MetroLoft’s Berman acquires leasehold on 20 Broad Street

MetroLoft founder Nathan Berman is buying a controlling interest in a Financial District office tower at 20 Broad Street, with plans to convert it into rental apartments.

Berman is paying Vornado Realty Trust an undisclosed sum for the leasehold on the 27-story, 473,000-square-foot office building. The real estate investment trust had leased 20 Broad Street from the New York Stock Exchange until 2081, when NYSE will have the right to take back control of the 1950s-era building. It means Berman will have ample time to convert the building and operate it as a rental.

Vornado had itself weighed a residential conversion of the building, where NYSE occupies nearly 400,000 square feet that it is vacating next year, according to Crain’s. Berman, who runs Financial District-based MetroLoft, is involved in transforming several Lower Manhattan office properties into residential space, such 17 John Street And 20 Exchange Place.

Berman is also converting the former office building at 180 Water Street into 560 rental units, a project slated for completion next year, and is in the process of readying his first condo project – a $350 million conversion of a historic former manufacturing building at 443 Greenwich Street.

Prices at 443 Greenwich Street will start at $7 million and soar to as much as $55 million for the largest of eight penthouses, Berman said, with the 53-unit building set to be finished in mid-2016. [Crain’s] – Rey Mashayekhi