Empire Capital Buying 381 and 373 Park Avenue South

Josh Rahmani and Ebi Khalil continue their office buying spree.

The investors’ Empire Capital is in contract to buy a pair of Midtown South buildings for $130 million, sources told The Real Deal.

Empire, which has been snapping up discounted office buildings in recent years, is buying 381 and 373 Park Avenue South from the Hemmerdinger family’s ATCO Properties, which has owned the pre-war buildings for decades.

The two buildings, between East 26th and East 27th streets, combine for about 337,000 square feet and are 57 percent occupied, according to a marketing memo from Newmark. The larger of the two, 381 Park Avenue South, sits at the corner of 27th Street with light and air on four sides and ceilings up to 16 feet — making it a possible candidate for residential conversion.

Representatives for Empire Capital and ATCO Properties could not be immediately reached for comment. A Newmark team led by Adam Spies and Adam Doneger ran the marketing process.

Cousins Rhamani and Khalil, both in their mid-30s who started out as brokers, have been some of the most active bargain hunters shopping for discounted office buildings since the pandemic and remote work started hammering valuations.

Earlier this year, Empire struck a deal to buy a pair of Garment District office buildings through a short sale for less than $50 million — a 68 percent discount to the $157 million seller Investcorp paid in 2017.

And in September, the company — along with frequent partner Namdar Realty Group — bought a Hell’s Kitchen office building for $40.5 million, 73 percent less than the $153 million Related Fund Management paid in 2018.

Empire has made purchases in recent years, like the $320 million acquisition of the 40-story office tower at 1330 Sixth Avenue and the $72 million buy of 830 Third Avenue, both in 2022.

Not all of their bets have gone smoothly, though.

Empire and Namdar teamed up in 2021 to buy the 25-story Garment District building at 345 Seventh Avenue for $107 million. But three years later, the occupancy at the building dropped and the owners started talks to hand the property over to their lender, Benefit Street Partners.

In January, the partners sold the building for $85 million to The Katan Group, Mike Kohan of Kohan Retail Investment Group and investor Ilya Mikhailov, who are planning a residential conversion.