Vornado Buying Out Partner At One Park Avenue At $875M Valuation
Vornado is taking full ownership of its One Park Avenue office building in a deal that values the building at $875M.
The publicly traded office and retail owner announced Tuesday it would pay $158M cash to its joint venture partner, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, in a deal expected to close next quarter. The pension fund, which operates as CPP Investments, owns a 45% stake in the property.
The building spans 943K SF, and was home to one of the biggest office leasing deals of 2020, when New York University Langone renewed for 633K SF in November at the property, second only to Facebook’s deal at the Farley Building, which is also owned by Vornado.
Vornado will also take on CPPIB’s share of the debt on the building, Commercial Observer reports. The REIT and CPPIB refinanced the property earlier in the year with a $525M loan from Barclays and Deutsche Bank.
Vornado bought an interest in the property in 2011 at a $394M valuation, the company said in the statement. CPP Investments came on board in 2014 at a $560M valuation.
The deal could act as a shot in the arm for the city’s investment sales market, which has been slow coming back to life after being badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic — though there have been few major sales so far this year.
Just five Manhattan office buildings sold last quarter, after just four such transactions the quarter before, according to Avison Young. The average price per SF was $1,039 per SF, up from the pandemic average but down 8.5% from the second quarter of 2019. Vornado's buyout valued One Park Avenue at less than $930 per SF.
Earlier this year, reports emerged that Vornado was looking to buy out The Trump Organization at the office buildings the pair co-own at 1290 Sixth Ave. in Manhattan and at 555 California St. in San Francisco. Vornado Chairman and CEO Steve Roth later denied there was any truth to the suggestion the firm was looking to end its relationship with the former president at the properties.
