A scion of the Safra banking fortune is pumping more money into the red-hot office-to-residential space.
Edmond M. Safra, the son of Banco Safra co-founder Moise Safra, is backing two more conversion projects by the Vanbarton Group through his company AVRS Partners, The Real Deal has learned.
AVRS — launched in 2023 by Safra and Adnane Mousannif, the former head of U.S. real estate for the Qatari Investment Authority — was revealed last week to be Vanbarton’s financial backer on the conversion of the Archdiocese of New York’s office building in Sutton Place after the church filed a disclosure in New York supreme court.
In addition to that 420-unit project at 1101 First Avenue, AVRS is also one of the financial partners on Vanbarton’s 600-unit conversion of 77 Water Street in the Financial District, sources told TRD. It is also in talks to back Vanbarton’s conversion of an office building in Seattle at 2601 Elliott Avenue.
Representatives for AVRS and Vanbarton could not be reached for comment.
Vanbarton, led by Richard Coles and Gary Tischler, has a long history working with pension funds to invest in real estate projects. But lots of new capital sources are looking to get into the office conversion space.
AVRS was specifically eyeing the sector when it met with Vanbarton about a year ago, according to a source familiar with the talks. There’s no comprehensive investment agreement between the two, but one project led to another, which led to another and so on.
Safra is the founder of the hedge fund advisor EMS Capital and a director of M. Safra & Co., the family office of his late father. The family office owns a 40 percent stake in the GM Building along with the family of Chinese real estate developer Zhang Xin.
AVRS’ website lists a small handful of deals it has done in New York, Los Angeles and Paris since its founding two years ago.
Vanbarton, meanwhile, has become one of the most active developers on office-to-resi conversions.
The company recently closed on its $103 million purchase of the Archdiocese headquarters and paid $95.5 million to buy 77 Water Street. It acquired the Seattle office building by buying the property’s defaulted debt at a hefty discount.
Vanbarton also converted the building at 160 Water Street in the Financial District into 588 units and is converting several floors formerly occupied by WeWork at 980 Sixth Avenue. The company last month went into contract to pay about $140 million for the Milstein family’s Emigrant Savings Bank building at 6 East 43rd Street, which it plans to convert into 450 to 500 apartments.
Read more
Safra’s AVRS Partners joins Vanbarton in archdiocese conversion
Vanbarton goes west: Firm expands beyond NYC for next office conversion
Vanbarton finds next office-to-resi conversion candidate at 77 Water Street
