Fifth Avenue’s 666 Will Be Sold to Japanese Firm

NEW YORK (AP) _ The owners of 666 Fifth Ave. will sell the midtown Manhattan property to a U.S.-based subsidiary of a Tokyo company for about $500 million, company officials said Friday.

Integrated Resources Inc., a financial services company headquartered in Manhattan, and Cohen Brothers Realty Corp., which owns the land, have agreed to sell the property to La Solana Inc. La Solana is the Orange County, Calif.-based U.S. arm of Sumitomo, a Tokyo based real estate concern.

The sale was announced jointly by Richard H. Ader, senior executive vice president of Integrated and head of its real estate division, and Charles Steven Cohen, president of Cohen Brothers, a privately owned, Manhattan-based investment builder.

The 41-story building, which includes the Top of the Sixes restaurant and is located two blocks from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, is among the top pieces of Manhattan real estate.

Integrated purchased the building a year ago for $320 million. The agreement calls for the building to sell for about $365 a square foot.

The building, erected in 1957 on the west side of Fifth Avenue between 52nd and 53rd streets, has 1.4 million square feet of office and retail space.

The transaction was expected to be completed by August.

The building is the latest piece of prime Manhattan real estate to be sold to a Japanese firm. Last year, the Exxon building on Sixth Avenue was sold to Mitsui Fudosan for some $610 million. The sum is believed to be the highest price ever paid for a Manhattan office building.