David Werner Set to Buy 5 Hanover Square for Another Potential Resi Conversion

David Werner isn’t slowing down when it comes to office-to-residential conversions.

His namesake firm, David Werner Real Estate Investments, is in contract to buy the 25-story office building at 5 Hanover Square in the Financial District from CIM Group for between $50 million and $60 million, according to a source with knowledge of the deal. The Real Deal first reported the news.

It’s a steep discount from the $104 million CIM Group paid to acquire the roughly 330,000-square-foot building from Savanna in 2013, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

It’s unclear what Werner’s exact plans are for 5 Hanover Square, but the property is about half vacant and “would most likely be a partial conversion” to residential, TRD reported.

CBRE (CBRE)’s Doug Middleton and Jack Stillwagon brokered the deal. CBRE and CIM Group declined to comment, while a spokesperson for Werner could not be reached for comment.

News of the deal comes after Werner and Nathan Berman’s Metro Loft Management secured a $90 million loan from Northwind Group this week to acquire and convert the office building at 675 Third Avenue into approximately 430 residential rental units, as CO previously reported.

That deal is on the same block as Werner and Berman’s other conversion project of the former Pfizer headquarters at 235 East 42nd Street and the neighboring 219 East 42nd Street, which will be turned into roughly 1,600 combined rental units, CO reported.

And in February, Werner went into contract to buy the office building at 300 East 42nd Street from Fortress Investment Group for $52 million, with plans for another potential conversion to residential.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.