The biggest investment sales deal of the year didn’t even involve brokerages.
In March, Amazon bought the landmarked Lord & Taylor building at 424 Fifth Avenue for $978 million.
The e-commerce giant did a direct deal with the seller, a joint venture of Rhone Capital, Hudson’s Bay Company and WeWork, which originally planned to renovate the 660,000-square-foot building to use as its corporate headquarters.
The deal, which worked out to about $1,480 per square foot, closed on March 12, just one week before Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered all nonessential businesses, including real estate firms, to pause in-person activities as Covid-19 spread throughout the city. New York City’s investment sales market, already navigating a slow few years, took a big hit, with big deals stalled or falling apart altogether.