Offshore investor buys N.Y. Citibank portfolio

In a transaction valued at roughly $100 million, an unnamed Irish investment group purchased 47 Citibank branches in the New York City metro area and has agreed to lease the properties back to Citigroup.

The portfolio includes a 157,312-square-foot combination of bank branches and offices. The 47 properties range in size from 2,000 square feet to 8,000 square feet and are located in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Westchester, Suffolk and Nassau counties.

At the time of the transaction, all of the properties were leased to Citigroup Global Markets Inc. on a 15-year lease.

"The U.S. property market remains a big draw for foreign capital," said Borja Sierra, executive managing director of Savills Granite, the brokerage that represented the buyer. "This deal, which represents one of the largest portfolio sales of the year in the New York City market, reinforces how offshore investors are still eying large-scale deals here."

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