Owner of 60 Wall St. makes risky bet with massive $250M revamp

The struggling Financial District’s brightest hope — and biggest challenge for its owners — is 60 Wall St., the vacant, 1.6 million square-foot tower where Paramount Group launched a marketing and leasing campaign as it completes a $250 million transformation.

The 47-story tower developed for JPMorgan in the 1980s more recently belonged to Deutsche Bank, which sold it to Singapore sovereign wealth GIC and Paramount for $1.04 billion in 2017. Although Paramount’s equity is only 5%, it’s on the hot seat as the tower’s real estate face and  property manager.

It’s a bold plunge for Manhattan-based Paramount. FiDi office vacancies are 27% and 34% respectively in its east and west portions, according to Cushman & Wakefield (the data don’t include the World Trade Center area.)

Although other FiDi buildings are competing for big tenants, eyes are mostly on 60 Wall. (Surprisingly, none of the analysts on Paramount’s second-quarter earnings call brought it up.)

But one normally talkative broker who isn’t involved at the building and asked not to be named, told us, “It’s sink or swim for downtown depending on Paramount signing tenants. Even one large lease will change perceptions of downtown’s office market.”

Paramount Group, led by CEO and president Albert Behler, is one of the few companies strong enough to tackle 60 Wall. Its 13.8 million square-foot global portfolio is mostly in Manhattan, where its holdings include 1301 and 1325 Sixth Ave., 712 Fifth Ave., and 1633 Broadway, home to hot Taiwanese restaurant Din Tai Fung.

Paramount is marketing 60 Wall as “Wall Street But Not As You Know It.” A recent walk-through with executive vice-president and head of real estate Peter Brindley revealed mostly column-free office floors with 13- to 16-foot ceiling heights and spectacular views that were previously known only to employees of previous tenants that occupied the whole building.

Above the podium level, the “reimagined” tower will still mostly resemble the original Kevin Roche/John Dinkeloo design that combined neoclassical and Postmodern elements. But it’s a whole new ball game below that.

The original lobby, an icon of late 1980s excess, was likened by critic Paul Goldberger to “an ice cream parlor blown up to monumental scale.” Now, the  privately-owned public space (POPS) between Wall and Pine streets is being transformed into a welcoming, triple-height atrium with a skylight cut through the tower podium and a verdant, 100-feet-tall “green wall.”

Light will flood in through new, triple-height windows rising through the former trading floors. A grand staircase and elevators are to connect with the No. 2 and 3 subway lines below.

A 30,000 square-foot tenants’ amenity space will be installed above it. Terraces are being added on several office floors. An enhanced ventilation system that utilizes virus-blocking, MERV 15 filtration is among a wealth of infrastructure and sustainability upgrades.

Among other strengths, 60 Wall stands amidst 11 subway lines directly below or a few blocks away. Building employees will enjoy easy access to the Hudson and East rivers waterfronts, restaurants galore, the reborn South Street Seaport and shopping options from discounter Century 21 to high-end, Paris-born Printemps next year, as well as to Brookfield Place and the WTC Oculus.

Even so, the leasing campaign, to be led by CBRE, might face rough sledding. Despite rumors about American Express, no large companies are known have signed term sheets anywhere downtown.

But there’s been a leasing uptick. Activity in May of 321,000 square feet eclipsed the five-year monthly average for the second time  in 2024, according to CBRE. Year-to-date leasing of 1.02 million square feet was up 26% over 2023.

Brindley said, “Tenant demand is continuing to improve and the demand centers around the highest quality, best located assets. 60 Wall Street was designed well ahead of its time, incorporating elements of today’s new construction, such as high ceilings, virtually column free space, robust infrastructure and spectacular views.

“Our investment will provide for a market-leading tenant experience in a building that is easily accessible from all areas of the city and region.”

Brindley said, Paramount is “trading paper with multiple users for upwards of 200,000 square feet each.” Asking rents run from the $70s to $90s per square foot.