IAC Buys Manhattan HQ Land for $80M

April 12, 2023

Office Investment New York NewsMoreNortheast

The property was previously subject to a 77-year ground lease.

555 West 18th St. Image courtesy of CommercialEdge

555 W. 18th St. Image courtesy of CommercialEdge

IAC Corp. has paid $80 million for the land under 555 W. 18th St., its 211,312-square-foot headquarters building in Manhattan. Institutional Property Advisors’ Steven Siegel and Eric Michael Anton brokered the all-cash transaction.

In 2004, the Resnicoff family leased the land for 77 years to The Georgetown Co., as reported by The Real Deal. Georgetown later developed the site as the headquarters for the media conglomerate.

The Class A office building came online in 2007. Frank Gehry served as the project’s main architect, Turner Construction Co. as general contractor, DeSimone Consulting Engineers as structural engineer and STUDIOS Architecture as decorator.

The 11-story building has a concrete reinforced construction, steel frame and glass façade, also including energy-efficient features. Amenities include more than 20 conference rooms, a wide lobby, outdoor terraces, spacious common areas on the ninth floor, controlled access and 70 underground parking spaces.

The property is in the Chelsea neighborhood, on the northeast corner of Eleventh Avenue, in an area with several dining options, retail centers and entertainment venues.

A strong office pipeline

Despite economic concerns, brought about by declining property values, the prospect of higher interest rates and instability in the banking sector, Manhattan’s office market has seen constant construction activity since the beginning of the year. According to a recent CommercialEdge report, the borough had nearly 9.3 million square feet of office space under construction as of February, second in the U.S. after Boston, a metro with 13.5 million square feet in the pipeline.

Manhattan also ranked first in last year’s top 10 markets for office deliveries. The market’s largest addition to the inventory, a $3.8 billion project developed by Related Cos., Mitsui Fudosan America and Oxford Properties Group, came online 1 mile north of IAC’s headquarters.