Richard A. C. Coles and Gary Tischler

Everyone wants to get in on the office-to-resi game. When they get there, they’ll find Coles and Tischler.

The partners have built Vanbarton Group into one of the most active converters in New York City at a time when the office-to-resi boom is reshaping the city. Coles and Tischler have more than 2,000 units in their Manhattan conversion pipeline across five projects, and they’re expanding to other cities.

In New York they opened the doors on the 588-unit conversion of 160 Water Street in the Financial District — the first major project of its kind to open since the start of the pandemic. From there they pounced on outdated office buildings that had been emptied out by work-from-home such as the nearby 77 Water Street, which they’re converting into 600 units after buying the building for $95 million.

They also locked up the Archdiocese of New York’s headquarters at 1011 First Avenue in Midtown for $103 million, which they’re turning into another 420 units. And they bought the Milstein family’s Emigrant Savings Bank for $140 million with plans to transform the Midtown office building at 6 East 43rd Street into more than 500 apartments.

Tischler and Coles, who started working together at Emmes Group of Companies in the 1990s before spinning out in 2015, invest in a variety of property types but found a lane for themselves in the conversion space. They eye projects somewhere around 500 to 700 units, thinking demand will be deeper compared to 1,000–plus unit megaprojects when they go to sell upon completion.

They’ve got some competition, though, from the likes of Nathan Berman and SL Green who are also busy in the space.