Sunday Summary: An American in Vatican City

White smoke! An American ascending to the papacy! A pope from Chicago! A pope who roots for the White Sox! And went to Villanova!

We’re all still a little dazed and excited about Leo XIV’s election. Some never thought an American would be named bishop of Rome. And yet here we are.

It feels a little fatuous to mention that the selection of a new pope was not the only news in Catholic real estate circles last week. While the crowds eagerly awaited a pontiff to emerge from the conclave (and we realized we had waited too long to finally watch the Ralph Fiennes movie “Conclave” for it to be useful in this process) the Vanbarton Group was finalizing its plans to convert (no pun intended) the archdiocese of New York’s former headquarters at 1011 First Avenue into a 26-story, 420-unit residential building.

The archdiocese announced it was leaving 1011 back in 2024.

“It has been apparent for several years that ‘1011’ no longer made sense as our home,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan wrote in a letter at the time announcing the move. “As a result, after broad consultation and careful research, a new location has been found at 488 Madison Avenue, next to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, that will house the central offices of the archdiocese.”

Earnings season!

The first quarter is over, but the earnings calls are still coming in. And the news from them is… mixed.

Vornado Realty Trust beat expectations thanks in part to the $350 million sale of a retail portion of 666 Fifth Avenue to Uniqlo; the finalization of its 1.1 million-square-foot, 70-year lease with New York University; and a 337,000-square-foot lease with Universal Music at Penn 2.

JLL likewise surpassed expectations with leasing activity rising 13 percent year-over-year in the first quarter.

Starwood Property Trust’s earnings fell 20 percent from last year (to $418.18 million) — but Starwood also originated $1.4 billion of loans. And the current situation with tariffs might, in the end, benefit the company.

“One obvious impact of the administration’s policies is that people are very nervous about these [construction] starts, and nobody really knows what anything is going to cost,” said Barry Sternlicht on the call. “I just returned from an industry conference where developers are talking about not starting projects and pushing them off, which bodes well for any existing asset and their performance.”

While few figures were freaking out on earnings calls — and some first-quarter reports were quite sunny — it would be silly to deny that there has been added nervousness throughout the industry thanks to tariffs.

“It’s like that line from ‘The Godfather’: ‘Just when you thought you were out …,’ ” said Lauren Hochfelder, co-CEO of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing, at Commercial Observer’s Finance Forum on May 6 at the Metropolitan Club of New York. “So there’s a lot of volatility, a lot of uncertainty in the system, which is hard for real estate, like every asset class.”

Which is not to say that Hochfelder — or anyone else — is losing their cool. In fact, those who can keep their heads can figure out which way to shift.

“We don’t know what will happen with tariffs today, or with interest rates, but we certainly know our population is getting older, and that has profound impacts on the type of real estate we’ll need over time,” Hochfelder continued.

Senior housing, anyone?

Indeed, we witnessed deals continuing in the last week at a brisk pace.

Tishman Speyer shelled out $108 million for a 13-story, 150,000-square foot property at 148 Lafayette Street in SoHo.

Old Navy signed a massive, 55,000-square-foot, 15-year lease at JEMB Realty’s 50 West 34th Street.

That’s the largest retail lease in Gotham in 2025 so far — but as far as sales go it’s a different matter. We discovered just how much Amazon paid RFR for 522 Fifth Avenue — and it was a whopping $456 million! (Now, that’s a lot of lollipops.)

Metro Loft’s Nathan Berman is closing in on a recap of his 180 Water Street office-to-residential conversion to the tune of $335 million.

Capital is being raised, like Nuveen Real Estate accumulating $320 million in fresh capital for its retail investment vehicle U.S. Cities Retail Fund.

But certain asset classes such as industrial and self-storage are proving to be a mixed bag.

Palisade Randolph Storage was just refinanced by L.A.-based North Palisade Partners to the tune of $55 million with money from a Goldman Sachs affiliate.

An Amazon affiliate plunked down $195 million for 97 acres in Northern Virginia’s Loudoun County for a proposed data center. All very good.

But Trump’s tariffs are starting to be felt. There’s been a steep dropoff in activity at the Port of Los Angeles that will no doubt affect industrial and logistics space.

“Most folks will delay any major decision-making if possible,” said David Fan, JLL’s Southern California senior research director, echoing Sternlicht’s sentiment. “A lot of major capital decisions, such as moving out or constructing a new facility, are wait and see.”

Some of this is already being seen, according to a new report from Savills.

“Tariffs won’t slow warehouse demand overall in the long term, but they will change where and how logistics facilities are built,” Gregory Healy, executive vice president and head of industrial services at Savills, said in a statement sent to CO.

Healy added: “Expect a long-term trend toward more domestic-oriented supply chains, strategic inventory management driving space needs, and higher construction costs necessitating more efficient designs.”

It’s always sunny in Florida

The deals are certainly still coming in South Florida.

While Steve Witkoff is trying to negotiate peace in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, Witkoff Group (run by his son Alex) and Access Real Estate scored $100 million from Apollo Global Management to refinance a 200-acre luxury golf resort in West Palm Beach, Fla.

We also learned last week that Carnival Corporation (of cruise ship fame) dropped $26.9 million in the Waterford Business District to build a new 600,000- to 700,000-square-foot headquarters.

And in North Bay Village, El-Ad National Properties paid $20 million to S2 Development for a waterfront site — almost quadruple what S2 paid for it in 2022.

But, for this weekend, maybe sit down and read what one of the masters of the business has been up to in North Miami. We’re talking about Richard LeFrak, who has been hard at work down in Florida on a $4 billion development there for more than a decade.

Enjoy your Sunday!