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Empire State Realty Trust surrendering CT office complex to lender

Deal leaves REIT with one remaining office property in the state

Empire State Realty Trust's Tony Malkin; First Stamford Place (Empire State Realty Trust, Getty)
Empire State Realty Trust's Tony Malkin; First Stamford Place (Empire State Realty Trust, Getty)

Empire State Realty Trust is handing back the keys to a Connecticut office property.

The real estate investment trust reached an agreement with its lender to transfer office complex First Stamford Place to its lender, according to an SEC filing. The property transfer will satisfy an outstanding loan attached to a foreclosure process, which is expected to wrap in the next several months.

Tony Malkin’s REIT expects the transfer will wipe away a $176 million liability due to mature in July 2027.

The SEC filing didn’t disclose who was the lender on the Stamford office complex. Wells Fargo refinanced the property’s debt in 2017 with a $164 million loan, according to CRED iQ. The loan-to-value ratio on the debt at the time was 57.5 percent.

ESRT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The three-building office complex spans 776,000 rentable square feet. The campus includes a cafe, fitness center, conference center, car wash and a Bright Horizons day care. The complex is adjacent to a 500-key luxury hotel.

Tenants at the campus have included Capital One, Ernst & Young and Grant Thornton. Over the summer, three financial services companies signed leases at the complex for their relocations from another major Connecticut city, Greenwich. The property is 78.7 percent occupied and 82.3 percent leased, according to ESRT’s fourth quarter earnings supplement.

This is not the first time ESRT decided to walk away from a Connecticut office complex. In its 2021 annual report, the REIT disclosed its plans to relinquish the MerrittView office building in Norwalk to its mortgage lender, CT Insider reported.

The transfer will leave the Metro Center in Stamford as ESRT’s lone remaining office property in Connecticut.

Hal Fetner recently sold Malkin’s firm the stakes Fetner had retained in a pair of multifamily buildings sold to ESRT two years prior. In late 2021, Fetner Properties sold 90 percent stakes in the Victory, at 561 10th Avenue, and 345 East 94th Street, which combined for 625 units.

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Companies and People
Empire State Realty TrustTony Malkin
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ConnecticutOffice MarketReal Estate FinanceStamford