JPMorgan Chase To Sell Manhattan Plaza Office [REPORT]

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) is selling its lower Manhattan tower to Fosun International Limited (HKG:0656), the investment arm of China’s biggest closely held industrial group, for $725 million. Fosun published in a regulatory filing that it is acquiring the 2.2 million square-foot, lower Manhattan tower, which is a 60 story building, according to a report from Bloomberg.

JPMorgan to shift employee’s elsewhere

Gordon Bunshaft designed the landmark One Chase Manhattan Plaza in the 1950s, and the building was once the headquarters of Chase Manhattan Bank. The skyscraper is situated between Liberty, Pine, Nassau and William streets. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) is the owner of half of the building, and in the other half companies like Assurant, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, Academy Securities and two other banking giants have their offices.

In New York, One Chase Manhattan Plaza stands in43rd place amongst tallest buildings and 200th in the world. It was given landmark status in 2008 by the New York Landmark Preservation Commission.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) will shift around 4,000 employees who work in this building to another location in New York, according to spokesperson Brian Marchiony.

Chinese developers eyeing overseas properties

Developers and real estate companies in China are hunting for opportunity overseas as government in China has put restrictions on housing companies to bring down the prices. In a similar case, Greenland Hong Kong Holdings Ltd (HKG:0337) (OTCMKTS:SGHGF), which is a state owned developer based in Shanghai, entered into a deal to buy 70 percent of shares in a residential and commercial real estate project in Brooklyn.

“There’s a lot of excess capital in China that needs a way out at the moment,” Simon Lo, Hong Kong-based executive director for Asia research and advisory at property broker Colliers International, told Bloomberg. Simon added that companies are investing into the markets like New York as they are expecting to gain from the rebounding of the U.S. economy and real estate market.

In the past few years, Chinese developers have shown substantial interest in buying real estate in the United States. Mainland China’s most dominant developer China Vanke Co., Ltd. (SHE:200002) (OTCMKTS:CVKEF) entered into residential real estate venture in San Francisco. Zhang Xin and Brazilian banking billionaire Moise Safra acquired a 40 percent stake in New York’s General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) building. Zhang Xin is the Co-founder of SOHO China Ltd (HKG:0410) (OTCMKTS:SOHOF), which is the biggest developer in Beijing Central business district.

Jane Zhang, spokeswoman for Fosun International Limited (HKG:0656), revealed no information on the purpose for which the company is buying the building.