Carlyle Group, the buyout firm that has raised $3 billion for U.S. real estate investments, and a partner have purchased a retail and office building in Manhattan's Meatpacking District for $70 million, almost four times what the seller paid last year.
Hypo Real Estate Capital Corp., a German property investment bank, provided financing, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc., a real estate data service provider.
Carlyle and Sitt Asset Management bought 414-418 West 14th St., a 26,000-square-foot, four-story building in a former manufacturing zone that has been transformed into a hot spot with affluent residents, art galleries and upscale stores.
Icon Group was the seller, according to an e-mail Friday from the broker, Sinvin Realty LLC. A deed on the New York City Department of Finance Web site said Icon paid $18.5 million for the property in March of last year.
Carlyle said last month that it had raised $3 billion for a fifth U.S. real estate fund that would invest in office, hotel, industrial and residential properties. "We are hoping to make investments in instances where the capital markets are underpricing the fundamental value of the properties," Robert Stuckey, the head of the private-equity firm's real estate team, said in a press release.
