NPS, Hines buy Manhattan office stakes for $525m

The investors purchased minority interests in a 1.7m square foot building slated to open in 2020.

The National Pension Service of Korea (NPS) and Hines each purchased interests in a New York office development, according to an announcement Thursday.

Real estate investment trust SL Green Realty, based in New York, sold a 27.6 percent interest in One Vanderbilt Avenue to NPS and a 1.4 percent interest to Dallas-based real estate investor Hines.

The new equity holders have committed a total of $525 million. Hines has been developing the building with the REIT since the beginning of the project seven years ago.

“One Vanderbilt Avenue will transform New York's skyline and set a new standard for world-class office space, and the National Pension Service of Korea is thrilled to join SL Green and add this new icon to our portfolio,” Scott Kim, NPS's head of global real estate, said in Thursday's statement.

The Class A building in Manhattan's Midtown neighborhood, on the island's east side near Grand Central Terminal, will encompass an entire city block, with 1.7 million square feet of offices across 58 floors. SL Green said last year that it expects construction costs to total $3.1 billion and added Thursday it expects to finish construction in 2020. 

“It is a privilege for Hines, after seven years of working together on this iconic project, to join SL Green as well as NPS, a significant global investment partner of our firm, in the singular project that is One Vanderbilt,” said Gerald Hines, the firm's founder.

NPS managed about KRW 545.8 trillion ($475 billion, €436.4 billion) in assets as of October 31. The pension system had about 11 percent of its portfolio invested in alternative assets, including real estate.

Hines manages about $93.2 billion, according to Thursday's statement. It was unclear where capital for Hines' stake in the building originated as of press time.