Times Co. Sells HQ for $225M

Debt-laden paper enters sale-leaseback with investment firm

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 9, 2009 8:51 AM CDT

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Times Co. Sells HQ for $225M — Traffic passes in front of The New York Times building in New York. The company that owns the newspaper has sold its share of the building for $225 million and is leasing back office space. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)

The New York Times Company has raised $225 million through a sale-leaseback of its Eighth Avenue skyscraper, it announced this morning. The deal gives investment firm WP Carey ownership of the Times' share of the Renzo Piano-designed headquarters, which the newspaper moved into in 2007. The company will then lease the real estate back at $32 a square foot, about half the going price of similar office space.

The company had more than $1 billion in debt to pay off, despite a recent $250 million loan from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim; it is also looking into the sale of its share of the Boston Red Sox. Today's deal gives the Times Company the option to buy back the building after 10 years—which both sides expect will be exercised.
(More New York Times stories.)

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