The New York real estate company Bushburg Properties, led by Joseph Hoffman, is poised to finalise an agreement to acquire the office tower 60 Wall Street in Manhattan's Financial District. According to industry reports, the purchase price for the 46-storey property stands at around $400 million.
The vendor of the 1.6 million sq ft property is Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, headed by Lim Chow Kiat. The current sale price marks a substantial decline in value compared to the previous transaction: in 2017, GIC acquired a 95 per cent stake in the tower for $1.04 billion from Paramount Group and Morgan Stanley. Following an acquisition by Rithm Capital in April, Paramount now operates under the name Elecor Properties.
Vacancy and prospects for residential use
The property looks back on an eventful history. Originally constructed in the 1980s for J.P. Morgan Chase, the high-rise served for many years as the US headquarters of Deutsche Bank. The financial institution vacated the building in 2021. Since then, the vast complex has lacked a major anchor tenant.
On the vendor side, negotiations were handled by Gary Phillips and Will Silverman of Eastdil Secured Savills, who declined to comment on the transaction. Representatives of Bushburg Properties and GIC also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
For Bushburg, the acquisition opens up the opportunity to reposition the property by converting office space into residential units, a field in which the company specialises. Within the New York real estate industry, the high-rise was already considered a complex asset years ago, as it struggled to realise its full potential in the traditional office letting market.
- —Property scale: 46 storeys with a total of 1.6 million square feet of space
- —Transaction value: $400 million compared to $1.04 billion in 2017
- —Previous occupiers: Originally developed for J.P. Morgan Chase, headquarters of Deutsche Bank until 2021
- —Strategy: Evaluation of a residential conversion by Bushburg Properties
The transaction illustrates changing market conditions in the segment for older, large-scale office properties in Manhattan, where new concepts and price corrections are clearing the way for alternative uses.
