French investor buys Manhattan office

Paris-based Fimalac has purchased the office property located at 693 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan for approximately $525 million. The seller was Thor Equities, which acquired the building in 2010 for $142 million and invested $200 million in renovations.

The 101,000-square-foot office and retail building is 20 stories high. Tenants include Valentino, the largest tenant; Carpenters Workshop Gallery, a London-based art gallery; Louis Licari; and Phillips Auctioneers.

Manhattan office property transaction volume has surpassed previous quarters’ volume already, giving it the highest quarterly sales volume tracked by Real Capital Analytics. Thus far in the second quarter, 33 office assets have been exchanged for a total of more than $10.27 billion, double the volume in first quarter 2016, which closed with more than $5 billion in sales activity.