CUNY pays $40M to Metropolitan College for office condos in FiDi

City University of New York through the entity City University Construction Fund paid $40 million to Metropolitan College of New York for four office condominium units at 40 Rector Street in Financial District, Manhattan. The expected use is owner-occupied.
The deal closed on January 27, 2026 and was recorded on February 10, 2026. The four properties have 79,955 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $500 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The signatory for Metropolitan College of New York was Charles J. Gibbs . The signatory for City University of New York was Jensen Ambachen . The contract date was December 12, 2025.

According to CUNY documents, “On August 18, 2025, the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York (the “Board of Trustees”) duly authorized The City University of New York (the “University”) to acquire certain condominium units located at 40 Rector Street, New York, New York (the “Condominium Units”), in connection with the University’s planned decanting from the premises situated at 425 East 25th Street, New York, New York, in order to facilitate the redevelopment of said premises into a state-of-the-art science park and research campus…”

Prior sales, articles and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer City University of New York purchased six properties in one transaction for a total of $125.6 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Metropolitan College of New York had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The office condos in Financial District has 79,955 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has a total lot size of 24,412 square feet. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.9 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot buildings, one out of the four buildings received a initial certificate of occupancy in the last ten years. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Financial District, The majority, or 74 percent of the 79.9 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, Financial District has the 4th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.2 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Financial District is the 3rd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 18.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 23 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 40 Rector Street, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the two commercial properties representing 258,071 square feet of the 678,393 square feet. The identified owner is Skyline Developers.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 62 percent of the 678,393 square feet of built space are hotel buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 38 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link