New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the biggest U.S. mass-transit operator, may sell its Manhattan headquarters for about $150 million, the agency’s real estate director said.

Selling the three buildings on Madison Avenue in Midtown would reduce the agency’s real estate holdings and cut costs to help close a projected 2012-14 deficit of $649 million, Jeffrey B. Rosen said in a telephone interview. The properties sit on a lot of about 25,000 square feet (2,300 square meters) between 44th and 45th Streets.

“At this moment we have an opportunity, driven by measures that this administration is taking to cut costs,” Rosen said. “We’ve achieved very dramatic reductions in administrative payrolls, and that’s created vacancies across our properties. This is the most rational way to consolidate operations.”

Buyers would probably be interested in tearing down the buildings and erecting a new office tower, hotel or both to capitalize on the site’s proximity to Grand Central Terminal, Manhattan’s rail link to its northern suburbs, said Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, a New York- based property broker.

Durst Organization

“This is at least the third time and maybe the fourth time this has been put out to bid,” said Douglas Durst, whose Durst Organization built the nearby One Bryant Park skyscraper, home to the main New York offices of Bank of America Corp. The properties never sold “because the MTA’s corporate people decided they didn’t want to move,” he said.

The agency is more likely to complete a deal this time because of its economic straits, according to Durst, who said he is interested in bidding on the buildings for possible development.

A buyer might be able to increase the value of the property by obtaining air rights associated with Grand Central. Those rights are controlled by Argent Ventures, a New York-based real estate development firm, said Jeremy Soffin, an MTA spokesman. Argent obtained the rights from successors to the Penn Central Railroad, which went out of business in the 1970s.

Those rights offer “many possibilities for development of this site that we’ll be exploring moving forward,” Soffin said in an e-mail.

A call to Argent principal Andrew Penson seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned.

Agency Budget

The MTA has a $12.1 billion fiscal 2011 budget. It raised its projected 2012-14 deficit from an earlier estimate of $233 million because of lower investment returns, Robert E. Foran, its chief financial officer, said in November.

From April 2010 to September of this year, the MTA will have reduced the annual rent it pays under office-space leases by more than 12 percent, or about $2.5 million, Rosen said.

The agency bought 347 Madison for $11.9 million in 1979, Rosen said. In 1991, it purchased 341 Madison for about $12.3 million and 345 Madison for $23.8 million. The ground floors of the buildings, two of which are 20 stories and the other 15, are occupied by tenants including sandwich-shop owner Cosi Inc. (COSI) and retailer J. Crew Group Inc.

‘True Triple Play’

“Selling our Madison Avenue buildings is a true triple play, allowing us to raise capital funds, avoid costly renovations and make better use of our office space downtown,” Jay H. Walder, the MTA’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

The New York Times reported the sale plan earlier today.

Rosen said he hopes to have the sale completed as quickly as possible, and “certainly” within three years. Some employees at the buildings would be moved to 2 Broadway, while the agency seeks to keep some Metro-North Railroad workers in the area for its proximity to Grand Central Terminal, he said.

A solicitation for bids for brokers is pending. Rosen calculated the “conservative” estimate of $150 million by multiplying $400 per square foot by 375,000 feet, which is the zoning amount allowed for the facilities.

It’s a good time to sell Manhattan office properties, said Peter Hauspurg, president of brokerage firm Eastern Consolidated Properties Inc., a New York-based investment sales brokerage.

“That’s super-prime space that’s much better occupied by guys paying $80 a foot in rent,” he said by telephone. “There’s plenty of stuff in Brooklyn or the Wall Street area that could really use those guys as tenants. Let the hedge fund guys who commute in from Greenwich to Grand Central pay the money, and have it trickle down to the tax rolls.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Esme E. Deprez in Nj Statehouse at edeprez@bloomberg.net; David M. Levitt in New York at dlevitt@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net

• Craig M. Douglas
• Real Estate Editor
• Email: cdouglas@bizjournals.com

It’s official: Tom Brady’s deal with the Devil has transcended professional football, dating and, now, a moribund real estate market.

Our favorite shaggy-haired quarterback has scored again, this time ringing up a coup in Manhattan’s otherwise staggered condo market. The Round Up has learned that Brady did indeed sell his 3,000-square-foot spread, aka “The condo he never knew,” on the 74th floor of the Time Warner Center in New York. What’s news is that the NFL’s reigning MVP and New England Patriots captain tucked away a tidy little profit in the process. Of course he did.

Prior to knowing what he actually pocketed, Brady’s investment looked about as wise as his temporary test drive of the Bieber-doo. Back in November 2006, in the days leading up to the market’s Charlie Sheen-like decent, Brady dished out $14 million for the three-bedroom unit. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s about $4,700 per square foot.

Alas, Tom wouldn’t be terrific if bad luck followed him at every turn; New York City public records indicate that Brady sold the unit that he never even moved into for $17.5 million in March. If our math’s correct, that’s a 25 percent gain in roughly three years … in the wake of the downturn of all housing downturns.

Our hotline to Brady’s crib on the West Coast being what it is, The Round Up decided to explore other channels to get to the bottom of this conundrum. After all, who in their right mind would step up with such an offer?

Why, Green Mountain Coffee founder Bob Stiller, that’s who!

