Conversions, AI, Refinancing Win Big at Commercial Observer’s Breakthrough Awards

Downtown’s splashiest new retail destination and one of the nation’s top real estate financiers scored multiple awards at Commercial Observer’s third annual Breakthrough Awards breakfast, held Tuesday at 7 World Trade Center.

One Wall Street, a tower in Manhattan’s Financial District, came away with two Tech & Innovation awards in the Residential and Retail categories. The office-to-residential project was also nominated for Adaptive Reuse Project of the Year, Retail Transaction of the Year and Marketing Team of the Year.

Macklowe Properties completed a painstaking makeover of the landmarked 1931 Art Deco tower into 566 condos, one of FiDi’s first post-pandemic office-to-resi conversions.

But One Wall’s crown jewel is its historic ruby-colored Red Room at the base of the 654-foot skyscraper, which welcomed the first American branch of the famed Parisian department store Printemps. The French luxury retailer has attracted throngs of chic shoppers and influencers since opening its doors in March while offering perks to building residents such as invitations to private events, VIP previews and private shopping experiences. 

“I think I speak on behalf of everyone here when I say we’d all like to get on that short list of VIPs able to cut the line,” said Marc Norman, associate dean of the Schack Institute of Real Estate at New York University and emcee for the event. 

One Wall Street, which received its Innovation In Retail award with Printemps and Newmark, beat out Kushner’s $500 million redevelopment of Monmouth Mall, and Blackstone and RXR’s retail concepts inside the Starrett Lehigh Building. The company split the Innovation In Residential category with Domain Companies, which developed 420 Carroll Street, the first building that opened after the 2021 Gowanus, Brooklyn, rezoning.

Not to be outdone, Blackstone Real Estate Partners tallied four awards in the five categories in which they were nominated, earning the coveted Financier of the Year (Non-Bank) award, as well as the year’s top Office, Retail and Industrial transactions. 

The investment firm’s real estate branch, which has $77 billion in assets under management and celebrated the close of its most recent real estate debt fund with $8 billion of capital commitments, also financed several winners in this year’s Innovation categories. 

Blackstone’s $1.4 billion acquisition of a 46 percent joint-control interest with Fisher Brothers in 1345 Avenue of the Americas picked up the Office Transaction of the Year in a competitive category that also included RXR and Elliott Investment’s $1.1 billion expansion of 590 Madison Avenue, New York University’s 70-year master lease of a Vornado building at 770 Broadway, Amazon’s lease expansion at L&L Holding’s Wynwood Plaza, Rosenberg & Estis’ restructuring of a credit facility for the Durst Organization, and Nuveen and JLL Capital Markets’ sale of 701 Brickell in Miami. Fried Frank, Blackstone’s counsel on the 1345 Avenue of the Americas deal, and Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase and Citibank, which facilitated $850 million in CMBS refinancing in the deal, were also recognized.

Blackstone’s $4 billion acquisition of Retail Opportunity Investment Corporation, whose portfolio consists of 93 shopping center properties with grocery anchors in major West Coast cities, picked up the retail award. The firm was also nominated with RXR in the Innovation in Retail category for its work opening The Yacht Club and Level 10 within the 10th floor of the Starrett Lehigh Building.

Finally, Blackstone Mortgage Trust — whose $189 million loan to Alterra IOS, with an assist from Cooper Horowitz, secured a 49-property portfolio across 22 states — was recognized as Industrial Transaction of the Year. The firm was also nominated in the industrial category for its acquisition of a 95 percent stake in Crow Holdings’ $718 million portfolio of 25 buildings.

Plenty of other boldface winners shared the spotlight among the Team & Leadership categories. 

Wells Fargo fended off J.P. Morgan’s Commercial Real Estate Lending Solutions, Bank of America, Bank OZK and Centennial Bank to earn Top Financier of the Year (Banks) on the strength of its $3.5 billion refinancing of Rockefeller Center as well as $15.4 billion in balance sheet originations and $28 billion in construction loans.

But J.P. Morgan Commercial Real Estate Lending Solutions didn’t come away empty-handed, winning the Breakthrough Financier of the Year award for originating $11 billion across 14 loans in the first half of this year with a focus on large-scale construction and data center developments.

Davis Polk & Wardwell edged powerhouse competitors Fried Frank, HSF Kramer, Polsinelli, Rosenberg & Estis, and King & Spalding in the Law Firm of the Year category. The firm was responsible for helping RXR recapitalize 5 Times Square with Apollo Global Management and worked with Legion Investment Group and Gindi Capital to develop a 20-story condo near Gramercy Park.

The Architecture Team of the Year award went to KPF, the firm behind SL Green Realty’s One Madison office tower and T. Rowe Price’s new Baltimore headquarters. Gensler, HTM Architects + Engineers and ThreeStudio were also nominated.

