Coca-Cola hires Cushman to sell its historic Fifth Avenue tower

New York

COCA-COLA Co has hired Cushman & Wakefield to sell a midtown Manhattan tower known as the Coca-Cola Building.

The 18-storey property, on the south-east corner of 5th Avenue and 55th Street, was inherited by Coca-Cola through its 1983 purchase of Columbia Pictures. The beverage company "has determined that it does not need to retain its investment in the building to support its activities in New York", according to a statement.

Cushman's institutional capital markets team of Doug Harmon, Adam Spies and Kevin Donner is leading the marketing of the building, which comprises 354,000 square feet of predominantly office and retail space. In a statement, Mr Harmon described the property as "a premier boutique gem" that has a history dating to 1927.

The tower counts boutique investment bank Allen & Co, the host of the well-attended Sun Valley Conference, as a tenant, as well as Sandler Capital Management and The Polo Bar by Ralph Lauren, a restaurant which remained even after the company's decision to close its flagship store in the same building. The building was once home to NBC's studios before the network moved to Rockefeller Center.

Coca-Cola's decision to sell prime Manhattan real estate follows similar actions from other large corporations. Pfizer Corp sold two Manhattan office buildings to New York real estate investor David Werner, Bloomberg reported in April.

The Coca-Cola Building is just blocks from the larger Sony Building, or 550 Madison Avenue, which Sony Corp sold in 2013 for US$1.1 billion. The same property, which comprises 855,000 square feet, was sold in 2016 to Saudi Arabian investment firm Olayan Group and London-based Chelsfield for more than US$1.4 billion. BLOOMBERG