Ex-Silverstein Chief's New Venture Buys 600 Third Ave for $245M

Marty Burger, the former CEO of Silverstein Properties, closed the first deal for his new investment platform L&L Infinite this week, paying $245 million to buy 600 Third Avenue, a 42-story, 575,254-square-foot office tower on the west blockfront of Third Avenue between East 39th and 40th Streets in Midtown East. Burger, who ran Silverstein for 14 years, launched the venture in January with David Levinson, CEO of L&L Holding Co., to pursue distressed and transitional assets in New York and Florida. He brought in Mack Real Estate Group, BLDG Management and BD Blakely, an affiliate of Richard Born’s BD Hotels, as partners on the buy. Bain Capital supplied a $215 million acquisition loan. The seller was BlackRock, which had held the tower for close to 20 years. The tower is 92 percent leased to tenants including law firm Polsinelli, Energy Impact Partners and 3G Capital.

Why it matters

A debut acquisition sets the thesis for a new platform, and L&L Infinite picked a heavily leased, tenant-diverse Midtown East tower rather than a distressed or vacant asset. Burger has said Manhattan’s office leasing market has made a full recovery as workers return, and a 92 percent occupied building with law firm and private equity tenancy is a wager that rent growth, not vacancy risk, is the trade in this submarket now. For developers watching where institutional capital is willing to underwrite new office ownership platforms, this is a signal that Midtown East towers with strong occupancy are trading again at meaningful leverage, with Bain Capital willing to write a $215 million loan against the asset.