High prices force Brookfield out of Manhattan

Manhattan real estate’s high prices and shortage of inventory has forced at least one high-profile landlord to invest its money elsewhere. The Wall Street Journal reported that Brookfield Office Properties’ recent buying sprees outside its core market are a direct response to the poor conditions in Manhattan.

“In New York, we’ve looked at everything,” said Brookfield President Dennis Friedrich, who will soon become the firm’s CEO. “There’s not a lot on the market that’s intriguing, and pricing is certainly very weighty.”

Brookfield, which owns more than 18 million square feet of office space in Manhattan and is in the process of developing 5.4 million more square feet at Manhattan West, recently reached a $829 million deal for 884,000 square feet of London property, and closed on a $210 million portolio in Seattle and a $215 million building in Denver.

While London is known as a safe haven for global capital, the Journal attributed the purchases in Denver and Seattle to the rapidly rising costs of properties in major U.S. cities that are considered long-term safe bets. [WSJ]