David Werner Buys 440 Ninth Avenue for $100M Cash — a Steep Discount
By Mark Hallum August 22, 2025 12:46 pm
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Real estate investor David Werner has acquired a distressed office tower near Hudson Yards at a steep discount.
The owner of David Werner Real Estate Investments purchased 440 Ninth Avenue from Taconic Partners and Nuveen Real Estate, a subsidiary of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, for $100 million in cash, Bloomberg first reported.
Taconic and Nuveen bought the 18-story building for $269 million in 2018, and sold it for less than the outstanding amount of $54.8 million on the mortgage provided by MetLife at the time of the last purchase, according to property records.
CBRE’s Doug Middleton and Jack Stillwagon brokered the deal between Werner, Taconic and Nuveen. The parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Werner could not be reached for comment.
The 411,000-square-foot building from 1926 is also known as the Harding Building and was repositioned in 2020 to restore it to its original Art Deco style, which included a stone masonry façade with terra-cotta details, according to the building’s website.
All but two floors in the building appear to be leased. Tenants include shipping and e-commerce firm Pitney Bowes Management Services and Uncle Jack’s Steakhouse on the ground floor.
Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.
