Namdar Realty Buys 71 Fifth Avenue Leasehold for $62 Million

Namdar Realty Group has acquired the ground leasehold at 71 Fifth Avenue, an 11-story Class B office and retail building at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 15th Street in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, for $62 million, Commercial Observer reported. The deal closed around Oct. 22, 2026, according to Traded, and ends a stretch in which the seller once hoped the position could fetch far more.

Why it matters

Namdar’s purchase from a joint venture of Madison Capital and Lubert-Adler Partners shows how far pricing on Flatiron District office leaseholds has fallen from the market’s 2021 peak. Commercial Observer reported that sources said at the time the leasehold could net up to $150 million, more than double the $62 million closing price now reported, and below what Madison Capital paid to acquire the position in the first place.

The numbers

Commercial Observer reported Namdar paid $62 million for the leasehold, which covers the entire 11-story building and carries about 90 years remaining on its term, according to Meridian Capital Group broker Brian Szczapa. Madison Capital originally acquired that leasehold in 2016 for nearly $85 million upfront plus $3.5 million in annual rent, Commercial Observer reported, citing The Real Deal. Meridian’s Helen Hwang, David Schechtman, Szczapa and Ian Shoenfeld brokered the sale and also arranged a $42 million acquisition loan from Truist for Namdar. NYC Open Data’s ACRIS Real Property Legals dataset confirms 71 Fifth Avenue sits on Manhattan Block 842, Lot 42, backing the parcel identified in the Commercial Observer report. The land under the building remains owned separately by Samco Properties and the family of Mark Lapidus, the former global real estate chief of WeWork.

What’s next

The building’s tenant roster includes WeWork, payments firm Adyen and captioning company Captions, plus a City National Bank branch on part of the ground floor, with another ground-floor unit vacant. Namdar inherits one full available floor of 15,227 square feet, Commercial Observer reported, along with a recent off-market lease of roughly 30,000 square feet to an unnamed artificial intelligence company. Namdar, Madison Capital and Lubert-Adler did not respond to Commercial Observer’s requests for comment. For more on ownership moves across the borough, see New York and Kushner Companies’ loss sale in Murray Hill.