More than two years after defaulting on its debt, RXR is ready to wash its hands of the famed Helmsley Building in Midtown Manhattan.
Scott Rechler’s firm is seeking approximately $670 million for the office tower at 230 Park Avenue, according to the Commercial Observer. The $481 per square foot asking price is above the property’s debt level.
“Given the turnaround in the New York City office market, RXR made the strategic decision to put the building up for sale,” a spokesperson told the Observer.
The marketing was first reported by The Promote.
A sale of the building would cap a distress story at the property.
RXR was hit with a foreclosure action in New York State Supreme Court in December 2024; the company said it was having “constructive conversations” with the lenders at the time. The filing came a year after RXR allegedly defaulted on a $670 million mortgage.
RXR acquired the 35-story, 1.4 million-square-foot landmarked property from Invesco, Monday Properties and South Korea’s National Pension Service for $1.2 billion in 2015. Scott Rechler’s firm took out a $785 million acquisition loan from American International Group and invested $190 million in improvements for the limestone exterior, bathrooms and windows.
The property was appraised in November 2024 at $770 million, roughly 64 percent of its purchase price about a decade earlier.
In 2024, RXR started looking at the prospect of converting part of the property — presumably into residences — but progress on that hasn’t been brought to light. It’s unclear if a buyer would try to pick up on those plans.
Since the foreclosure action was taken, real estate investor Clarion Partners, law firm Dentons and Voya Financial have departed the property, at least one of those leaving ahead of schedule. But recent months have also seen an expansion by StoneX and a renewal from Banco de la Nación Argentina; the building is 46 percent leased, according to marketing materials.
A Newmark team including Adam Spies, Adam Doneger and Josh King are marketing the property. SL Green subsidiary Green Loan Services is the special servicer of the debt.
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