Barings lists Wall St. office tower for nearly $150M less than it paid 

Firm bought 100 Wall Street for $270M in 2015

Barings Eyes $125 Million for 100 Wall Street
100 Wall Street and Barings CEO Mike Freno (LinkedIn, JLL, Getty)

Barings is looking to sell a Wall Street office tower for less than half of the $270 million price tag the firm paid a decade ago as investors become increasingly willing to unload properties at deep discounts.

The real estate arm of insurer MassMutual put the 29-story 100 Wall Street up for sale, eyeing a figure of about $125 million, The Real Deal has learned. That’s nearly $150 million less than Barings, through its subsidiary Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors, paid for the tower in 2015.

Office owners are showing more willingness to sell properties at a discount as declining occupancy rates and higher interest rates have driven down values on buildings — some of which were bought at previous market cycle peaks.

In a separate deal this week, Barings entered into a $160 million contract for the Midtown office building at 1370 Sixth Avenue — about 25 percent off the $217 million seller Principal Real Estate Advisors paid in 2005.

A Newmark team led by Adam Spies and Josh King is marketing the property for sale.

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A spokesperson for Barings, headed by CEO Mike Freno, declined to comment. 

The 515,000-square-foot 100 Wall Street, built in 1969, is 75-percent leased, according to marketing materials. It is being pitched as a potential residential conversion, or as an opportunity for an investor to increase revenue by leasing out the vacant space.

The largest tenants in the building, AFLAC and Trinity Life Sciences, each occupy about 39,000 square feet. 

Cornerstone paid $528 per square foot, which was reportedly a record at the time for an office building in the Financial District east of Broadway. At the time, the tower was 97 percent occupied.

Barings owns the building debt-free, having paid off the $137.5 million New York Life Insurance mortgage in 2022, property records show.

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