Luxury auction house Sotheby’s has sold its longtime Manhattan headquarters in a $510 million deal that ranks as one of the largest in New York this year.
Weill Cornell Medicine bought the 10-story, 420,000-square-foot building from Sotheby’s at 1334 York Ave., spokespeople for the buyer and seller told CoStar News separately.
Weill Cornell’s ties with the Upper East Side property began in 2023 when the healthcare and research institution leased five of the building’s floors, the Weill Cornell spokesperson said. Purchasing the entire building allows Weill Cornell to extend its campus one block north, and it may expand clinical services, among other considerations, with the additional footprint, the spokesperson said.
Both spokespeople declined to comment on the deal terms.
CoStar data shows Weill Cornell paid $510 million, representing a near 40% premium to Sotheby’s 2009 purchase price of $370 million. It also marked one of the largest office deals in New York this year, CoStar data shows.
“This purchase yields a real estate asset for materially the same net cost as leasing and creates flexibility for future use as a component of our long-term strategic plan,” the Weill Cornell spokesperson said.
Weill Cornell’s purchase of the building highlights the growing trend of companies and institutions buying the properties they occupy. For instance, the investment arm of Swedish furniture retailer Ikea’s parent this week said it has bought a prominent building in Manhattan’s SoHo as it readies to open an Ikea store in the heart of the vibrant shopping district. Other retailers including Gucci parent Kering and Japanese retailer Uniqlo have also bought their Manhattan flagship properties on Fifth Avenue.
“1334 York represented the unique opportunity to acquire a building at the center of NYC’s preeminent medical research corridor," David Giancola, part of a JLL team that represented Weill Cornell, said in an emailed statement to CoStar News.
For Sotheby’s, the sale of its New York home of 45 years comes as the company has bought the Breuer building a mile away at 945 Madison Ave. from the Whitney Museum of American Art. Sotheby’s plans to relocate its New York flagship galleries and auction room to the building designed by modernist master Marcel Breuer. The new location is expected to open next month.
Sotheby’s previously also bought a Gantry Point logistics and storage facility to handle rare and valuable art and objects in the Queens neighborhood of Long Island City.
The sale of 1334 York marks “the logical and final step in our New York real estate transformation,” Blair Rosenberg, Sotheby’s global head of corporate and internal communications, said in an emailed statement to CoStar News.
Sotheby’s is leasing back floors 7-10 of 1334 York under a long-term lease to have “minimum disruption” for its New York staff, the “vast majority of whom are based on these floors,” Rosenberg said.
“The sale of 1334 York is very financially beneficial for Sotheby’s,” she said, adding Sotheby’s is using the sale proceeds to “further reduce debt and invest even more fully” in its core business, including renovating its leased office space at York. “We’ll now have a best-in-class front of house, back of house and staff working environment, all aligned with our brand and client expectations, and all at a lower net annual cost.”
Bloomberg News earlier reported the transaction.
For the record
Weill Cornell was represented by a JLL team that included David Giancola, Geoff Goldstein, Steve Klein, David Carlos and Joe Messina. CBRE's Doug Middleton and Mary Ann Tighe represented Sotheby's.