The longtime owners of One Canal Place, the 32-story office tower at the foot of Canal Street, have sold the building, marking the fourth downtown high rise to change hands in less than three years.
Skysoar Capital Partners, an Israeli investment firm with offices in New York, acquired the building from New York-based Loeb Partners Realty and insurance giant Aetna, which had jointly owned the building since 2002.
A sale price was not disclosed. Sources with direct knowledge of the transaction say the price for the 650,000-square-foot building was between $25 million and $30 million, or roughly $45 per square foot.
That’s significantly less than the $50 million, or $80 per square foot, that north Louisiana investors paid earlier this year for 400 Poydras Tower, which is roughly the same size and age as Canal Place.
But the Poydras Tower sale included a garage. The Canal Place sale did not include the garage, which is available to building tenants but is separately owned.
Skysoar Capital, which is owned by Moshe Meir, did not respond to a request for comment.
The recent sales after several years of uncertainty in the office market are a positive sign that investors have “some level of optimism” about New Orleans, according to Mike Siegel, president and CEO of Corporate Realty, which was the local brokerage on the deal and will continue to handle management and leasing for Canal Place.
“Having new owners in town, new blood, new ideas is healthy,” he said.
Strength and weakness
One Canal Place was developed in 1979 by the late Joseph Canizaro as part of a mixed-use complex that also includes a luxury mall, the Shops at Canal Place, the Westin New Orleans hotel and the 1,650-car parking garage.
All would eventually change hands and come under different ownership groups.
The Shops at Canal Place, which will lose its anchor tenant next month when Saks Fifth Avenue shuts down, the Westin hotel and the parking garage are not part of the office building sale.
One Canal Place has an occupancy of just under 75%, including its newest tenant, law firm Baker Donelson, which has not yet moved into the building. The firm recently signed a long-term lease for 40,000 square feet on the building’s top two floors — about 15% of its total space.
The building’s occupancy is slightly below the overall market average downtown of around 80%.
One Canal Place was built at a time when several other high rises were under construction in New Orleans’ Central Business District, then still home to major banks, energy companies and maritime firms.
Unlike most of those buildings, built along a one-mile stretch of Poydras Street, the Canal Street tower is at the foot of Canal on the edge of the French Quarter, which can be a strength and a weakness, experts say.
“It’s the gateway of the French Quarter,” said Evan Stone, a broker with Goodwin Advisors in Dallas, who has handled the sale of several major office buildings locally. “But when you are trying to get employees to get butts on seats, it’s not as convenient. It just takes longer.”
Benson is still mulling plans for its future, said Siegel, whose firm is also owned by Benson.
In late 2024, the Energy Center, a 39-story tower, was purchased out of foreclosure by a New York investment firm. A sale price was not disclosed.
And in early 2024, the Hakims purchased the green, granite high rise at 1615 Poydras, emblazoned with DXC Technology’s logo, from local businessman Frank Stewart. Though a sale price was never disclosed, sources familiar with the transaction at the time said the building sold at the fire sale price of less than $20 million.
Another downtown high rise could soon join the list. The 28-story Poydras Center at 650 Poydras is currently listed for sale by national brokerage CBRE. No asking price is listed.
The building counts the U.S. Attorney’s office as its anchor tenant and is about 80% occupied, according to the online listing. Like several other buildings that have recently sold, its debt is coming due later this year, meaning its owner will either have to refinance or sell.
Siegel said Monday several potential buyers are interested in the building and he is confident it will sell before the deadline.
Like downtown markets around the country, New Orleans’ office sector has been battered by post-pandemic work habits and higher interest rates. Unlike other markets, it has been helped by a lack of inventory, due to the conversion of older office buildings to hotels and apartments over the past 15 years.
At the same time, it has not seen significant growth from new companies looking to move into the market.
Those factors, combined with the aging stock of existing class A buildings, the most recent of which was built 35 years ago, mean investors are coming here looking for deals – and finding them, Stone said.
“Buyers are coming to New Orleans because they like the value proposition,” he said. “They think they are buying cheap and can make money on it.”
