Vanbarton Closes on 6 East 43rd Street Deal With Conversion on Tap

Vanbarton Group has closed on the acquisition of 6 East 43rd Street, with the buyer and the seller agreeing to $135 million for the office property, according to property records.

Vanbarton is planning an office-to-residential conversion for the 300,000-square-foot building now formerly owned by Milstein Properties, one of three such projects in Manhattan that the developer has arranged in the past year.

The two parties were in negotiations for the building as far back as May, when they entertained the possibility of a $140 million deal. Skyline Properties’ Robert Khodadadian, Daniel Shirazi and Daniel Davidov represented Vanbarton, and Eastdil Secured’s Gary Phillips and Will Silverman negotiated on behalf of Milstein.

Milstein and Vanbarton did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In June, Vanbarton closed on a $103 million deal to buy and convert the former headquarters of the Catholic Archdiocese of New York in Midtown East at 1011 First Avenue, Commercial Observer reported at the time.

Vanbarton also closed a $95 million deal to buy 77 Water Street from Sage Realty in September 2024, followed by a $280 million acquisition and construction loan from Tyko Capital to reposition the office property into a 600-unit residential asset in December.

The pace of New York office-to-residential conversions has snowballed in the last two years. Over four  million square feet of office space had been adapted to residential in 2025 as of the end of the third quarter. Only 3.3 million square feet were adapted in 2024, up from 1.6 million square feet in 2023, CO reported last week.

There are currently an additional ​​8.8 million square feet of office-to-residential conversion proposals in the planning phase for next year and beyond, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.