And Silverstein Properties, which hosted the 2025 Breakthrough Awards, claimed Marketing Team of the Year, in a category that included Corcoran Sunshine, Elad Group and Douglas Elliman Development, Good Company and One Wall Street’s marketing teams. The Silverstein team’s role reimagining Lower Manhattan as a vibrant neighborhood to work and live and its efforts in securing a tenant for 2 World Trade helped win its crystal trophy.

Silverstein also scored another win in the Healthcare & Life Sciences Transaction of the Year category for its work with University Place Associates to build a 250,000-square-foot life sciences and office building on Philadelphia’s Market Street, a few blocks from the University of Pennsylvania campus. Other nominees in the category included Biogen, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Novartis, the SPARC Kips Bay Master Plan, Cresilon, and the New York Cancer and Blood Specialist’s 10-year lease involving Avison Young, Savills and Radio Tower & Hotel.

In the Investment & Transaction Awards group, Greystone’s work arranging $525 million in construction financing for Charney Companies and Tavros’ development of a 55-story condo tower in Long Island City, Queens, received the Residential/Multifamily Transaction of the Year. Incoco Capital, Madison Realty Capital, Kushner and OneIM were also recognized for their roles financing the deal. Others nominated in this category included Aurora Capital and Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, HKS Real Estate Advisors, Fetner Properties, MCB Real Estate and Farallon Capital Management, the Naftali Group, Nuveen Green Capital, and JEM Private Residences.

One of the city’s most closely watched redevelopment sites, Phase One of Willets Point in Queens, won Mixed-Use Transaction of the Year. The project, developed by Related Companies, Sterling Equities and the New York City Economic Development Corporation, is expected to deliver 880 units of affordable housing, spurring the transformation of a new northeast Queens neighborhood. Others nominated included Igloo, The Domain Companies, LMXD, Vorea Group and Bridge Investment Group, Centennial Bank, Immocorp Ventures, Property Markets Group, Ares Real Estate Fund and Monarch Alternative Capital.

Several forward-looking properties claimed victories in the Project and Development categories.

Lone Star PACE, Nuveen Green Capital and VivaVerse Solutions won the Sustainability Project of the Year award for its 2.3 million-square-foot technology hub with a 74,000-square-foot data center called ViVa Center in Tomball, Texas. Other sustainable projects recognized included Needham Ranch in Santa Clarita, Calif., HSBC’s New York headquarters, Greenpoint Central in Brooklyn, and 570 Lexington Avenue.

L&L Holding Company, Columbia Property Trust and Cannon Hill Capital Partners’ restoration of West Chelsea’s Terminal Warehouse, the former home of Tunnel nightclub, was recognized as Adaptive Reuse Project of the Year. The other adaptive reuse projects in contention included SoMA at 25 Water Street, 214 East Hallandale Beach Boulevard in Hallandale Beach, Fla., Terminal Warehouse, One Wall Street and 1701 Market Street Philadelphia.  

RXR’s transformation of a defunct White Plains, N.Y., mall into Hamilton Green, a model of transit-oriented suburban redevelopment, won Design and Development Project of the Year. Other nominated designs included 420 Carroll in Brooklyn, 1428 Brickell in Miami, Greenpoint Central, and 72 Park by Lefferts in Miami Beach.

Madison Realty Capital also took home the Public-Private Partnership of the Year Award for its Greenpoint Central residential complex on a former brownfield and Superfund site on DuPont Street in Brooklyn. Other public-private partnerships in the running included Samuel Madden Homes in Alexandria, Va., The Peninsula in New York, Hibiscus Grove in Fort Lauderdale, and NoMi Square in North Miami.

Finally, in the Tech & Innovation group, Marx Realty’s co-branding partnership with Baccarat, a luxury French brand, at 545 Madison Avenue and its new 11,000-square-foot amenity floor at 10 Grand Central helped secure a win in the Innovation in Office category. Other nominees included Alchemy-ABR Investment Partners and Cain International, Nuveen and Industrious, Spectorgroup and Ted Moudis.

Basis Industrial and BaySpace claimed the Innovation in Industrial award for its repositioning of a 133,000-square-foot flex industrial property in Deerfield Beach, Fla. Other contenders for the award included STAG Industrial, PredictAI and Link Logistics.

And proptech start-up DialdAI won Tech Advance of the Year for its launch of Diald Memo, an AI-written investment tool that includes property analysis from 1.7 million quantitative and qualitative data sources, and a new partnership with Moody’s. Other tech companies recognized in the category included Keyway, Trepp, Altus Group, Measurabl, Colliers’ Portfolio AI and Kinexio.

On Tuesday, the day of the awards, the company launched Diald 5.0, what it describes as its strongest AI tool ever.

“Our dream is to finally let industry leaders do site analysis without three overpriced subscriptions, two site visits and a small prayer,” one executive said while accepting the award.