Breaking down Manhattan’s investment sales comeback

Despite a slowdown in the second half of the year, Manhattan investment sales rose 40 percent in 2022, reaching nearly $21 billion in total volume.

The biggest share of that increase went into large multifamily assets — those with 10 or more units — where sales volume more than doubled from 2021. Purchases of development sites also nearly doubled, and investments in commercial properties increased 63 percent year over year. 

Perhaps most remarkably, despite persistent doomsaying about the future of the office sector, investment in office properties rose 53 percent compared to the year before.

In fact, the two biggest investment sales of the year involved offices, and together they accounted for about half of all dollar volume spent on the asset class. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, took the top spot with its purchase of 550 Washington Street in Hudson Square for nearly $2 billion, which closed early in the year. That was followed by SL Green Realty’s takeover of HNA Group’s 245 Park Avenue in Midtown for about $1.8 billion.

The biggest multifamily purchase of the year was Blackstone’s $930 million deal for the luxury apartment building at 8 Spruce Street in the Financial District. 

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Investment in Manhattan’s industrial sector saw a massive drop, falling by 97 percent year over year, but that’s mainly a result of 2021’s total being goosed by the $3 billion sale of Edison Properties’ portfolio of Manhattan Mini Storage locations to Missouri-based StorageMart.

Breaking down Manhattan into six geographic areas, Midtown East took the lion’s share of investment last year, accounting for more than $6.4 billion in investment, or 31 percent of the total, followed by Downtown West with $4.3 billion. Midtown West saw the lowest volume, with slightly over $2 billion in investment sales.