Cove Property Group and Blue Sky Alternative Investments acquire another NY office tower.
Cove Property Group (Cove), a joint venture between Blue Sky Alternative Investments and US property investors led by Kevin Hoo, has signed an agreement to acquire its second asset, an office tower located at 441 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan, New York.
Having completed its first transaction earlier this year at 2 Rector Street, New York, this second acquisition marks a further important milestone in the development of Cove’s business.
The transaction value exceeds A$400 million and is expected to settle within the next two months. The agreement was signed on behalf of the joint venture investment vehicle managed by Cove. The majority of the equity for this investment vehicle will be provided by a North American based institutional investor.
441 Ninth Avenue is an existing eight story building located within a five minute walk of Penn Station, Hudson Yards and Manhattan West. Cove plans to fully redevelop the property into a Class A office tower in one of the Manhattan’s most rapidly expanding submarkets, which has already begun to benefit from a projected US$20 billion of private and public capital expenditure, and welcomed an influx of global blue chip tenants including KKR, Wells Fargo, Boston Consulting Group, Coach, JP Morgan and L’Oreal.
Blue Sky incoming managing director, Robert Shand, said the deal was the second high profile acquisition for Cove in just eight months.
“It’s an important milestone for Cove and for the development of our US operations, and it gives our investors a chance to gain access to New York’s real estate market,” Mr Shand said.
“This deal, paired with the expansion and venture capital we have executed in the US over the last two years, shows our New York office is gaining real momentum.”
“Partnering with Kevin gives us an insider advantage, while mitigating risk for our investors. His track record is impressive, having worked for prestigious US companies, including Savanna Real Estate,for more than a decade and closing a lot of major deals.”
Prior to Savanna, Mr Hoo was a director at Tishman Speyer Properties, one of the preeminent real estate companies in the world. Mr Hoo’s acquisition, development, design and construction roles saw him focusing on properties as iconic as Rockefeller Center and the MetLife building on Park Avenue. Before then, Mr Hoo was an associate director in the Real Estate Investment Banking Group at UBS AG in Sydney, where he was responsible for M&A and capital market transactions for REIT clients.
A University of Queensland graduate, Mr Hoo also holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Chicago’s Northwestern University
Blue Sky Alternative Investments Limited (‘Blue Sky’) holds a 38 per cent economic interest in Cove Property Group.
