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New York

Lower Manhattan’s Gehry apartment tower for sale asking $850M

Brookfield and Nuveen look to sell 8 Spruce Street in a litmus test for the city’s multifamily investment market

From left: Bruce Flatt, chief executive officer, Brookfield Asset Management, and Mike Sales, chief executive officer, Nuveen Real Assets and Real Estate (Brookfield, Nuveen, Getty Images, LoopNet)
From left: Bruce Flatt, chief executive officer, Brookfield Asset Management, and Mike Sales, chief executive officer, Nuveen Real Assets and Real Estate (Brookfield, Nuveen, Getty Images, LoopNet)

Lower Manhattan’s 8 Spruce Street, the Frank Gehry-designed rental tower instantly recognizable for its one-of-a-kind undulating surface, is for sale with an equally eye-catching price tag.

The owners of the 76-story highrise are seeking north of $850 million, sources familiar with the offering told The Real Deal. One of the biggest listings of its kind since the start of the pandemic, investors are viewing it as a litmus test for the health of the city’s multifamily rental market.

Brookfield Property Partners and Nuveen, the real estate arm of TIAA, have put the building up for sale with Eastdil Secured. Representatives for Brookfield and Nuveen did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A potential sale of 8 Spruce Street would represent a new chapter for a building that has typified the city’s ups and downs.

Gehry designed the 870-foot-tall building for Forest City Ratner, which had just started construction when the Great Recession hit in 2008. Forest City halted construction, leaving the project’s fate uncertain until the developer restructured its debt and pushed forward.

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When the roughly 900-unit tower opened in 2011, it was the tallest residential building in North America and enjoyed a successful lease-up as the city pulled out of the financial crisis.

Brookfield Property Partners gained the tower when it acquired Forest City in 2018. The building struggled during the pandemic as renters fled Manhattan, with nearly a quarter of its units left vacant.

Occupancy has since recovered to 94 percent, according to marketing materials from Eastdil Secured, whose team of Will Silverman, Gary Phillips, Jeff Organisciak and Drew Isaacson is marketing the property.

The multifamily sector, meanwhile, has led the city’s investment-sales recovery.

The $3.2 billion worth of apartment-building sales made up nearly half of the $6.5 billion in overall investment deals recorded in the third quarter.

Free-market buildings like 8 Spruce Street have seen rents rise dramatically since tenants began returning to the city.

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