Vanbarton buying the UN-leased Albano Building for $117M

Organization weighing whether to renew its lease for the entire property

Richard Coles in front of Albano Building
Richard Coles in front of Albano Building

The Vanbarton Group is picking up the Albano Building, a Midtown East property entirely leased to the United Nations, for $117 million, The Real Deal has learned.

The Midtown-based real estate investment firm, led by Richard Coles and Gary Tischler, signed a contract earlier this week to acquire the 16-story, 187,000-square-foot building at 305 East 46th Street, sources said.

The UN is considering whether to exercise a five-year option, which becomes available in the third quarter of this year, to renew its lease, sources said. The intergovernmental organization signed a short-term renewal last summer after its 10-year lease expired.

Shortly after that renewal, the owner, the Government Properties Income Trust, put the building on the market for sale. The Massachusetts-based real estate investment trust has owned it since 2011, when it bought it from Extell Development for $114 million.

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If the UN decides against exercising the option later this year, it’s unclear what Vanbarton would plan for the property.

An Eastdil Secured team is representing the seller in the deal. Eastdil is also brokering Silverstein Properties’ purchase of ABC’s Upper West Side campus for north of $1 billion and SL Green Realty’s sale of 1745 Broadway’s office condominium for $633 million.

Vanbarton and Eastdil declined to comment, and a representative for the REIT could not be reached.

Vanbarton recently bought the Vogue building for about $320 million and completed an office-to-residential conversion at 180 Water Street.