Blackstone in Deal to Sell Manhattan Skyscraper for About $2.25 Billion

By Eliot Brown And Keiko Morris 

Blackstone Group LP has reached a deal to sell a Midtown Manhattan office tower for about $2.25 billion to a venture led by Canadian property investor Ivanhoe Cambridge, according to people familiar with the terms of the sale.

The transaction for 1095 Avenue of the Americas, if completed, would represent the second most expensive sale of an individual office building in U.S. history, trailing only the 2008 sale of the General Motors building in Manhattan for $2.8 billion.

The sale illustrates how foreign investors have become the dominant buyers of top-quality real estate within major U.S. cities, snapping up glitzy office skyscrapers like Time Warner Inc.'s headquarters.

Ivanhoe, the real-estate arm of public pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, has been active in recent years, buying towers in Seattle and New York.

Ivanhoe joined with with Callahan Capital Partners on the deal.

Write to Eliot Brown at [e-mail]

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