New York Architecture Images- 830 Eighth Ave.

CB Richard Ellis has successfully completed the sale of 830 Eighth Avenue, the 10-story office building located at the corner of West 50th Street and Eighth Avenue. At the time that this 17,500 square-foot property was placed on the market it was 90 percent vacant with only the ground floor occupied. Nat Rockett, director of the Private Client Group at GB Richard Ellis, was selected to market the property on behalf of its European owners based on his extensive experience in this sub-market and focus on sourcing private capital for middle market product in Manhattan.

According to Rockett, "The building did present some challenges from a marketing perspective but by focusing our efforts properly we were able to generate a tremendous amount of interest from a variety of buyer profiles."

The strategy developed by Rockett and the CB Richard Ellis Investment Properties Group highlighted the potential for several alternative uses capitalizing on the property's very visible and distinctive location. Among the groups that were most active on the site were local hoteliers, residential converters and potential users.

Ultimately, a local investor active on the West Side purchased the property for $4.5 million or approximately $257 per square-foot.

"Initially the market was very focused on the price per square-foot, which was an issue due to the rather small floor plates. In the end, however, we were able to identify a buyer that could recognize the full potential of a substantially vacant building located at the epicenter of the changes that are sweeping Manhattan's West Side from Times Square to the Time Warner world headquarters being built at Columbus Circle," commented Rockett.

The buyer did not have any official comment on his plans.