Vanbarton’s Joey Chilelli Sees the Residential Potential in Your Office Building

The gift of foresight isn’t granted to everyone. Yet, Joey Chilelli, a partner at Vanbarton Group, and his colleagues at the Manhattan-based real estate company, appear to have this skill in abundance. They are able to look at something and see its grand potential versus what it is at the moment. 

It’s how Chilelli and his colleagues spend their days: Looking for opportunities to breathe new life into timeworn and underperforming office buildings, including converting them into Class A residential properties. One area where Vanbarton has done this repeatedly is in Lower Manhattan’s Financial District. 

For decades FiDi had been simply a 9-to-5 workplace hub, with the nightlife ending when happy hour was over, and New Yorkers looking at the area as a last-resort option for a place to live. But the area has over the past 20 years morphed into much more of a 24/7 live-work-play district, thanks in part to a copious amounts of office-to-
residential conversions — several by Vanbarton Group — in the area.

“It was around 2010-2011 when we first started investing in the area on the credit side,” Chilelli said. “When we talk about Vanbarton overall, we’re able to invest up and down the capital stack. So, whether that’s on the equity side or credit side, that’s kind of how we first started investing in this space and in this neighborhood. And it was something that we saw — the ability for the neighborhood to change. We saw all of that coming, and that drove us to want to get into that downtown area sooner.” 

Chilelli, 41, is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. He lived in Charlotte, N.C., for a while after college at Northern Kentucky University before moving to New York City in 2012. The married father of two now lives in New Providence, N.J. He also earned an MBA from Xavier University in Cincinnati and a master’s in real estate development from Columbia University a dozen years ago, teaching as an adjunct at the Ivy League school for 11 years. 

He eventually had stints at East River Partners, a private equity firm focused on multifamily, and Sugar Hill Capital Partners, another private equity firm focused on multifamily and where he was director of project management. When Chilelli joined Vanbarton Group in early 2016 it was already a force in Lower Manhattan.

In 2013, the company acquired 180 Water Street, an office property, with the intention of converting the building into a residential tower. The transaction took place in July of that year with Vanbarton spending $151 million to buy the building from Melohn Properties. The firm teamed with Nathan Berman’s Metro Loft to do the residential conversion of the 1970s-era office property. Vanbarton would eventually sell its remaining stake in the building to Metro Loft in 2017 for $450 million. 

Also known as Aqua House, 180 Water Street went from a drab office building to a 718-unit luxury residential building with a rooftop pool, a residents lounge, a reservable kitchen and dining space, a gaming room, and valet services that include dry cleaning, tailoring and cobbling. 

“Joey and his team are exceptional collaborators, distinguished by their willingness to innovate, deep attentiveness to the needs of both partners and future residents, and a commitment to quality,” said Sarah Patton, co-head of Compass New Development in New York, which marketed the building.

A year after the acquisition of 180 Water Street, Vanbarton acquired Pearl House a few lots away at 160 Water Street in Lower Manhattan’s Seaport District for the fitting price of $160 million. At the time it was more of a longer-term hold, Chilelli said, but, in December 2021, Vanbarton began the process to convert the asset into a residential building. Residents began moving into the building in 2023. The firm sealed a $280 million refinancing for 160 Water Street from Alliance Bernstein and Brookfield in fall 2025.

Vanbarton worked with architecture firm Gensler on Pearl House, creating a 30-story apartment building (up from 26 as an office property) with 588 luxury units. This was the largest office-to-residential conversion in New York City until the opening of Metro Loft, Rockwood Capital and GFP Real Estate’s SOMA at 25 Water Street in 2025. 

“Our collaborations with Vanbarton Group on Pearl House in the Financial District and 6 East 43rd Street in Midtown reflect a shared commitment to creating built examples of office-to-residential conversions that demonstrate the power of adaptive reuse through thoughtful design and attention to detail that people can truly see, touch and experience firsthand,” said Robert Fuller, a principal at Gensler. “The Vanbarton team, and particularly Joey, has been an exceptional partner throughout, combining a hands-on approach with a deep understanding of the design and development process, enabling us to deliver these projects successfully.”

As of publication, Pearl House was over 90 percent occupied with a 60 percent retention rate. 

“It’s had a great reception in the market,” Chilelli said of Pearl House. “When we bring a new building onto the market, we don’t want to just make a splash in the market and then in a few years things wear down. These buildings are built with purpose and to stand for a long time.”

Vanbarton Group has a particular affinity for Lower Manhattan’s Water Street. In September 2024, the firm acquired 77 Water Street from Sage Realty for $95 million, securing a $280 million construction loan from Tyko Capital in December of that year. 

“This is a late 1960s vintage office building that we acquired at the end of 2024, and we’re looking to get our first TCO later this year,” Chilelli said, referring to a temporary certificate of occupancy. “Again, we’re breathing new life into this office building that didn’t have much life. We’re helping to continue to shape the neighborhood in FiDi, the streetscape, and being as impactful as possible.”

The plan for 77 Water Street is to convert the more than 600,000-square-foot office building into 647 apartments, utilizing the 467m tax program. New York State launched 467m in 2024 to provide developers with tax exemptions for converting nonresidential buildings into residential rentals provided that 25 percent of those units are affordable. 

Office-to-residential conversions have been growing in New York over the years with starts totaling 4.1 million square feet as of August 2025, according to Cushman & Wakefield data, compared to 3.3 million square feet for all of 2024 and 1.6 million square feet for all of 2023.

Vanbarton doesn’t see this growth slowing anytime soon, even as employers are demanding employees return to the office, abandoning work-from-home policies that started as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When you look at it today, there’s still this dislocation of pricing of office buildings really driven by the lack of demand for that Class C and Class B [asset],” Chilelli said. “A lot of return to office has made that the case, but there’s still a lot of other older Class B and Class C buildings that just aren’t up to what today’s office user wants to occupy to get their employees back to the office. So we’re still seeing a lot more of that flight to quality in terms of the Class A buildings, and it’s great to see, because we invest in office as well.”

One of Vanbarton’s office assets is 31 Penn Plaza — also known as 132 West 31st Street — where the firm recently completed a full-scale repositioning of the 450,000-square-foot office tower. Refurbishments included an updated lobby as well as an amenity suite with a golf simulator, a pool table and a game room, as well as a cafe and lounge area.

The firm recently signed national general contracting company HITT to a 10-year, 27,000-square-foot lease across the building’s entire eighth floor. 

“We’re seeing really good activity there in terms of leases signed and tour activity,” Chilelli said of 31 Penn. “The building has really filled up, and I think that is a testament to not only the strength of the office market and that return to office, but just the overall dynamics in the city and what is happening in the Penn District.”

Over the last 12 months, too, Vanbarton has acquired four office properties. Three are in New York City — 77 Water Street, 1011 First Avenue and 6 East 43rd Street — and one is in Seattle — 2601 Elliott Avenue. All are slated for residential conversion. 

The acquisitions are part of Vanbarton’s “overall office-to-resi strategy and investment strategy that goes back to that 2011 time period,” Chilelli said. “It’s something that we’ve always believed in, that, yes, has ramped up over the past handful of years.” 

Chilelli couldn’t share any details on the properties Vanbarton is currently eyeing, but it would be a safe bet to say the firm will be scooping up some more office buildings for conversion. 

“We’re very active,” he said. “A big part of my day is spent going through all the different opportunities with underwriting and reviewing the conversion potential. There are a few that we’re really digging into. In our pipeline we probably have 10 to 12 properties — just in New York City — that we’re actively looking into.” 

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.