60 Guilders’ Kevin Chisholm and Bastien Broda Split Up

The founders of 60 Guilders, who initially jumped headfirst into New York’s retail bubble and more recently have been buying office and multifamily properties, are going their separate ways.

Kevin Chisholm and Bastien Broda have ended their 10-year partnership, sources told The Real Deal. The reasons weren’t immediately clear. One source said Chisolm bought out his partner’s stake and will continue on with 60 Guilders, while Broda will do his own thing.

Neither Chisholm nor Broda responded to requests for comment.

Since its founding a decade ago, the company has bought $2.7 billion worth of New York real estate spanning 5.6 million square feet across 24 buildings, according to a 60 Guilders Instagram post in June.

The two partners founded the firm in 2013 after spending the previous four years working together at another large real estate company, Savanna. The name 60 Guilders is a reference to the price the Dutch East India Company paid in 1626 to buy Manhattan from the Lenape.

“The modern equivalent is 24 bucks, but this had a nicer ring to it,” Chisholm told TRD in 2016.

The duo opened up shop as the retail market was catching fire, driven by speculative investments and skyrocketing rents. 60 Guilders quickly made a name for itself as one of the more aggressive investors in the space, particularly with some of its deals in Soho.

Chisholm and Broda partnered with the Carlyle Group to buy the retail co-op at 106 Spring Street in 2016 for $105 million. It was one of the priciest deals ever in the trendy shopping neighborhood.

The deal raised eyebrows, as there was already talk that retail prices were getting too high and the bubble would burst when tenants started pulling back. Chisholm defended his investments, arguing that softness in other parts of the neighborhood didn’t weigh on his properties.

“If you let 434 Broadway negatively impact you, it’s like if John Goodman can’t get a date, it should affect Leo DiCaprio’s ability to get a date,” he told the New York Post in 2018.

However, the Spring Street deal turned out to be a bust. The company never leased the space and battled with the building’s co-op board. In 2019, 60 Guilders and Carlyle sold the co-op to SL Green at a $26 million loss.

Chisholm and Broda pivoted from retail and became active in other areas. The company teamed up with the hedge fund Davidson Kempner in 2021 to buy an office property at the MetroTech center in Downtown Brooklyn from Brookfield Property Partners for $128 million.

Last summer, 60 Guilders paid $178 million to buy an office building in Long Island City from Vornado Realty Trust, and in December it bought a trio of Williamsburg rental buildings from the Rabsky Group for $143 million.