{"id":1004033264,"date":"2011-10-17T07:09:12","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T15:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004033264"},"modified":"2022-12-09T00:46:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T08:46:51","slug":"africa-israel-sells-manhattans-clock-tower-building-for-160-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/africa-israel-sells-manhattans-clock-tower-building-for-160-million\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa Israel Sells Manhattan’s Clock Tower Building for $165 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

October 17, 2011<\/strong>
\nBy Paul Rosta, Senior Editor<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons user edenpictures<\/p><\/div>\n

Africa Israel USA Inc. has sold the \u00a0Manhattan landmark known as the Clock Tower Building for $165 million,\u00a0a price discounted from the $200 million the firm paid for the property \u00a0in 2007. \u00a0The trade brings down the curtain on AFI USA’s recession-battered hopes of converting the 267,000-square-foot property into high-end condominiums.<\/p>\n

The Clock Tower Building is one of several high-profile Manhattan properties acquired at the market peak by AFI USA, an affiliate of a Tel Aviv-based enterprise controlled by billionaire Lev Leviev. In 2007, the company paid $525 million for the former New York Times<\/em> headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. That year, it also partnered on a joint venture that bought the Apthorp apartments on the borough\u2019s Upper West Side for a price reported at more than $400 million. According to a March report by Bloomberg, by 2009 \u00a0Leviev \u00a0regarded Africa Israel’s property acquisitions in the U.S. as the company\u2019s \u201cbiggest mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, \u00a0AFI USA has been trying to pay down its debt in part by liquidating assets. The Blackstone Group paid $160 million for nine floors of the former New York Times<\/em> headquarters. The \u00a0identity of the Clock Tower Building\u2019s new owner was not immediately disclosed, but \u00a0AFI USA is believed to have come close to selling the property at least once before this year. \u00a0In May the Wall Street Journal <\/em>reported that Tommy Hilfiger, the fashion mogul, had agreed to pay $170 million for the building. That deal came up short of the finish line, but at the time AFI USA officials \u00a0said that a sale to Hilfiger would enable the company to trim its debt by $64 million, according to media reports.<\/p>\n

Formerly the headquarters of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., the Clock Tower Building takes its name from a 1909 expansion that added a 700-foot-tall tower topped by a \u00a0four-faced clock. \u00a0The building reigned as the world’s tallest until another Manhattan landmark, the Woolworth Building, surpassed it four years later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sale brings down the curtain on Africa Israel’s plan to convert the 267,000-square-foot property into high-end condominiums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":445,"featured_media":1004033266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21808,21783,21742,10,21747],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004033264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-investment","category-latest","category-northeast","category-office"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAfrica Israel Sells Manhattan's Clock Tower Building for $165 Million - Commercial Property Executive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/africa-israel-sells-manhattans-clock-tower-building-for-160-million\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Africa Israel Sells Manhattan's Clock Tower Building for $165 Million\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The sale brings down the curtain on Africa Israel's plan to convert the 267,000-square-foot property into high-end condominiums.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/africa-israel-sells-manhattans-clock-tower-building-for-160-million\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Property Executive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CPExecutive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-17T15:09:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-09T08:46:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2011\/10\/Clock-Tower_edenpictures_takenMay2011.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul Rosta\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/africa-israel-sells-manhattans-clock-tower-building-for-160-million\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/africa-israel-sells-manhattans-clock-tower-building-for-160-million\/\",\"name\":\"Africa Israel Sells Manhattan's Clock Tower Building for $165 Million - 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