Commerz Real has acquired the New York office building “100 Pearl Street” for its open-ended real estate fund Hausinvest. Seller is a joint venture of TPG Real Estate, investment platform of the international investment company TPG, GFP Real Estate, one of the largest New York real estate owners, operator, property manager and project developer, as well as Northwind Group, a real estate investment company, also based in New York City. Non-disclosure was agreed on the purchase price. GFP will continue to be responsible for property management and rental.
Built in 1983 and extensively renovated in 2021, the 120-metre-high building comprises approximately 90,000 square metres of rental space, distributed over 29 floors plus a basement, and is leased to around 93 percent. Approximately 80 percent of rental income comes from the two main users New York City Health and Hospitals, the largest state health organisation in the USA, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The average remaining term of all leases is approximately 20 years.
An absolute top property in a stable premium location!
100 Pearl Street in Downtown Manhattan is located directly next to Wall Street between the Broad Street and Wall Street metro stations and the main driver terminal Pier 11. “An absolute top property in a stable premium location,” says Maja Procz, Global Head of Transactions at Commerz Real. Downtown Manhattan has always been known for its many tenants from the financial services sector. “However, the location is also very attractive for many public tenants, especially because of the cheaper rents compared to Midtown Manhattan,” explains Procz. The tenant structure has also been further diversified in recent years, including through the increase in the number of locations of companies such as Spotify, which moved its headquarters to Downtown Manhattan in 2017, or the well-known media and publishing house Condé Nast, which is based in the One World Trade Centre.
As part of the conversion measures carried out by the vendor joint venture, the building technology and elevators were replaced, the lobby was expanded and modernised, and the building was raised by a two-storey roof top with roof terrace. In addition, part of the ground floor was expanded as a food hall and rented out to Urbanspace, a well-known New York food chain. The building also has 67 underground car park spaces.
For Commerz Real, this is already the third investment in New York City for house investment in recent years. The 25-storey office building “222E 41st Street” was acquired in May 2018. It recently hosted a New York University (NYU) medical centre under the brand “NYU Langone”, under which NYU already operates three hospitals and various medical centres in the metropolis. And the boutique hotel “11 Howard” in the SoHo district has been in the portfolio since 2016.
Commerz Real AG is the asset manager of the Commerzbank Group and has 50 years of international market experience. The company combines extensive know-how in asset management with broad structuring expertise and uses this expertise to develop tangible asset-oriented fund products and individual investment solutions in the real estate and infrastructure sectors. As a leasing service provider of Commerzbank, Commerz Real Mobilienleasing also offers needs-based leasing concepts.
Since 2025, the Commerzbank Group’s asset management holdings have been bundled with Commerz Real AG. In addition to Commerz Real’s brands and products, these include the Aquila Capital investment company with a focus on sustainable tangible asset investments in the area of energy infrastructure and Yellowfin as a boutique for liquid investment strategies. Under the umbrella of Commerz Real AG, a total of around 1,000 employees manage assets of around EUR 55 billion at around 20 locations.
A Commerzbank Group company