Carlyle Group Transfers 866 U.N. Plaza Office Condos To Lender For $61M
AllianceBernstein has taken ownership of more than two dozen office condominium units across the street from the United Nations headquarters on the East Side of Manhattan, public records show.
Private equity giant The Carlyle Group executed a deed transfer of 29 office condos at 866 United Nations Plaza to an affiliate of AllianceBernstein, valuing the units at a collective $60.8M, according to city property records.
A separate AllianceBernstein affiliate holds a mortgage tied to the properties that is valued at $160M, according to records. That debt has been assigned to the AllianceBernstein entity that acquired the deed in a transfer dated Feb. 18.
Neither Carlyle nor AllianceBernstein immediately responded to Bisnow’s request for comment.
Carlyle bought 471K SF of office space at the base of the two-tower 866 U.N. Plaza building in 2017 for $217.5M from Meadow Partners, which had divided it into 96 office condo units, The Real Deal previously reported.
The acquisition was funded by a $168M loan from Deutsche Bank, which Carlyle replaced with a $160M loan from AllianceBernstein a year later.
Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle listed 33 of the units, spanning 177K SF, on the Ten-X online auction platform in March 2024 with a starting bid of $18M, TRD reported at the time. Newmark brokers marketing units for sale at the property didn't respond to Bisnow’s requests for comment.
The transfer to AllianceBernstein indicates the auction didn't lead to a sale. The Nashville-based lender amended its $160M loan last May, listing 31 properties in mortgage documents as collateral for the debt.
Carlyle has sold off some of the condos in the buildings over the years, including a $59.2M deal for four units on the sixth floor to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2019.
Among the units that transferred to AllianceBernstein this month are Unit 250, which totals 10K SF on the second floor, and Unit 511, an almost 5K SF office occupied by the Permanent Mission of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United Nations.
Since the pandemic, Carlyle has been more active in the New York multifamily market than in its office buildings. It partnered with the Gotham Organization last year on a $265M acquisition of The Aire apartment tower on the Upper West Side and has been an aggressive buyer of smaller rental buildings in Brooklyn.
