Top 175 buyers of NYC CRE by dollar volume in 2025: PincusCo data

The 2025 New York City investment acquisitions were largely made by buyers who did not make a play the prior year, and also by owner-occupiers, which is a continuing trend.

Taking the top spot with a $3.56 billion acquisition was Rithm Capital. Their acquisition of a massive portfolio from Paramount Group—including high-profile assets like 1633 Broadway and 1301 Avenue of the Americas—was the single most significant sale of the year. Rithm’s entry at this scale signals a massive bet on the endurance of the Class A office environment in Midtown West, focusing on high-occupancy, cash-flowing institutional assets.

Ranking second with $1.17 billion in total 2025 acquisitions, New York University continues to be one of the city’s largest end-user buyers. Their biggest acquisition was the $1.1 billion office condominium lease covering of 770 Broadway. Unlike traditional developers, NYU buys for permanence and expansion, effectively removing prime Greenwich Village square footage from the commercial market to fuel its academic and administrative growth.

Methodology: We included commercial real estate sales appearing in Acris with document dates in 2025, of $2 million and up. For partial interest we count those where the amount of sale was 50% or more. In a recap/majority interest sale, we only count the new party or parties in ownership as the buyer, for example we excluded Greenbrook Partners as a buyer when Greenbrook Partners was recapitalizing with Carlyle Group, but we included Carlyle Group since they were buying into the deal. We did not include debt owners taking ownership via foreclosure or bankruptcy as property sales. We generally excluded mergers and acquisitions entity-level purchases — we did not include Manhattan properties that Skydance-Paramount took over through its purchase of CBS — but we did include Rithm Capital’s purchase of Paramount Group’s Manhattan office buildings since Paramount Group was a property REIT.

Top 175 Buyers of NYC CRE in 2025

Joint ventures dominated the office recovery narrative, most notably the $1.14 billion acquisition of 1177 Avenue of the Americas. Beacon Capital Partners and Norges Bank Investment Management combined forces to secure this Midtown West office asset. For Norges, the move represents a continued sovereign wealth interest in stable U.S. gateway cities, while Beacon provides the specialized operational expertise to manage high-density office towers.

In one of the most complex institutional trades of the year, RXR Realty, Elliott Investment Management, and the Baupost Group collaborated on a $1.08 billion deal for 1285 Avenue of the Americas. This bundle represents a who’s who of distressed and opportunistic capital. After a quieter 2024, RXR’s return to billion-dollar deal-making suggests that the pricing gap for major Manhattan office towers has finally narrowed enough to lure back the city’s biggest private owners.

The French private equity firm Ardian made a significant impact with $900 million in acquisitions, notably at 100-104 Fifth Avenue. Their strategy focused on core Manhattan office properties in neighborhoods like Union Square, betting on the live-work-play appeal of the area to attract tech and creative tenants. Continuing the trend of non-traditional buyers, IKEA, via Ingka Investments, deployed $852 million for a significant stake in 570 Fifth Avenue. This purchase is part of a global strategy to secure high-visibility urban flagship locations rather than relying solely on suburban warehouse models.

David Werner remained a key player in the high-stakes Manhattan market, totaling $755 million in 2025. Werner’s strategy typically involves identifying undervalued institutional assets—like his major play at 1 West 4th Street—and utilizing creative capital stacks to close complex entity-level transactions. Reflecting a resurgence in Japanese investment in NYC, Mori Trust moved $564 million into the market. Their primary acquisition of the O4 office asset at 245 Park Avenue demonstrates a preference for low-risk, high-prestige assets in the Grand Central submarket.

At $550 million, Slate Property Group was the highest-ranking buyer focused primarily on residential and transitional assets. Their focus remained on high-growth Brooklyn neighborhoods and Manhattan residential plays, such as 123 East 54th Street, where they can add value through renovation and management. While 10th in dollar volume at $541 million, Carlyle Group was first in activity. They treat NYC real estate like a high-frequency trading desk, closing 35 deals in 2025. By focusing on smaller, disparate residential assets across neighborhoods like Bushwick and Bed-Stuy, they have built a decentralized portfolio that hedges against the volatility of single large-building trades.