What’s up with all these NY buildings being bought by Israelis?

July 9, 2007
Israeli-Led Group to Buy the Lipstick Building in Manhattan
By BLOOMBERG NEWS

Tao Tsuot and Financial Levers, two Israeli investment companies, said yesterday that they led a group that agreed to buy the Lipstick Building in Manhattan for $648.5 million.

The two Israeli companies said they would own 70 percent of the building, which is at 885 Third Avenue, on East 53rd Street. Investors including the Marciano Investment Group and Metropolitan Real Estate Investments will own the rest, Tao and Financial Levers said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

The 34-story Lipstick Building, so known because of its elliptical shape, was designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee and completed in 1986. The price includes a reserve fund to preserve the building’s facade, the two companies said.

A spokesman for Tao, based in Petach Tikva, Israel, declined to identify the seller. Tishman Speyer Properties’ Web site lists the building as one of its properties.

The two Israeli companies said they would pay $44.8 million in cash for their share of the building and finance the rest with short- and long-term bank loans.

Tao and Financial Levers said they also agreed to buy 292 Madison Avenue for $164.5 million. That 26-story building, on East 41st Street, was built in 1923.

SL Green Realty’s Web site lists the building as one of its properties. The Tao spokesman declined to identify the seller.