Samuel Fisch Finds Conversion Opportunity in FiDi

Conversion fever is not going anywhere this year, with novice figures now jumping on board with established players.

Samuel Fisch of Blue Fin Equities filed plans to convert 40 Fulton Street in the Financial District from office to residential use, the Commercial Observer reported. The 28-story building would be expanded by two stories and the residential unit count would come in at 169.

Fisch signed a ground lease for the property in 2022 for $88.9 million, taking control of the building’s fate. Immediately before that, prominent investor David Werner bought the property from Vornado for $101 million.

Fisch signed the ground lease with Fulton & Pearl, an affiliate of Werner’s. The ground lease and conversion plans were first reported by PincusCo.

Fisch could not be reached for comment by the Observer.

The conversion at the corner of Fulton and Pearl streets will put between six and eight units on most of the floors; there will be ground-floor retail space and office space on a majority of the lowest six floors. There will also be amenities, including a fitness center, a lounge and coworking spaces.

Though Werner handed the keys of this project to another player, the developer has been involved in prominent office-to-residential conversions in Manhattan in recent years.

Werner and Nathan Berman’s Metro Loft Management are converting 675 Third Avenue into a 464-unit residential building, including retail space. Werner acquired the site for $100 million and received a $90 million loan for the acquisition and predevelopment.

The two firms are also partners on another large-scale conversion at 235 East 42nd Street, expected to be completed in late 2027.

In the first eight months of 2025, more than 4 million square feet of office space in Manhattan had been converted to residential use, according to Cushman & Wakefield, already exceeding the totals for each of the preceding two full years.— Holden Walter-Warner