In December, The Real Deal first reported that Scott Rechler’s RXR Realty was on the verge of a $1.7 billion deal to acquire the massive 42-story office tower at 1285 Sixth Avenue in Midtown.

RXR has now closed on the deal, according to Crain’s, marking one of the city’s biggest commercial transactions of the year. Its partner on the deal is real estate investor David Werner, according to the Commercial Observer, which noted that the duo financed the purchase with $1.2 billion in loans from AIG and Morgan Stanley.

RXR also signed an agreement with UBS to remain as the 1.8 million-square-foot building’s anchor tenant. The Swiss bank will hold on to its its 900,000 square feet at the property, where it occupies floors eight through 20 and floors 37 through 39. UBS’s new deal will run through 2032.

The distinction for the city’s largest office building deal of the year belongs to California pension fund CalPERS’s $1.9 billion acquisition of 787 Seventh Avenue, a 51-story, 1.7 million-square-foot office tower located adjacent to 1285 Sixth. CalPERS closed on that building in February.

AXA Financial, the U.S. arm of French insurance firm AXA, formerly owned both buildings, with 1285 Sixth owned through a joint venture between AXA and JPMorgan Asset Management. AXA put the adjacent properties up for sale last summer and was seeking as much as $4 billion for the two buildings combined.

The acquisition of 1285 Sixth will also likely be eclipsed by Citigroup’s purchase of its Tribeca headquarters complex, at 388-390 Greenwich Street, from SL Green Realty for around $1.8 billion. That transaction is expected to close next month.

Meridian Capital Group’s Rael Gervis and Drew Anderman brokered the loan deal for 1285 Sixth, while Eastdil Secured’s Adam Spies and Doug Harmon brokered the sale.

[Crain’s and CO] – Rey Mashayekhi

Source: RXR scores .2B in loans to close on 1285 Sixth purchase