Chinese conglomerate HNA Group is marketing billions of dollars worth of commercial real estate as it tries to offload debt, including skyscrapers in Manhattan and San Francisco.
HNA completed the biggest office building sale in the U.S. in 2017 when it acquired 245 Park Ave. in Manhattan for $2.2B from Brookfield, one of the biggest single-asset transactions in city history. Less than a year later, 245 Park is back on the market, alongside several U.S. properties totaling $4B. Other assets include 850 Third Ave. in Manhattan and 123 Mission St. in San Francisco, Bloomberg reports.
HNA's move to place the properties on the market comes amid a plan to shed more than $16B in real estate around the world in the first half of 2018. The Chinese government put strict controls on outbound investment in 2016, and restricted investment even further last summer. HNA and Dalian Wanda, another of China's major real estate buyers in recent years, have both been targeted by the government and have plans for major asset sell-offs.
HNA's $4B offering is being marketed by HFF, according to Bloomberg, and includes six office assets and a Manhattan hotel, the Cassa. The big prize is 245 Park, a 1.7M SF tower that is home to offices of JPMorgan Chase and Heineken.
While Google recently paid around $2.5B for the 1.2M SF Chelsea Market building elsewhere in Manhattan, the market for Manhattan office buildings has become far less frothy without Chinese buyers joining most bidding wars.
With lots of equity waiting to invest in Manhattan real estate, HNA will not likely have trouble finding a buyer. Whether it will be able to match the $1,227/SF price paid a year ago is less certain.
