ViacomCBS has reached an agreement to sell CBS’s iconic New York skyscraper known as Black Rock for $ 760 million.
Designed by Eero Saarinen, the striking tower with black windows on West 52nd Street and Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan is one of the best-known examples of urban architecture from the mid-20th century. The granite structure, commissioned by then President of CBS, Frank Stanton, has served as CBS corporate headquarters since 1965. CBS founder Bill Paley once had an office on the top floor.
Harbor Group International, a private real estate investment and management company, has approved the purchase of the building at 51 West 52nd St., ViacomCBS announced in a government filing on Monday afternoon.
The media company expects the deal to be closed by the end of the year.
ViacomCBS said it will rent back the floors it occupies in the short term.
The Shari Redstone-controlled media giant announced in late 2019 that it was parting with the historic CBS office building, but the COVID-19 pandemic made its sales process difficult, according to knowledgeable people who were not authorized to comment.
The decision was made almost immediately after Viacom merged with CBS. The company’s employees expressed their preference for Viacom’s rented headquarters in Times Square, which offers expansive views of the Hudson River.
ViacomCBS initially hoped the Black Rock sale would raise approximately $ 1 billion.
The company said Monday that it will use the proceeds to “allow further financial flexibility to invest in its strategic growth priorities, including its streaming initiatives.”
The move comes three years after CBS sold its long-standing 25-acre studio complex in Los Angeles, known as Television City, to real estate developer Hackman Capital Partners for $ 750 million. The proceeds from that sale went towards content creation as CBS tried to get into the streaming space and compete with Netflix, Disney +, and Hulu.
ViacomCBS also wants to generate income from the sale of another trophy – the book publisher Simon & Schuster. Late last year, ViacomCBS announced an agreement with Bertelsmann, the parent company of Penguin Random House (PRH), the largest book publisher in the United States, to buy Simon & Schuster, the country’s third largest book publisher, for $ 2.18 billion.
The 38-story Black Rock was the only skyscraper designed by Saarinen, who died in 1961 when construction began. Colleagues have finished their work. Saarinen’s friend Florence Knoll designed the furnishing elements.
ViacomCBS isn’t the only traditional media company to cut real estate relationships. Two years ago, AT&T sold newly built space in New York’s Hudson Yards for $ 2.2 billion. The Dallas-based telecommunications giant has been under severe pressure to pay off debts it had from its 2018 acquisitions of HBO, CNN, Turner channels, and the Warner Bros. film and television studio. This spring, AT&T announced plans to completely unload WarnerMedia to Discovery.
Times staffer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.
[ad_1]
