Columbia Bets Again on Midtown South with 149 Madison Ave.

Columbia Property Trust closed its previously announced $87.7-million purchase of 149 Madison Ave., a 12-story, office building in Manhattan’s Midtown South.

“We have enjoyed a tremendous amount of success with our similar small floor-plate, boutique buildings in Midtown South, and we intend to leverage our scale and expertise to reposition 149 Madison to compete among the best product in this thriving submarket,” said Nelson Mills, president and CEO of Columbia.

Columbia is buying the 127,000-square-foot tower, subject to a ground lease that expires in January 2018, when Columbia will begin a comprehensive repositioning at the fully-vacated 1916 building.

Columbia has hired Redgate as project manager, Gensler as architect and Highland Associates as engineer. NKF will lead the leasing effort.

Columbia has now acquired four Midtown South properties totaling over 900,000 square feet in 2017.