Brooklyn’s tallest office building was sold on Wednesday for $107.5 million to Manhattan’s largest office landlord — and the new owner immediately distanced himself from rumors that the building would be converted into luxury units like many others in the neighborhood.
SL Green Reality made its first venture into the borough with its purchase of the 38-story tower at 16 Court St., which company President Andrew Mathias called “a unique opportunity for us to establish a presence in Brooklyn.”
The purchase price makes the sale one of the biggest transactions for a Brooklyn building, beating out the recent $74 million paid for the BellTel building on Bridge Street, and the $71 million for the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building.
Both of those former office buildings are being converted into luxury residential aeries.
Downtown leaders hailed Mathias’s commitment to maintaining 16 Court St. as an office building.
“The purchase … bolsters the district’s position as a vibrant business center,” Michael Burke, executive director of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, said in a statement.
Although the building will not be turned into apartments, it will be undergoing significant changes, SL Green Reality said.
Built in 1928, the building has more than 300,000 square feet of space and will be “modernized” to increase its appeal to office tenants — something the building has needed for 20 years, sources said.
“The place is turning into a dump,” tenant Richard Goldberg, recently told The Brooklyn Paper. “[They need] to get in here and put millions of dollars into much-needed refurbishments.”
