Skyscraper queen leaves CBRE as New York property crisis deepens

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Darcy Stacom, one of the most powerful figures in New York City real estate, is leaving brokerage firm CBRE after 22 years in a further sign of the crisis upending commercial property.

Stacom, dubbed the Queen of the Skyscrapers for her record-breaking sales of Manhattan towers, is starting a boutique advisory firm, Stacom CRE, to guide clients through a real estate market that is now in turmoil after a generation of rising valuations.

“Commercial real estate in New York and globally is in transition, and that provides a great opportunity for a new, nimble boutique advisory firm in this space,” Stacom said, adding that many properties would need “restructuring, repositioning and rethinking”.

Stacom’s longtime partner, William Shanahan, will remain at CBRE, and focus on helping to connect property owners in difficult situations with fresh capital. Doug Middleton will continue to run the firm’s investment property unit.

Signs of distress and dislocation abound in the New York City office market, the world’s largest, where Stacom bagged many of her biggest deals, including the $2.8bn sale of the General Motors Building in 2008.

Remote working pushed vacancy rates to record levels. At the same time, the sharp rise in interest rates that began in 2022 has punished developers trying to roll over their debts. A total of $117bn in commercial mortgages tied to US offices will come due this year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. 

Many investors are hunting for distressed opportunities, with prices for older offices down as much as 50 per cent from their recent peaks, according to one broker. The $52bn in US office sales last year was a 56 per cent fall from 2022, according to MSCI, and CBRE’s stock is down 23 per cent since the start of that year.

The stress appears to be contributing to a personnel shake-up in the industry….