By David M. Levitt

July 7 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s largest bank, plans to sell Manhattan’s Worldwide Plaza to a group of New York investors after pulling out of the transaction last month, a person familiar with the matter said.

RCG Longview and George Comfort & Sons agreed to acquire the tower at Eighth Avenue and West 49th Street for about $605 million, or $345 a square foot, according to the person, who declined to be identified because the talks were private.

Deutsche Bank is selling the last of seven buildings it seized from developer Harry Macklowe. He paid $1.74 billion for the 1.75 million square-foot property in February 2007, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc. data. Manhattan office building prices have dropped 30 percent to 50 percent since the peak in 2007, according to Woody Heller, head of the capital transactions group at Studley, a New York-based brokerage. Heller wasn’t involved in the transaction.

“This will be the largest transaction of the year in Manhattan, and hopefully it will help jumpstart the market again,” said Dan Fasulo, managing director of research at Real Capital, which tracks commercial property sales. “Manhattan has certainly been a laggard because participants are having a hard time figuring out where true pricing levels are.”

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