Vanbarton Group pays $135M to Emigrant Bank for office-to-resi conversion in Grand Central

Vanbarton Group through the entity East 43rd NYC LLC paid $135 million to Emigrant Bank through the entity 6 East 43rd Street Corp. for the office building (O4) at 6 East 43rd Street in Grand Central, Manhattan. The expected use is conversion/addition.
The deal closed on September 29, 2025 and was recorded on October 3, 2025. The property has 304,525 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $443 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 Emigrant Bank was Francis P. May . The signatory for Vanbarton Group was Damiano Buffa . The contract date was May 15, 2025. The Real Deal reported previously that this is for an office to resi conversion. Emigrant Bank bought the property in 1994 from Prudential for $36.75 million, according to a PincusCo analysis of transfer tax payments.

To finance the purchase and construction, Vanbarton Group borrowed $225 million from Corebridge Financial.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Vanbarton Group purchased two properties in two transactions for a total of $198.5 million and sold five properties in four transactions for a total of $205.8 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Emigrant Bank had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 304,525-square-foot property generated revenue of $21.4 million or $70 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The property

The office building in Grand Central has 304,525 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 82 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 17,975 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C5-2.5 which allows for up to 12 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $107.1 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $2,225 in OATH penalties in the last year.

The neighborhood

In Grand Central, The majority, or 83 percent of the 44.4 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space. In sales, Grand Central has the 7th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.3 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Grand Central is the 7th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 9.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 21 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There were four pre-foreclosure suit filed among other office buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the seven commercial properties representing 3,092,336 square feet of the 3,167,811 square feet. The largest owner is Hines Interests, followed by Munich Re and then Stawski Partners.
On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 1,298,506 square feet. It is a 1,298,506 square-foot business (B) building submitted by SL Green Realty and filed by Harry Olsen with plans filed September 1, 2015 and permitted July 31, 2017.

The majority, or 98 percent of the 3.2 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 2 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Vanbarton Group owned at least 19 commercial properties with 1,112 residential units in New York City with 3,165,910 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $1.6 billion in debt, with top three lenders as Blackstone Group, Blackstone Mortgage Trust, and Equitable Financial Life Insurance Company respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 64 percent of the 3,165,910 square feet of built space are office properties, with specialty properties next occupying 13 percent of the space. The bulk, or 94 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Bronx next at 6 percent of the space.

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