Bouwinvest, Tishman Speyer Debut Office Fund at Chrysler

A Dutch pension fund is placing a fresh bet on American office towers, and it is starting with one of Manhattan’s most recognizable skylines. Bouwinvest Real Estate Investors and Tishman Speyer have launched a separately managed account to acquire leading office assets across the United States. The first deal: the 150-year ground lease for the Chrysler Building.

Tishman Speyer finalized an agreement to buy the lease earlier this month, joined by the Public Sector Pension Investment Board and other institutional investors. The transaction includes a $235 million investment and ground lease payments to Cooper Union, the college that owns the land beneath the 77-story tower. The $351 million ground lease expires in 2176.

Tishman Speyer plans a major upgrade of the 1.3 million-square-foot building. The developer intends to add hotel-style services and modern workspace, with the aim of turning the landmark into a “distinctive” office property.

The new account will target institutional-quality office buildings in key U.S. markets with solid underlying performance, strong market conditions and a constrained pipeline, the companies said. The emphasis is on properties that need renovation or repositioning to lift their value. The account may buy alongside other Tishman Speyer office funds or outside partners.

It sits next to a Tishman Speyer club dedicated to U.S. office strategies. According to a press release, that club has about $700 million in equity ready to deploy, enough to fund roughly $1.5 billion in acquisitions once debt is included. Beyond the usual hubs of New York, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, the partners plan to look at established, fast-growing U.S. cities. Tishman Speyer bought its first building in Austin in 2021.

The launch follows a separate move by Bouwinvest. Until early September, the Amsterdam-based manager’s activity abroad was solely for bpfBOUW, the pension fund whose real estate investment arm it serves. Now other institutional investors can access its international platform, which represents €10.5 billion in investment exposure. Bouwinvest oversees €18.5 billion ($21 billion) in total assets, investing directly in Dutch real estate and indirectly in markets worldwide.

“The Chrysler Building is a fitting first investment for this mandate and shows how we invest internationally: selectively, early in the cycle and through specialist partners like Tishman Speyer,” said Robert Wagenaar, Bouwinvest’s director of North American investments. “We now see a compelling tactical opportunity in the U.S. office market to invest with a strong locational focus and brown-to-green angle.”

The timing reflects the firm’s read on the broader market. Jasper Petit, Bouwinvest’s managing director of international investments, said in September that he foresees the start of a new cycle, calling now an “excellent moment” to invest. The firm sees the global repricing of real estate as a source of buying opportunities.

The two firms have worked together before. In 2018, Bouwinvest was one of more than a dozen equity investors that put $100 million into The Spiral, the Tishman Speyer-led Hudson Yards office tower now home to Pfizer’s headquarters. That building was refinanced last year for nearly $2.9 billion, allowing Tishman Speyer and its partners to pocket nearly $1 billion in equity.