wants to buy the 12,500 s/f piece of land, bounded by Church, Leonard, Worth Street and West Broadway, to build a 300,000 s/f residential tower. Currently, Tishman's only downtown property is the 1,076,164 s/f office building located at 375 Hudson Street.

"I'm very proud to be working on a deal downtown. It's our first possibility down there in a while," Tishman senior managing director Robert Speyer told guests at a luncheon organized by the Real Estate Board of New York, as he fielded questions in an interview with Woody Heller, executive managing director of Studley who is negotiating the sale on behalf of the school.

Speyer declined to discuss any specifics about the deal, beyond saying, "Downtown is right in the middle of the city's future. It could once again be a great commercial area. Once it happens, if the execution is great, people are going to focus on the results and not how long it took."

Heller also declined to discuss the ongoing talks between the developer and the school. He stated in an email, "[The deal is] not signed or closed yet, so [it's] not official." When asked to confirm the price of the bid he said, "[It's] hard for me to respond at this point."

Tishman was the highest bidder on the site, offering a reported $153 million. If the deal goes ahead, the developer will have to build a new law school next to the property out of pocket as well as make renovations to other nearby buildings.

Speyer was also reticent to discuss Tishman's plans for the MetLife Building at 200 Park Avenue it bought last year for a record-breaking $1.7 billion.

The Sky Club, located at the top of the building, is set to close December 22, but Speyer told the luncheon, "With an asset that special, important and large, you have to be careful to not publicly discuss plans," he said.

He did, however, promise that there would be some form of announcement about the company's plans for the trophy building within "the next two months."