REFILE-Boston Properties close to GM Building deal

(Refiles with new headline)

By Ilaina Jonas

NEW YORK, June 4 (Reuters) - Boston Properties Inc BXP.N, which is leading a purchase of the GM Building, may end up with an economic interest of more than half of the New York skyscraper next week when the deal is set to close, the company's president said on Wednesday.

A Boston Properties-led group agreed last month to buy arguably the best office address in Manhattan, and three other buildings, from Macklowe Properties for $3.45 billion, including the assumption of $2.47 billion of debt.

Macklowe had to sell them to repay debt he owed on seven other buildings he bought in 2007. His struggles became a symbol of the credit squeeze when a year later he was unable to refinance the short-term debt on the purchase.

In January, Macklowe began marketing the General Motors Building in hopes of attracting investment in his company so he could at least maintain an interest in the Manhattan icon.

"From our perspective, the Macklowe organization went about looking for a recapitalization of its company," Boston Properties President Douglas Linde told the annual National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts Forum in New York. "Our perspective is that we were not really interested in being entity investors."

Boston Properties then signaled that it was ready to buy if Macklowe wanted to sell the GM Building or other buildings.

"We were pretty tenacious about what our views were," Linde said. "I want to give all the credit to Mort Zuckerman, who is our chairman, who continued to persevere and persevere and persevere though this whole process."