In one of the city's biggest real-estate deals since the downturn, SL Green Realty Corp. is selling a stake in the trophy McGraw-Hill building on Sixth Avenue for $500m to raise cash for a buying spree.

The deal is the latest sign of a thawing sales environment and of growing optimism among landlords that rental rates are hitting bottom in Midtown, the country's most expensive office market. Pension plans, foreign buyers, private-equity funds and public companies have crowded into Manhattan seeking to buy prime commercial real estate at attractive prices.

Wall Street Journal