Will Silverman and Gary Phillips

Gary Phillips and Will Silverman never gave up on New York City as a dealmaking capital  during the pandemic, and with $3.3 billion in deals under contract or awarded just in 2021, it seems like they were right.

“We’re both New York bulls,” Phillips said. “The investors came back — we saw increased bidder depth, particularly in the second half of the year, across all assets and really across the risk spectrum. That’s something we hadn’t seen in previous years.” 

The two had their hands in some of the city’s biggest transactions, including Blackstone acquiring 8 Spruce Street for $930 million, PBC USA selling 452 Fifth Avenue to Innovo Property Group for $855 million, Silverstein Properties and Seven Valleys selling the final portion of the former ABC campus to Extell Development for around $930 million, and advising on PIMCO’s acquisition of Columbia Property Trust.

The Blackstone deal was potentially the largest-ever single-building sale in the multifamily sector globally, Silverman said. But Eastdil’s incredible deal volume was not in spite of 2020, but because of the groundwork the team laid that year, Phillips added. Eastdil’s momentum doesn’t show signs of stopping, with the team marketing Brookfield Properties’ 1 New York Plaza skyscraper. 

Blackstone’s $930 million purchase presented the biggest challenge to the duo in 2021, because while Phillips and Silverman were confident in the market and had the numbers to back them up, the two still had to convince the parties, said Silverman.

“People had 18 months of practice not liking New York,” Silverman said. “It [required] a lot of energy to coax them to not just sit there and say, ‘I acknowledge that the market is strengthening,’ but at the same time [say], ‘I’m ready to bet hundreds of millions of dollars of equity on the fact that this will be sticky.’ Ultimately, the market spoke.”

The dynamic duo are watching the tech sector and the upper end of the market — like new, transit-oriented office products and luxury apartments — in 2022. New York is still the place to be if you’ve grown a successful business, keeping demand up and Eastdil busier than ever, Silverman said.