Thor Seals $525M Manhattan Deal

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

693 Fifth Ave., New York City

New York—Thor Equities has closed on its sale of 693 Fifth Ave. in Midtown Manhattan for $525 million, almost four times the 20-story building’s purchase price barely half-a-dozen years ago, Thor announced Friday.

The 100,000-square-foot office and retail building is home to the flagship store of luxury fashion brand Valentino, which occupies four full levels of retail space with 50 feet of Fifth Avenue frontage. Upper-floor office tenants include Carpenters Workshop Gallery, Louis Licari and Phillips Auctioneers.

“We continue to believe strongly in the retail and office market on Fifth Avenue and throughout New York City,” Joe Sitt, CEO of Thor Equities, said in a prepared statement. “However, after successfully implementing our business plan of improving this prime retail and office location and securing an internationally recognized tenant, we felt the time was right.”

The Real Deal reported that the purchaser was Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, chairman & CEO of Fimalac, a Paris-based holding company that owns 20 percent of Fitch Ratings and a minority stake in Warburg Pincus.

Thor had purchased the property, then known as the Takashimaya Building, back in 2010, around the time that the Japanese department store chain closed up shop in New York to concentrate on the Asian market.

The company then began a $200 million upgrade of the building, to include renovating the first eight floors for solely retail use and installing a new glass facade and lobby designed by David Chipperfield Architects. Thor signed a long-term lease with Valentino in 2013.

Thor Equities continues to own a number of properties on Fifth Avenue such as 685 Fifth Ave., the future home of the new Coach flagship store; 597 Fifth Ave., 590 Fifth Ave., 564 Fifth Ave., 562 Fifth Ave., and 530 Fifth Ave. in Midtown; and 172, 164 and 139 Fifth Ave. in Flatiron.

Image courtesy of Thor Equities