therealdeal.com – French billionaire Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière has closed on the $525 million purchase of Thor Equities’ office-and-retail building at 693 Fifth Avenue in Midtown.

The 20-story, 105,000-square-foot property between East 54th and 55th streets sold for nearly four times the price that Joseph Sitt’s Thor paid for it in 2010. Thor acquired it from Japanese department store Takashimaya for $142 million at the time.

Ladreit de Lacharrière is chair and CEO of Fimalac, a French holding company that owns minority stakes in Fitch Ratings and Warburg Pincus. The Paris-based firm specializes in credit ratings, private equity and commercial real estate. The New York City building purchase appears to be his first major play.