BISNOW EXCLUSIVE: 520 PARK AVE GOING APARTMENT

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation was supposed to be one of the Midtown office owners (520 Park Ave) left in the lurch when Transamerica left Midtown for the waterfront. But just like Mama and Bob Marley always said: "Everything's gonna be alright." Apartment conversions are right-sizing the Baltimore City office market now, just as hotel conversions did seven years ago.
MacKenzie Commercial's Jim Grieves, who's speaking at Bisnow'sBaltimore State of Office event tomorrow, tells us he hears the 150k SF former Transamerica back office will be converted to apartments, and Weinberg will stay in as a JV partner. Jim didn't work on it, but he did work on other deals related to Transamerica's relo: MacKenzie repped Chase Brexton in its purchase of Transamerica's 190k SF Monumental Life Building to Chase Brexton. Jim also teamed on Chase Brexton's sale of Chase Brexton's 1001 Cathedral to the always-expanding Agora publisher and has Chase Brexton's 1000 Morton under contract to a non-profit user-buyer. That all adds up to a lot of Midtown office space that could have been sitting vacant. (And you all know what vacant office space leads to: ghosts.)

Elsewhere in that submarket, Class-B office vacancy will keep going down as apartment conversions continue, Jim says. He repped the owners in their sale of 521 St. Paul Place (former Maryland Department of Transportation space that had been vacant for four years) to PMCProperty Group, which is expanding the 55k SF building by two floors and converting it to residential (70 total units, PCMProperty's Steve Bloom told us this afternoon). And he has Carrolton Bank's 344 N Charles St (above) under contract to a company that'll convert the upper floors to 18 apartments. The bank moved its HQ to Columbia but will stay on the first floor as a tenant. Jim says that building was a rough sell until the city eased up on parking requirements for residential buildings.

Continue reading this story with a free account

Log in or register
Sign up for more articles like this
Subscribe to Bisnow's Baltimore Newsletters
Related Stories

Housing Completions Close To 40,000 As LDA Adds Major Site And CEO Departs

Voorhees Greenlights 178-Unit Office-To-Resi Conversion Amid Multifamily Boom

Battered Mortgage REIT Suspends Dividend To Preserve Cash

From Pandemic Darling To Cautionary Tale: Pickleball Clubs Face A Reckoning After Betting Big On Retail Space

Tyko Capital Sets New Record For Florida's Largest Construction Loan

Hof Wonen Acquires 251 Social Rental Houses In New Mixed-Use Project In The Hague

Foundry Robotics Leaves San Francisco For New East Bay HQ

Capital Flooded Into Bay Area Apartments. Then Treasury Yields Spiked

The New Challenge For Apartment Managers: Proving Listing Photos Are Real

Tenant Rep Firm Expands To Philly, Hires Industry Veteran

Data Centers Lose The Top Spot, San Francisco Jumps 40 Places: 9 Takeaways From ULI's 2027 Outlook

How Pacific Northwest Multifamily Owners Are Using Sustainability To Strengthen Asset Performance