We called Vermont’s King of Coffee this week to confirm that he did indeed buy Brady’s New York suite. It was an odd conversation, really. Let’s just say Stiller hadn’t yet had his morning coffee.

Stiller: “Hello?”

Round Up: “Hi, Bob. We just wanted to chat about your new condo in New York. You got a minute?”

Stiller: “Not really. There’s false information out there.”

Round Up: “Well, city records say you and your Green Mountain lawyer, H. Kenneth Merritt Jr., bought Mr. Tom Brady’s condo back in March. What’s the deal?”

Stiller: “I didn’t personally acquire the property. Look, it’s the middle of the night here. I’m … I’m out of the country right now. I have no comment. This isn’t news.”

Round Up: “Thanks, Bob!”

New York public records indicate that Brady’s Courage Under Fire Nominee Trust did in fact sell the property in question on March 4 to P.C. Grace NY LLC. The P.C. Grace entity was created in November 2010 in care of The Stiller Family Office. The filing was made by Stiller’s aforementioned lawyer, Ken Merritt of Merritt & Merritt & Moulton of Burlington, Vt.

The Round Up tried to squeeze some additional details out of Merritt Thursday, to no avail.

All of which leaves us with the simple conclusion that The New England Patriots are in good hands, assuming there is a 2011-2012 National Football League season; Tom Terrific’s good-luck streak lives on.

Related:

Sports Business, Commercial Real Estate, Residential Real Estate

CREDIT: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) View full size image A whirlpool-like spiral galaxy is being distorted by the gravitational pull of a neighbor in a new photo from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The photo was released Wednesday (April 20) to mark the orbiting observatory's upcoming 21st birthday. Hubble was launched into space April 24, 1990 aboard the space shuttle Discovery. [See Hubble's new galaxy photo] "For 21 years, Hubble has profoundly changed our view of the universe, allowing us to see deep into the past while opening our eyes to the majesty and wonders around us," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement."I was privileged to pilot space shuttle Discovery as it deployed Hubble. After all this time, new Hubble images still inspire awe and are a testament to the extraordinary work of the many people behind the world's most famous observatory."  Ads by Google ‘ + google_ads[i].line1 + ‘ ‘ + google_ads[i].line2 + ‘ ‘ + google_ads[i].line3 + ‘ ‘ + google_ads[i].visible_url + ‘ ‘; } if (google_ads[0].bidtype == “CPC”) { google_adnum = google_adnum + google_ads.length; } document.write(s); return; } google_ad_client = ‘pub-1894578950532504’; google_ad_output = ‘js’; google_max_num_ads = ‘3’; google_ad_channel = ‘3735313997’; google_ad_type = ‘text_html’; google_feedback = ‘on’; google_skip = google_adnum; The new Hubble picture shows a pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273. The large spiral galaxy at the top is known as UGC 1810. It is being pulled apart by the tidal gravitational forces (similar to the tug of the moon on Earth) from its companion, the smaller galaxy UGC 1813. The glittering blue points at the top of the image are clusters of bright, hot, young stars that shine fiercely in blue and ultraviolet light. The warped spiral arms of the larger galaxy have been knocked out of their normal plane by the gravity of the smaller one, which is thought to have plunged through its behemoth companion in the past, researchers said. [Spectacular Photos From The Hubble Telescope] This picture was taken in December 2010 through three separate filters by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The filters cover various wavelengths over the ultraviolet, blueand red portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.  "Hubble is America's gift to the world," Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said in a statement. "Its jaw-dropping images have rewritten the textbooks and inspired generations of schoolchildren to study math and science. It has been documenting the history of our universe for 21 years. Thanks to the daring of our brave astronauts, a successful servicing mission in 2009 gave Hubble new life. I look forward to Hubble's amazing images and inspiring discoveries for years to come." [Truth Behind the Photos: What Hubble Really Sees] Arp 273 lies in the constellation Andromeda, roughly 300 million light-years away from Earth. The two interacting galaxies are separated from each other by tens of thousands of light-years. You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Source: IMDb

You know it’s the home of a private celebrity when the estate is gated and covered in vines. The home of Oscar-winning actress, Jodie Foster, recently hit the market for $9,975,000. The prime piece of Beverly Hills real estate is located two blocks behind the famed Beverly Hills Hotel in the prestigious location just north of Sunset Blvd—a neighborhood that celebrities have preferred for their homes for years due to the posh city and private amenities.

Foster stepped into fame as a child actress and received her first Oscar-nomination for “Taxi Driver” at the age of 12, going on to receive two Academy Awards, one for her role in “The Accused” and the other in “Silence of the Lambs.”

Jodie Foster’s home is a 1949 Cape Cod-style house that boasts over 5,400-square feet and sits on nearly an acre. The home includes seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a championship tennis court, swimmer’s pool, and two-bedroom guest house. The flat lot has mature, lush landscaping and open patios throughout.

What isn’t mentioned in the listing is the interior of the home. The Real Estalker reports that the actress also had an interest in remodeling the home. Foster purchased the home in 2008 for $8,100,081, and it appears that whatever remodel she had planned wasn’t finished. According to the listing, buyers can “restore the existing home or build your dream estate… Bring your designer and architect.”

Despite what may be a rough exterior, the location of this home is what matters, pushing its listing price above the expensive median Beverly Hills home value of $1,880,200.

The listing is held by agent Jeffrey Hyland.