Vanbarton Finds Next Office-to-Resi Conversion Candidate

One of New York City’s fiercest office-to-resi converters is setting its sights on Water Street.

Vanbarton Group is in contract to purchase the office building at 77 Water Street for $95 million, Bloomberg reported. The seller is a group of investors, including Sage. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year and would break down to roughly $175 per square foot for the 542,000-square-foot property.

Vanbarton isn’t looking to restore office glory to the 26-story property, which has counted the likes of AT&T, Goldman Sachs and Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith as tenants or subtenants. Instead, Vanbarton is eyeing another conversion to residential space, which could create as many as 600 rental units.

Vanbarton and Sage declined to comment. Eastdil Secured, which advised the pending transaction, also declined to comment.

Richard Coles and Gary Tischler’s firm is no newbie when it comes to turning offices into residences. Late last year, the company launched sales at Pearl House, only a few blocks down the road at 160 Water Street. Rents for studio apartments at the 588-unit redevelopment start at $3,500. Amenities include a bowling alley and a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber.

To contextualize what may go into a conversion of 77 Water Street, it’s worth noting Vanbarton paid $165 million for the 1970s-era office building — the same age as 77 Water — in 2014. In 2022, Vanbarton secured a $272 million construction loan from Brookfield’s lending arm for the conversion of the 24-story, 533,000-square-foot property, which was still uncompleted before sales launched.

In 2017, Vanbarton converted nearby 180 Water Street into a 570-unit building, and in Midtown debuted the 300-unit Hollingsworth at 70 West 37th Street. The company has more conversions in the works, including turning a former WeWork space at 980 Sixth Avenue into 100 rental units.

Other notable conversions unfolding in the Financial District include Nathan Berman and InterVest Capital Partners’ 1,300-unit project at 111 Wall Street and Berman’s similarly-sized redevelopment of 25 Water Street.

— Holden Walter-Warner