Solow Said to Buy Office Building Near 9 West 57th St. for $120 Million

Sheldon Solow, a New York developer, agreed to pay about $120 million for an office building across the street from his 9 West 57th St. tower, a person with knowledge the deal said.

The price for the 11-story property at 12 West 57th St. comes to $1,428 a square foot, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private.

Solow is buying the 84,000-square-foot (7,800-square-meter) property in part to protect the value of 9 West, one of the city’s most costly skyscrapers, the person said. By controlling the building across the street, he will prevent another developer from constructing a tower that might block the southern views from 9 West, the person said.

In December, Solow refinanced 9 West for $625 million. The 50-story tower offers unobstructed views of Central Park, one block to the north. The lender, Deutsche Bank AG, securitized the loan earlier this month, a person with knowledge of that offering said at the time.

Steve Solomon, a spokesman for Solow, and George Shea, a spokesman for Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), the broker for seller Trigon Equities, declined to comment.

The retail tenants at 12 West 57th St. are Metropolitan Antiques and Mackenzie-Childs Ltd., a furniture merchant. Both are on leases that expire next year, the person with knowledge of the purchase said. The building was home to Henri Bendel, a luxury retailer, before it moved to the then-new 712 Fifth Ave. tower in the late 1990s.

The deal was reported earlier today by the New York Post.

To contact the reporter on this story: David M. Levitt in New York at dlevitt@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Taub at dtaub@bloomberg.net