The vacant Old Wayne County Building at 600 Randolph St. and a county-owned parking lot at 400 E. Fort St. in downtown Detroit are being sold to a private New York City investment group for $13.4 million.

The 250,000-square-foot building was built between 1897 and 1902 and was home to Wayne County executive branch employees until late 2009. The county purchased theat 500 Griswold St., where it currently has its offices, for $14.5 million from Detroit-basedin 2008.

The county owns the land on which the building sits; sale of the land in requiresapproval, said Jim Toth, director of communications for the commission. That is being sold for $2.51 million.

The commission preliminarily approved the building, land and parking lot sale toon Thursday and must grant final approval on the terms and conditions. That is expected July 17, said Michael Layne, president of Farmington Hills-based, which is handling media inquiries for the sellers.

It's the buyer's first purchase in Metro Detroit, Layne said. The group has "multiple Class A real estate holdings in Manhattan," he said.

The building is expected to be renovated for single-tenant occupancy. Layne said renovations on the interior and exterior of the building are expected to begin immediately., which has offices in Detroit and Ann Arbor, is the architecture firm on the project.

The building, which is located between East Congress and East Fort streets, had been on the market for nearly three years, according to Washington, D.C., real estate information service

The Guardian Building purchase in 2008 came after a dispute with, which includes Southfield-basedChairman and CEO Burton Farbman and others.

Wayne County claimed at the time it was being overcharged for its 200,000 square feet of space in the building. The county contended it was paying $45 per square foot, according to Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano in his announcement for the county to purchase the Guardian Building.

Layne, who was acting as spokesman for the Old Wayne County Building LP at the time, told Crain's then that the county was actually paying $16 per square foot.

Ficano filed a $40 million lawsuit against the owners, accusing them of billing for unnecessary expenses, not returning a security deposit and not paying a debt of $35 million.

"This (sale) will resolve any outstanding litigation between the county and Old Wayne County Building LP," Layne said.

The Guardian Building sale was part of a larger real estate acquisition Ficano announced that also included the 35,000-square-footat 511 Woodward Ave. for $2 million from Sterling Group. The county paid more than $14 million for the 1,450-space First Street Parking Deck in 2010.

The Detroit office of Jones Lang LaSalle represented the owners and was responsible for leasing the building.

Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412, [email protected]. Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB

Correction: Wayne County owns the First Street Parking Deck.