Vornado Bolsters Portfolio With the Acquisition of 623 Fifth Avenue

In a boost to its portfolio, Vornado Realty Trust VNO recently announced that it is set to acquire the 623 Fifth Avenue office condominium for $218 million. The company plans to completely reposition and redevelop this 75% vacant property into a premier, best-in-class, Class A boutique office building. This showcases VNO’s vision to strengthen its portfolio to meet the growing demand for quality office spaces.

Situated above the iconic Saks Fifth Avenue, the property under consideration is a 36-story, 382,500 rentable square foot building providing protected views of Midtown, including Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The transformed property will accompany VNO’s adjacent quality asset portfolio, the likes of Plaza District and Park Avenue holdings of 280 Park Avenue, 350 Park Avenue, 595 Madison Avenue, 640 Fifth Avenue, 689 Fifth Avenue and 1290 Avenue of the Americas.

The acquisition is expected to close in September 2025. The redevelopment is set to be completed in 2027 for delivery to tenants.

VNO in a Nutshell

Vornado owns a portfolio of top-quality office properties in a few select high-rent, high-barrier-to-entry markets of New York, Chicago and San Francisco. The combination of office-using job growth and expansion of technology, financial and media companies is likely to aid rental revenue growth in the forthcoming quarters.

Moreover, office occupiers remain keen to grow their office footprints in New York. In 2024, VNO completed the most premium $100-plus deals in New York in 18 transactions for 1.36 million square feet. The above acquisition aligns with the company’s strategic focus on expanding its market share in the New York City office market.

Over the past month, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have declined 2.9% against the industry's rise of 1.1%.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the broader REIT sector are Welltower WELL and W.P. Carey WPC, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for WELL’s 2025 FFO per share has moved 4 cents northward to $5.06 over the past month.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for WPC’s 2025 FFO per share has moved a cent downward to $4.87 over the past month.

Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO), a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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