NEW YORK CITY — Oxford Properties Group and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) have closed on the $700 million acquisition of a 3.25-acre development site in the Hudson Square district of Manhattan’s Midtown South submarket.
The historic St. John’s Terminal site, which will be redeveloped into a mixed-use project, is situated south of West Houston Street and features 600 feet of frontage along the Hudson River. The northern portion of the site was not included in the transaction and will be developed separately.
The joint venture between Toronto-based Oxford and CPPIB purchased the site from Westbrook Partners and Atlas Capital Group. Oxford owns a 52.5 percent interest in this joint venture and will manage the future development, details of which will be announced in the second half of the year. CPPIB owns the remaining 47.5 percent interest in the site.
The parcel includes an existing 1.3 million-square-foot structure that was built in 1934 as the rail freight terminus to New York Central Railroad’s West Side Line. In December 2016, the New York City Council approved the air rights rezoning of the site to develop up 1.7 million square feet of mixed-use space.
Cushman and Wakefield’s New York Capital Markets team served as Oxford’s financial advisors, and John Sullivan and Cara Nelson of DLA Piper served as Oxford’s legal counsel in the transaction.
Oxford and CPPIB are long-standing joint venture partners that together own over 14 million square feet of commercial office and retail real estate, have jointly developed four office towers and hold three sites for future development.
Oxford is the global real estate arm of OMERS, the benefit pension plan for Ontario’s municipal employees. Established in 1960, Oxford manages over $40 billion of real estate assets on behalf of its co-owners and investment partners, with a global portfolio spanning over 60 million square feet. Oxford is also a principal on the massive Hudson Yards project on Manhattan’s West Side.
Toronto-based CPPIB is an investment management organization that invests in public and private equities, real estate, infrastructure and fixed-income instruments. It is governed and managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan.
— John Nelson