BlackRock in Advanced Talks to Sell Shanghai Tower at 54% Loss to Rava Partners
BlackRock is in advanced negotiations to sell the Trinity Place office tower in Shanghai's Putuo district to Rava Partners at RMB 634 million, 54% below its 2017 purchase price. The deal, under due diligence, would value the 31,697 sq m property at about RMB 20,000 per sq m, with potential plans for
US asset management giant BlackRock is in advanced talks to sell an office building on Shanghai's Changshou Road to Hillhouse Investment's Rava Partners at a price 54 per cent below what it paid to acquire the property nine years ago, according to market sources who spoke with Mingtiandi.
The deal, now under due diligence, is said to value Trinity Place, a 31,697 square metre (341,184 square foot) tower in the city's Putuo district at about RMB 634 million (US$95 million), or about RMB 20,000 per square metre. BlackRock had paid RMB 1.37 billion (then US$199 million) to acquire the 27-storey building in April 2017 in a bet on growing demand for office space near Shanghai's West Nanjing Road commercial hub as the city continued to expand its subway network.
Should the deal be completed at the RMB 634 million price, it would mark a 30 per cent discount from the RMB 900 million which BlackRock was said to be asking for the property in March 2025 as declines in the city's rental rates continue to weigh on asset values. In 2024, BlackRock forfeited a pair of Putuo district office towers after defaulting on a loan.
Situated at 828-868 Changshou Road, Trinity Place sits opposite Wuning Road station on metro lines 13 and 14. The 2006-vintage property offers 26,832 square metres of office space from the fifth through the 27th floor and has a 4,865 square metre retail podium on the three lowest floors. Rava Partners is said to be planning to convert the tower into rental apartments, according to market sources familiar with the situation. In 2022, Claire Tang, now a partner at Rava, led the acquisition of a commercial property in Shanghai's Hongqiao area while working at LaSalle Investment Management, with that complex later converted into rental apartments.
BlackRock is closing in on a sale of Trinity Place as average office rents in Shanghai's core office locations have now fallen more than 30 per cent since their 2018 peak according to Cushman & Wakefield. Office properties in peripheral districts, such as Trinity Place, now average close to 30 per cent vacancy, according to the property consultancy. Rents for office space in the building range from RMB 3 to RMB 5.5 per square metre per day at present, according to agency listings, down from about RMB 6.9 per square metre per day on average in 2017. Market sources estimate that Trinity Place is now around 60 per cent occupied, compared to 86 per cent when BlackRock acquired the property in 2017.
Local real estate news portal Guandian.cn first reported the potential deal, without disclosing pricing. BlackRock and Rava Partners had not responded to inquiries from Mingtiandi by the time of publication.
