Olympic Airways buys 1 East 42nd Street - New York, New York

Real Estate Weekly, Sept 30, 1992

In another transaction involving the acquisition of a New York office building by a major corporation for its use as a corporate headquarters, Eastern Consolidated Properties, Inc. has announced that Olympic Airways, an arm of the Greek Government, has acquired One East 42nd Street, and 80,000-square-foot 20-story vacant office building.

Olympic acquired the property from Touko America Inc., a Japanese owner, as part of settlement with the mortgagee, the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company which also provided new acquisition financing. According to real estate sources, the property was acquired by Touko as part of a major assemblage which was abandoned as a result of the recent collapse in real estate values. The prior owners had approximately $35 million invested in the property, which was acquired by Olympic for $7 million. Peter Hauspurg, president of Eastern Consolidated Properties, Inc. and Vice President Scott Latham arranged the sale on behalf of Touko and Mutual Benefit.

According to Nicholas Sfouggatakis, the real estate advisor to Olympic, the company will occupy about one-third of the property to start for its corporate headquarters and will renovate the spectacular ground floor spaces into an airline ticket office when Chemical Bank vacates the property at the end of this year. A six-story commercial townhouse at Four East 43rd Street was also acquired as part of the deal.