Lehman completes $191 million sale of 1107 Broadway

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has completed the sale of its interests in 1107 Broadway, a 16-story former office building, to the Witkoff Group. The purchase price for the building was $191 million. 1107 Broadway was formerly part of the International Toy Center. Its sale comes on the heels of the sale of 200 Fifth Ave., which was previously the main Toy Center building, for $726 million. "Since Lehman's bankruptcy filing, we have followed a strategy, with creditors committee support and court approval, of holding and investing in certain assets in order to achieve a better return than would have been possible had we sold them in 2008 and 2009," said Jeff Fitts, a managing director at professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal who heads Lehman's real estate group. "It was clear to us that many of Lehman's real estate assets had intrinsic value that would not be realized if they were sold in a fire sale in the depths of a recession. As the sales of 1107 Broadway and 200 Fifth demonstrate, by holding these assets until the real estate market improved and investing in them when we believed those investments would yield significant returns, we have been able to achieve excellent results for our creditors." The sale of the 305,000 s/f 1107 Broadway was a result of an auction coordinated by Eastdil Secured that took place on June 29 and was previously approved by the bankruptcy court. 200 Fifth Ave. and 1107 Broadway, together comprising more than 1 million square feet, were known for years as the International Toy Center, a hub for toy manufacturers and distributors in the U.S. The American International Toy Fair, the industry's major annual trade show, was held there each year.