Lease for 470 Vanderbilt, across Atlantic from Atlantic Yards site, sold for nearly $200M

Photo from 2007

From Crain's, 2/28/14, Big Manhattan landlord makes $200M buy in B'klyn:

RXR Realty has bought the long-term lease of 470 Vanderbilt Ave., a large office building near the Barclays Center in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, paying just under $200 million.
The lease purchase for the 650,000-square-foot former warehouse is one of the biggest acquisitions among a recent wave of activity in the outer boroughs by some of the city's largest property owners. It comes as competition, and prices have soared to nose-bleed levels for property in Manhattan.
The deal also is another sign that years after Brooklyn became one of the most sought after areas of the city to live, it will also continue to gain in popularity as a place to work—especially among its own growing pool of young residents. The building at 470 Vanderbilt Ave. is across the street from the eastern edge of Atlantic Yards, the site of an ongoing multi-billion dollar residential complex that will eventually be home to thousands of residents.

It's actually a former tire plant turned telecom center. Forest City Ratner once flirted with buying the building and including it in Atlantic Yards. If it's "across the street from the eastern edge of Atlantic Yards," note that the street is wide Atlantic Avenue.

The building is sold with a 20 year lease, totaling about two-thirds of the building, to the city's Human Resources Administration, announced in 2011. 

Given that RXR is buying a "leasehold that stretches for roughly another 75 years," according to Crain's, they have a number of options. Perhaps the new Atlantic Yards population--which may not arrive over the railyard space near 470 for 20 years--makes nearby office space valuable. Or perhaps the building will be converted to residential.

Crain's suggests owner GFI has made some profit, buying the lease for under $50 million, then spending more than $70 million on renovations.