Blackstone is close to taking a 49% stake in Brookfield’s One Manhattan West at a price that reportedly values the building at $2.85B.
The two firms could reach an agreement in the next few days, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing unnamed sources. Brookfield, which owns the building in a partnership with the Qatar Investment Authority, listed the property on the market in September.
The 2.1M SF One Manhattan West building is over 90% leased, and it was the first new office building in Brookfield's Manhattan West megaproject, which at full build-out will feature 6M SF of office space, a 2-acre public park, a boutique hotel, more than 200K SF of retail space and a luxury rental tower. Law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP has leased 635K SF at the building, while Accenture and the National Hockey League have deals for 250K SF and 175K SF, respectively.
The deal will come as welcome news for office owners in New York City. Investors are questioning just how valuable these assets will be in the future as many workplaces consider how much space they will want to occupy long-term.
Proponents of the office argue new buildings, like One Manhattan West, will still get companies that want workplaces that will help attract talent to pay top-dollar rents. Meanwhile, office leasing has picked up in the city; more than 3M SF was leased in November. There have also been several big-ticket office sales in recent months.
Andrew Chung’s Innovo Property Group is buying the 30-story tower at 452 Fifth Ave. from Israeli-based Property and Building Corp. for $855M. Also this month, SL Green announced it has sold a 25% stake in One Madison Avenue to an international investor valuing the office development at more than $1B.
