After leasing up much of the vacant space at Brookfield Place, landlord Brookfield Property Partners will potentially sell a stake in the waterfront office property.
“We have no definitive plans at the moment,” Brookfield CEO Ric Clark said in response to an analyst’s question during a conference call cited by Bloomberg News. “But our view was always that once we were able to reposition the property and create the value, we would look to bring in a partner. We never wanted to do that at the beginning of the process for fear of leaving way too much money on the table.”
Brookfield has invested $250 million into renovating part of the 8 million-square-foot property. It recently scored leases with tenants including Time Inc., Bank of New York Melon and Jane Street Capital.
In comments on the call cited by Bloomberg, CFO John Stinebaugh said deals already inked will bring in about $115 million annually, and the company expects new leases to generate more than the $160 million per year. Merrill Lynch paid to occupy 4.6 million square feet at the property before departing. [Bloomberg News] – Tom DiChristopher