Vornado Realty Trust pays $218M to Cohen Brothers Realty for office in Midtown East
623 Fifth Avenue (Credit - Google)
Vornado Realty Trust through the entity 623 Fifth Leasehold Owner LLC and 623 Fifth Fee Owner LLC, paid $218 million to Cohen Brothers Realty through the entity Fifth Avenue Building Company LLC for the fee interest and leasehold interest in the office condominium unit at 623 Fifth Avenue in Midtown East, Manhattan. The expected use is cash flowing.
The building is legally connected with the Saks Fifth Avenue building, that has an address of 611 Fifth Avenue. 623 Fifth Avenue (which has an entrance at 10 East 50th Street, not on Fifth Avenue) is condo unit 1002, while the Saks building is condo unit 1001.
The deal closed on September 4, 2025 and was recorded on September 8, 2025. The property has 377,775 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $461 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 Cohen Brothers Realty was Charles Steven Cohen. The signatory for Vornado Realty Trust was Steven J. Borenstein .
The Commercial Observer reported on the sale last month.
Vornado financed the purchase with a $145.4 million loan from JPMorgan Chase.
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Prior sales and revenue
Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Vornado Realty Trust purchased four properties in two transactions for a total of $129.6 million and sold 16 properties in six transactions for a total of $1.8 billion over the past 24 months.
The property
The office condo in Midtown East has 377,775 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has a total lot size of 377,775 square feet. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $168 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 not received any significant violations in the last year.
Development
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 Midtown East, The majority, or 81 percent of the 62.6 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 7 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown East has the 2nd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $3.8 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown East is the 3rd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 17.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 27 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one 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 two of the six commercial properties representing 1,482,143 square feet of the 1,949,671 square feet. The two identified owners are Tishman Speyer and William Kaufman Organization.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.
The majority, or 97 percent of the 1.9 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with retail buildings next occupying 3 percent of the space.
The seller
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Cohen Brothers Realty owned at least four commercial properties in New York City with 1,397,160 square feet and a city-determined market value of $422.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $396 million in debt, with top three lenders as Citibank, Third Avenue Design Capital, and Wachtel Missry registered respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 95 percent of the 1,397,160 square feet of built space are office properties, with M1 properties next occupying 5 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.
The buyer
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Vornado Realty Trust owned at least 55 commercial properties with four residential units in New York City with 15,490,385 square feet and a city-determined market value of $7 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $6.7 billion in debt, with top three lenders as JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 78 percent of the 15,490,385 square feet of built space are office properties, with retail properties next occupying 12 percent of the space. The bulk, or 97 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Bronx next at 3 percent of the space.
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