Forbes Hoping to Fetch $1,000 a Foot For 60 Fifth Ave Headquarters

Attention, developers! Bids for the Forbes headquarters at 60 Fifth Avenue are due Sept. 12.

“Wednesday is the day,” Cushman & Wakefield’s Richard Baxter told The Observer on Monday. “And there is a lot of interest.”

The anticipation for this date has been building in the New York real estate community for over a month, and it looks like the 83-year-old building could pull in present-day Manhattan rates.

“We are looking in the $1,000-per-square-foot range,” Mr. Baxter said.

On July 20, Forbes made headlines when it announced that it had “outgrown” 60 Fifth Avenue and that it would be selling the eight-story, 145,000-square-foot building that has served as its headquarters since 1965. Forbes also noted that it was working with a developer to find a location for its new headquarters.

Mr. Baxter, along with the rest of Cushman’s fearsome New York investment sales foursome of Scott Latham, Jon Caplan and Ron Cohen, are representing the financial publication in the sale.

While he could not provide specifics, Mr. Latham said last week that the activity surrounding the property had been “robust,” and that a variety of investors from different industries already expressed interest.

A question that has been on people’s minds, though, is how this property will compare with the August sale of 100-104 Fifth Avenue up the street.

Last month, the folks over at Atlas Capital picked up the 240,000-square-foot, 19-story property for $110 million, according to both real property transfer tax and real estate transfer tax forms. The deal works out to about $458 per square foot.

However, apparently that deal happened back when office space in Manhattan was actually reasonably priced.

“That deal was done a long time ago,” Mr. Baxter said.