Vanbarton Group landed a $280 million loan for Pearl House, its recent Financial District office-to-residential conversion.
AllianceBernstein provided a $238 senior loan for the 588-unit luxury apartment building at 160 Water Street, according to property records. Brookfield provided $42 million in mezzanine debt.
The fresh financing replaces a $272 million loan from Brookfield’s lending arm for the conversion of the 24-story, 533,000-square-foot office building. Eastdil Secured brokered the deal, which was first reported by Commercial Observer.
Vanbarton, led by Gary Tischler and Richard Coles, purchased the 1970s-era office building in 2014 for $165 million. The developer mulled selling the property, but ultimately decided to undertake the conversion in 2022.
Leasing for the market-rate units launched in 2023 and the building was 99 percent occupied within a year, a Vanbarton spokesperson said. When the sales at the Pearl House first launched, rents for studio apartments started at $3,500. One-bedroom units were priced at $4,700, while two-bedroom units started at $6,400. The building has more than 30,000 square feet of amenities, including a bowling alley and a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber.
Vanbarton has been doing conversions for more than two decades, and its appetite shows no signs of slowing. The firm just bought its third office building in the past year as bargains in the office market, new city and state incentives and demand for new apartments have led to a boom in conversion opportunities.
The developer bought 6 East 43rd Street from the Milstein family’s Emigrant Savings Bank for $135 million last May and plans to convert it into 441 rental apartments. It’s shelling out about $100 million to buy the home of the Archdiocese of New York at 1011 First Avenue, which it plans to transform into 420 apartments. And late last year, it bought 77 Water Street in the Financial District for $95 million, which it will turn into 600 units.
Read more
Vanbarton debuts 600 units in FiDi office-to-resi conversion
Vanbarton seals latest office-to-resi play with Brookfield loan
Vanbarton lands $272M loan for Fidi office-to-resi conversion
An earlier version of this story misstated the value of the existing loan. It has since been updated.
