Many of NYC’s biggest RE owners are not the typical landlords

Many of New York City’s property giants don’t actually specialize in real estate. They are governments, institutions and sovereign funds.

The city of New York — which has 917 properties across 184 million square feet — has the largest real estate footprint, according a new ranking of non-landlord landlords by the Commercial Observer, citing CoStar data. That square footage is about five times the amount of space owned by Brookfield Asset Management, the city’s largest traditional landlord.

It comes as no surprise for some. “The city probably got a lot of their property through tax foreclosures, people not paying property taxes in the 1970s,” Bob Knakal [TRDataCustom], chair of New York investment sales at Cushman & Wakefield, told the news website.

Out of the non-traditional landlords, it is governments, institutions and sovereign funds that have the biggest portfolios. The Qatar Investment Authority has 14 properties across 11 million square feet, while the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global has the same number across 8 million square feet. The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York is close behind with 97 properties and nearly 7 million square feet. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey owns 14 properties spanning nearly 6 million square feet total in the city.

“I think the real takeaway is that investors of all kinds continue to find New York commercial real estate more and more appealing given the alternatives,” Joseph Sollazzo, a real estate economist for CoStar, told the news website.

In July, The Real Deal looked at the city’s biggest landlords and their impact on the rental market. [CO] — Miriam Hall