Union Investment, Nuveen Sell Retail Property at 1511 Third Avenue for $46M
By Isabelle Durso June 25, 2026 9:17 am
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Union Investment and Nuveen Real Estate have offloaded a retail property on Manhattan’s Upper East Side for $46.1 million, property records made public Wednesday show.
The joint venture sold 1511 Third Avenue, a four-story retail building in the Upper East Side’s Yorkville neighborhood, to San Francisco-based real estate investment management firm Stockbridge, according to the sellers.
The sale is Stockbridge’s second overall transaction and first retail deal in New York City, a source close to the deal said. The firm acquired a multifamily building at 501 East 74th Street for $63 million in 2024.
James Farrar, director of Northeast retail and mixed-use acquisitions for Nuveen, signed the deal for the sellers, while Scott Rosen, senior vice president of acquisitions for Stockbridge, signed for the buyer, records show.
Built in 1905 as the home of the Yorkville Bank, the property on the corner of Third Avenue and East 85th Street is currently occupied by retailer Gap on the ground floor and basement, and luxury fitness club Equinox on the upper three floors.
Union and Nuveen bought the building in 2016 for Unilmmo: Global, an open-ended real estate fund managed by the JV. As part of that deal, the fund held a 49 percent stake in the property, but it will no longer hold the stake following the most recent purchase, the sellers said.
“In a transaction market still characterized by limited transaction activity and high U.S. interest rates, we took the opportunity to sell the retail property,” Kseniya Merritt, senior vice president and head of retail investments in North America at Union, said in a statement. “The exit is being made for strategic portfolio reasons and improves the fund’s liquidity position.”
CBRE’s Doug Middleton, Jack Stillwagon and Daniel Kaplan brokered the deal for the seller, while there was no broker for the buyer.
CBRE declined to comment, while a spokesperson for Stockbridge did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
News of the deal comes after Union and Nuveen also sold the retail portion of 636 Avenue of the Americas to the Employee Benefit Funds group of the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council and the Hotel Association of New York City in September 2024, as CO previously reported. As part of that $70 million deal, Clarion Partners also sold the office portion of the property to the hotel group.
Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.
