With a big tenant lined up to anchor their repositioning of the former Guardian Life headquarters in the Financial District, the Gural family and the Northwind Group are looking to bring a new equity partner on to the project.
GFP Real Estate and Ran Eliasaf’s Northwind are looking to sell somewhere between 60 and 80 percent of the equity in the property formerly known as 7 Hanover Square.
“We’re looking to bring an institutional LP into the deal,” GFP co-CEO Brian Steinwurtzel told The Real Deal.
The Cushman & Wakefield team led by Doug Harmon and Adam Spies is marketing the stake. The developers are aiming for a valuation of just under $600 per square foot for the property once it’s stabilized.
Spies said the property is attractive because the Gurals “[invest] a significant amount of their own equity in deals” and the project is 60 percent pre-leased, with the tower floors available.
GFP and Northwind are in contract to buy the 975,000-square-foot building from Guardian Life Insurance. The deal is set to close later this year in October when Guardian relocates its offices to Hudson Yards.
The new owners are repositioning the building as two distinct properties. They’re rebranding the base floors of the building as 50 Water Street, where they recently signed NYC Health + Hospitals to a 24-year lease covering 500,000 square feet.
The building’s tower floors are being repositioned as 100 Pearl Street, and the developers are constructing two new penthouse floors on top.
GFP and Northwind are also modernizing the retail portion of building, where they plan to bring in a large food hall.
A Newmark Knight Frank team of Hal Stein, Andrew Peretz and Ben Shapiro are leasing the office portion, while Newmark’s Benjamin Birnbaum will head up leasing for the retail.