ESRT Transitions to 100% NYC Portfolio After Strong Deal-Making in 2025

Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT)’s real estate portfolio is now entirely located in New York City following the sale of its final suburban asset in Stamford, Conn., the real estate investment trust announced during a Wednesday afternoon earnings call.

ESRT — which at the end of 2025 had a portfolio comprising 7.6 million square feet of office space, 800,000 square feet of retail space and 743 residential units — focused its attention on “high-quality real estate” acquisitions last year, according to the company’s leaders. The REIT completed $417 million in all-cash acquisitions, including multifamily properties in Manhattan, $31 million worth of “prime retail” on North Sixth Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and the Scholastic headquarters at 555-557 Broadway in SoHo, which it bought in December for $386 million.

“The cumulative impact of all the transaction activity in the past five years is a successful transition to a 100 percent New York City portfolio that drives resilient cash flow through high-quality assets that benefit from live, work, play and visit,” Christina Chiu, president of ESRT, said during the Wednesday earnings call. “Transaction activity has increased, and there is strong institutional capital interest in New York City and recognition of the strength of its underlying property fundamentals.”

Not only did ESRT have a successful year on the acquisition front, but it also reported strong leasing momentum. The REIT signed 458,473 square feet of leases during the fourth quarter of 2025 and 1 million square feet of leases in 2025 overall. ESRT’s overall portfolio occupancy was 90.3 percent, and its office portfolio is currently 93.5 percent leased, according to the report.

ESRT completed several major leases during the fourth quarter, including T.J. Maxx’s 46,437-square-foot renewal for its store at 250 West 57th Street, Nespresso’s 41,835-square-foot office renewal at 111 West 33rd Street, Burlington Stores’ expansion to 206,392 square feet at 1400 Broadway, and J.P. Morgan Chase Bank’s 21,683-square-foot renewal at One Grand Central Place. There was also a 15,000-square-foot retail lease for LinkedIn at the Empire State Building.

“The market tenor remains strong,” Ryan Kass, senior vice president and director of leasing and marketing at ESRT, said on the call. “We continue to see a bifurcating market as ‘have’ and ‘have-nots’ and we’re a clear ‘have.’ We have just over 170,000 square feet of leases in the pipeline that we anticipate closing in the first and second quarter.”

As for ESRT’s fourth-quarter earnings overall, the REIT recorded funds from operations (FFO) of 23 cents per share during the three-month period and 87 cents per share for all of 2025, compared to 24 cents per share and 95 cents per share for the same respective periods in 2024, the report shows.

ESRT reported total revenues of $199.2 million during the fourth quarter, compared to $197.6 million during the same period in 2024. The REIT also recorded a net income of $19.7 million for the quarter, an increase from $11.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2024.

However, ESRT’s net operating income (NOI) from the observatory at the Empire State Building declined slightly from $26.5 million in the third quarter of 2025 to $24.4 million, according to the report. The observatory’s NOI for the entire year was $90.1 million.

The number of visitors to the observatory also dropped slightly during the quarter, largely due to a decline in visitation from cross-ocean international tourist visitors, ESRT CEO Anthony Malkin said Wednesday.

“We continue to grow our domestic demand and be ready for the return of our traditional budget-conscious international visitors,” Malkin said.

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