By: Marty Raminoff

The identity of the mystery buyers, who recently snatched up several retail buildings in SoHo and NoHo has been revealed.

As reported by Crain’s NY, the Reuben brothers, based in The United Kingdom, were the buyers of at least three Manhattan retail buildings, including 148-150 Spring St., 443 Broadway, and 692 Broadway. The buildings, all sold this month, were formerly owned by Vornado Realty Trust, and sold for a combined price of $50 million.  The sales records came out this week revealing the name a Michigan LLC, which has ties to the British brothers’ company.

Earlier in August, Vornado had announced that it had sold off the three buildings, plus a fourth at 510 Fifth Ave., which has not yet been recorded in property records. Together, the four buildings boast a combined 100,000 square feet of retail space in Manhattan’s SoHo and NoHo.  The linked Spring Street buildings are each four stories tall and sold for $15 million together.  The 12-story building at 692 Broadway, on the corner of East 4th Street, also sold for $15 million. The five-story building at 443 Broadway, located between Howard and Grand streets, was purchased by The Reubens for $20 million. The deal was brokered by Midtown-based real estate brokerage Ackman-Ziff.

In May, Crain’s had reported that Vornado was looking to unload some of its commercial properties, even at lower prices, so as to raise cash and bulk up its stock price. Vornado has previously done business with Reuben Brothers in 2021, when Reuben purchased Vornado’s five-story retail building at 677-679 Madison Ave. for $20 million, and also purchased a commercial condo at 40 E. 66th St for $30 million.

The Reuben Brothers are billionaires David and Simon Reuben, real estate and tech investors who, along with their family, were ranked the fourth-richest family in the United Kingdom by the Sunday Times in 2023.  Per Crain’s, they own one of the world’s largest consortium of retail, office and residential real estate.  Since early 2020, they have been in the news for reportedly investing in over half-dozen real estate investments in New York, including purchasing the Surrey Hotel on the Upper East Side, and for financing for the Time Hotel near Times Square and the Apthorp, a 12-story luxury condo building in the Upper West Side.

They also partnered with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to provide about $500 million in loans to Central Park Tower– the world’s tallest residential building built by Extell Development.  The Reuben brothers are also active in one of Los Angeles’s biggest real estate projects, having taken control of major parts of a famed $2.5 billion development through debt-financing.

David, 84, and Simon, 82, have a combined net worth of roughly $14 billion, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.  The brothers were born in India, to an Iraqi Jewish family, and moved to London as teenagers. They initially built their fortune trading metals through their company Trans-World Group, which they sold in 2000 to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire.  They then invested their earnings into real estate, leisure and technology firms.

The Reuben Brothers didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.