UOB Takes Over Vanke’s Midtown Manhattan Office After Loan Default

Singapore’s United Overseas Bank has taken control of Bush Tower, a landmarked 29-storey office building in Midtown Manhattan, after the US branch of China Vanke defaulted on a $120 million loan, adding North American woes to the developer’s financial challenges in its home market. 

New York City property records show that agents acting on behalf of UOB took over the ground lease on the 218,000 square foot (20,250 square metre) tower from a Vanke entity on 11 May, in a transaction valued at $58.1 million, with the deal for the tower at 130 West 42nd Street being recorded on 28 May, according to a report by industry website Pincus & Co.  

The takeover comes at roughly half the value of the $120 million loan UOB extended to Vanke and partner Tribeca Associates in 2018. UOB plans to sell the property, with Vanke continuing to manage the building in the interim, per local media accounts. UOB and Vanke had not yet responded to inquiries from Mingtiandi by the time of publication.

“After working collaboratively with our lender, we have reached a mutually agreed outcome that we believe is in the best interests of all stakeholders,” a Vanke spokesperson told Bisnow. “This transaction reflects a proactive, disciplined approach in light of current US market conditions.” Vanke US had not responded to a separate request for comment from Mingtiandi by the time of publication.

With Vanke having acquired Bush Tower in 2015 for $125 million, the handover puts a coda on a troubled chapter of Chinese outbound real estate investment that saw mainland developers pour billions of dollars into the US market during the previous decade, before pressure from Beijing on outbound capital flows and a pandemic-driven office slump ended the deal wave.

Bryant Park Landmark Changes Hands

Bush Tower sits directly opposite Bryant Park at the junction of Broadway and Sixth Avenue, steps from Times Square and the New York Public Library. Designed by Helmle & Corbett and completed in 1918 for industrialist Irving T. Bush — namesake of Brooklyn’s Bush Terminal — the neo-Gothic tower was designated a New York City landmark in 1988.

American Properties owns the land under the building, and the ground lease itself dates to 2013. Tribeca Associates, which brought Vanke into the deal, remains a partner on the property.

The building’s tenant base has thinned in recent years. WeWork, which signed a 64,000 square foot lease in 2017, vacated during the co-working company’s 2024 bankruptcy restructuring. Home care firm HHAeXchange also departed last year when it relocated to larger premises on Sixth Avenue.

Big Apple Challenges

Bush Tower was Vanke’s most visible New York asset, but far from its only troubled one.

The developer entered Manhattan in 2014 with an investment alongside RFR Holding and Hines in a Norman Foster-designed luxury condominium at 610 Lexington Avenue. The partnership disintegrated into litigation after RFR accused Vanke of a backdoor deal to acquire a participation interest in the building’s construction debt. Vanke then countersued to remove RFR as managing member and mainland bank ICBC subsequently filed to foreclose on the joint venture after both partners defaulted on a $360 million construction loan in 2020. RFR boss Aby Rosen eventually accepted a settlement and exited the project.

Now rebranded Selene, condos in the 63-storey tower have been on the market since 2019 as Vanke has churned through brokers , appointing local brokerage Corcoran Sunshine in as its third sales agent in October 2023 when the project was 60 percent sold. As of last month Vanke was still offering sponsor incentives to move remaining units in the 94-residence tower, according to media reports.

In 2016, Vanke’s purchase of a former Manhattan nursing home on Rivington Street for $116 million drew a subpoena from the city comptroller after the seller was found to have misled city officials to change deed restrictions on the property, implicating the mainland developer’s local partners in a political scandal. Vanke itself was not accused of wrongdoing, and the partnership sold the building for $160 million in 2019.

Not all of Vanke’s American ventures ended badly, with the company’s two condo projects with Tishman Speyer — the 57-storey 11 Hoyt in  Brooklyn and the 656-unit Lumina in San Francisco — both selling out successfully.

Crisis at Home

Vanke has handed over the Bush Tower as it continues to struggle to pay its bills closer to home. 

The Shenzhen-based developer posted a record RMB 88.6 billion ($12.8 billion) loss in 2025, its second consecutive year of negative returns. Vanke has described its operations as still in a “very severe” condition, as the company estimates its short-term refinancing gap at approximately RMB 93 billion.

Vanke has been negotiating to extend a series of onshore bond maturities, offering to repay 40 percent of principal upfront in exchange for one-year extensions, and faces more than RMB 9 billion in further maturities before the end of July.

Former CEO Zhu Jiusheng, who led Vanke from 2018 before resigning in January 2025, was reported late last year to be placed under criminal compulsory measures by Chinese authorities. His replacement as CEO, Xin Jie, was detained in October and officially resigned last month.