InterVest Capital Partners plans to convert the Continental Bank Building in Manhattan’s Financial District (FiDi) into luxury rental apartments. The 48-story, 370,000-square-foot building at 30 Broad St. remains almost fully occupied at about 98%, yet is now being steered toward residential.

The Art Deco building was purchased for $130 million in 2016 by Tribeca Associates (later Tribeca Investment Group). Tribeca then refinanced it in 2019 with a $124.6 million loan from M&T Bank. However, in February 2024, InterVest Capital Partners bought that loan at distress, initiated foreclosure and took title in June this year via a judicial auction with a $1,000 credit bid. The foreclosure judgment totaled $182.5 million, which shows how far FiDi office values have fallen, even when a building is almost fully leased.

Additionally, in late October, InterVest filed a major alteration application with the New York City Department of Buildings to transform the tower into roughly 571 luxury rental apartments. The plan adds one story to the structure and is being developed with Rose Associates, which will handle development and leasing. No groundbreaking or delivery timeline has been disclosed. Tenant roll-off and construction logistics remain unclear given the near-full occupancy.

The project is part of a wider FiDi office-to-residential push. Specifically, 25 Water St. is moving toward about 1,200 units. At the same time, TPG and GFP are reshaping 222 Broadway into roughly 798 apartments, while Silverstein and Metro Loft are planning a major conversion at 55 Broad St.

Between 2020 and 2024, about 26 office-to-residential conversion applications were filed and 12 were completed in the city. Remote work cut demand for older buildings, and the leasing gap between newer Class A towers and pre-war stock widened. That said, office-to-residential conversions remain somewhat niche given the limited stock of properties that have smaller floorplates and plumbing alignment, which equals access to daylight, unit depth, and vertical alignment of plumbing throughout the building.

City policy has accelerated conversion appetite. Expanded conversion zones and clearer tax mechanics are designed to get more supply delivered. A July report from the Office of the New York City Comptroller points to a pipeline of 44 buildings totaling about 15.2 million gross square feet and about 17,400 apartments potential. Most of that is south of 59th Street. And non-top-tier office occupancy has fallen by about 43 million square feet since late 2019.