National + Office | January 10, 2023

Some of the nation's leading publicly traded office landlords are looking to acquire or develop non-office properties

Leading Office Landlords Pivot to Other Property Types

Many of the most prominent office developers in the U.S. are shifting gears, looking to buy or build real estate that isn’t office, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Boston Properties, for example, intends to develop 2,000 residential units up and down the East Coast, as well as lab and life sciences space.

New York office owner SL Green Realty Corp is teaming up with Caesars Entertainment Inc. in a bid to convert a Times Square office tower into a casino. Empire State Realty Trust late in 2021 started adding multifamily properties to its portfolio for the first time. And Silverstein Properties is raising a $1.5-billion fund to convert obsolete office buildings into apartments.

Shares of publicly traded office owners have broadly declined as investors and analysts worry that the companies’ growth prospects have been hurt by the likelihood of a long-term decline in office demand, reported the WSJ.

Pictured: 298 Mulberry St. in Manhattan, an apartment property which office landlord Empire State Realty Trust acquired for $115 million in late December 2022.

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).