April was a rough month for the Yankees and the Mets; as of yesterday, both teams were in fourth place. However, May could be much better for Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, who are also principals of Sterling Equities, which owns the 540,000-square-foot office building at 575 Fifth Ave., the former site of the EJ Korvette department store. Many investors are reportedly interested in it, and it could fetch close to $390 million.

April was a very active month in commercial real estate, and the pace was hectic in the hotel sector. The Plaza Hotel closed for renovations. A few blocks away on 56th Street between First and Second avenues, the Sutton Hotel was sold to Alchemy Partners for $52.7 million for conversion to luxury condominiums.

The Blackstone Group bought the 500-room Rihga Royal at 151 W. 54th St. Blackstone reportedly will not convert the property into condominiums since there is an underlying ground lease.

The Pomeranc family, the owners of the Thompson Hotel and 60 Thompson St., closed on a construction loan for their planned mixed-use hotel and condominium project on Allen Street.

Morgans Hotel Group, a partnership between NorthStar and Ian Schrager, obtained a $575 million floating-rate mortgage from Wachovia & Hypo Real Estate on five hotels: the Hudson on West 58th Street, the Royalton on West 44th, Morgans on Madison at 37th, the Delano in Miami Beach, and Mondrian in West Hollywood, Calif.

Hotel developer Sam Chang paid $19.2 million for a site at 76 E. 13th St., aka 132-138 Fourth Ave. Mr. Chang plans to build a 150-room boutique hotel. On April 6, Brisam Hotels sold its recently completed 136-room Hampton Inn-Madison Square Garden at 116 W. 31st St. for $31.3 million, or $230,147 a room, to Hersha Hospitality Trust.

In April, the City Council of Long Beach on Long Island approved the long-delayed superblock project, agreeing to sell the necessary land to Philips International Realty. The 6-acre, ocean-front site will include a 140-unit hotel, 250 condominium apartments, restaurants, a health club, and a spa.

The New York Sun has learned that Shorenstein Company, which entered into a contract with Murray Hill Properties and investor David Werner to sell 450 Lexington Ave., is interested in purchasing an interest in a major Chelsea based office building.

Last month, Murray Hill Properties sold a 13-story, 155,418-square-foot office and retail building at 83 Maiden Lane for $33 million to the Association for the Help of Retarded Children.

Jules Demchek, principal of Carlisle Realty, and partner Credit Suisse First Boston paid $83 million, or $325 per developable square foot, for a 240,000-square-foot site on Third Avenue between 23rd and 24th streets. The sellers were a partnership of Yair Levy and Serge Hoyda, who took the proceeds and joined with Kent Swig of Swig Equities to purchase the 50-story, mixed-use Sheffield Apartments at 322 W. 57th St. The partnership paid $418 million and obtained financing of $545 million from CS First Boston. In March, Messrs. Levy, Hoyda, and Swig purchased a pre-war building on Amsterdam at 92nd for approximately $54 million. They plan to convert the property into condominiums.

Principal Real Estate Investors partnered with L & L Acquisitions to replace Investcorp in the ownership group of the commercial portion of the 78-story,mixed-use Metropolitan Tower at 142 W. 57th St. Principal Financial provided a five-year, interest-only, $120 million, fixed-rate mortgage on the commercial component of the tower, which has 260,000 square feet of office space, 3,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, and a garage.

In March, L & L Acquisitions and GE Asset Management entered into a contract to buy the 29-story, 1-million square-foot former AT&T Building at 195 Broadway for $270 million. The seller is Peter Kalikow, president of H.J. Kalikow and chairman of the MTA.

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Tishman Speyer Properties obtained a $1.7 billion mortgage on Rockefeller Center last Friday. It consists of a $1.2 billion, 20-year, interest only first mortgage and a $500 million mezzanine loan. Financing was provided by Goldman Sachs and Greenwich Capital. Earlier in the month, TSP contracted to sell the 264,500-square-foot office tower at 40 Broad St. to Zar Realty for $53 million, or $200 per square foot.

TMW Property Funds, a division of Prudential Real Estate Investors, which bought a 49% interest last month in 885 Third Ave. from TSP and the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, made a sizeable profit when it agreed last month to sell the Rhinelander Mansion at 867 Madison Ave. for $78.2 million, or $2,800 per square foot, to investment partners of Ireland-based Sloane Capital.

In April, German fund manager SEB Immolnvest paid $242 million to Credit Suisse for the 75% stake in 1 Park Ave. it bought in 2004 from SITQ, a subsidiary of Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec. On April 1, a consortium including CDP Capital-Real Estate Advisory, a subsidiary of Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, and Stonehenge Partners, headed by Ofer Yardeni and Joel Seiden, paid $240 million to acquire the Pennmark at 304-324 W. 34th St. from JD Carlisle and its partners.

Last month, Verizon contracted to sell 1095 Avenue to the Americas to Equity Office Properties for $505 million.

Two weeks ago, Verizon said it will sell its 47,000-square-foot lot at 555 W. 34th St. and 550 W. 35th St. The site is reportedly zoned for 470,000 square feet of development. Rights to build an additional 1 million square feet could be bought from the city and the MTA. The site is not zoned for residential.

One thing is evident: Properties continue to sell for record prices. Helping to fuel the fire is the unbelievable amount of capital available on flexible terms for acquisitions and refinancing. Long-term fixed-rate financing remains at record lows. Based on what’s in the pipeline, 2005 definitely will be a record year for sales.

Mr. Stoler is a television broadcaster and vice president of First American Title Insurance Company of New York. He can be reached at mstoler@nysun.com.