Rithm Capital Closes DRA Joint Venture for 1301 Avenue of the Americas

Rithm Capital Corp. has closed a joint venture with a fund managed by DRA Advisors LLC for ownership of 1301 Avenue of the Americas, a major Midtown Manhattan office tower in Rithm’s Elecor Properties portfolio. Rithm said it will retain majority ownership through Elecor and continue operating the building on behalf of the joint venture. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The deal brings institutional capital into one of Elecor’s flagship New York assets without Rithm giving up operating control. The 45-story tower contains about 1.7 million square feet and is currently fully leased, according to the companies. Major tenants named in the announcement include KeyBank, Piper Sandler, Crédit Agricole and O’Melveny & Myers.

Rithm keeps control as DRA joins the ownership group

The ownership structure is important because Rithm is not exiting 1301 Avenue of the Americas. Instead, the company is adding a capital partner while keeping a majority stake and leaving day-to-day operations with Elecor. That lets Rithm remain exposed to the building’s future performance while bringing in outside capital from a real estate investor with a long institutional track record.

DRA lists 1301 Avenue of the Americas among its recent acquisitions. The firm describes itself as a registered real estate investment adviser focused on value-added real estate investing for institutional and private investors. As of June 30, 2026, DRA reported $13.8 billion in assets under management and said it had acquired roughly 2,300 properties valued at about $45 billion since inception.

Rithm framed the new partnership as part of a broader effort to expand its asset management platform. The company said it intends to pursue similar capital partnerships across the Elecor portfolio. That makes the 1301 Avenue of the Americas deal more than a one-building ownership change: it provides a template Rithm can use to bring third-party capital alongside assets it still controls and operates.

The parties did not disclose DRA’s ownership percentage, the amount of equity contributed, a valuation for the building, or any changes to property-level debt. Newmark Group acted as exclusive real estate adviser to Rithm, while HSF Kramer served as legal counsel.

1301 Avenue of the Americas is a flagship Elecor office asset

Located at Sixth Avenue and 52nd Street, 1301 Avenue of the Americas occupies a prominent Midtown location near Rockefeller Center. Elecor’s official property page lists the building at 1.7 million square feet across 45 stories, with typical office floor sizes ranging from about 30,000 to 68,000 square feet. The tower was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and carries LEED Gold and Fitwel certifications.

Elecor has also invested in tenant amenities at the property. The building includes The Aurelian, a roughly 32,000-square-foot private club with restaurant and dining areas, a café, meeting and training spaces, a game room and wellness facilities. Those features are part of Rithm’s effort to position the portfolio around higher-end office space and tenant experience rather than treating the buildings as passive holdings.

The property entered Rithm’s platform through the company’s acquisition of Paramount Group, which closed in December 2025. Paramount had owned and operated a portfolio of Class A office properties in New York and San Francisco. Rithm said at the time that the acquired platform included 13 owned and four managed office assets totaling more than 13.1 million square feet.

Before that acquisition closed, Paramount completed a $900 million refinancing of 1301 Avenue of the Americas in August 2025. The five-year, interest-only loan carried a fixed 6.39% rate and matures in August 2030, according to Paramount’s SEC filings. The financing replaced an $860 million loan that had been scheduled to mature in August 2026. Rithm did not say whether the new DRA ownership arrangement changes that financing.

The joint venture fits Rithm’s broader real estate strategy

Rithm rebranded Paramount Group as Elecor Properties in April 2026, describing the business as its commercial real estate operating platform. At the time, Rithm and its key joint-venture partners outlined plans for about $250 million of capital improvements across Elecor’s portfolio, aimed at upgrading buildings and tenant amenities.

Operating results since the acquisition have given Rithm a basis for continuing to commit capital to the office platform. In its second-quarter results, the company said Elecor had reached 681,000 square feet of year-to-date leasing activity through June 30. Rents on the New York leases signed during that period were 32% higher than the company’s 2025 benchmark, according to Rithm. Those figures cover the broader Elecor portfolio rather than 1301 Avenue of the Americas alone, but they help explain why Rithm is seeking additional institutional partners for the business.

The real estate move also sits inside a larger shift in Rithm’s business mix. The company reported about $61 billion of assets under management at June 30, up from $59 billion at the end of the first quarter, after $1.9 billion of gross inflows and new fund commitments during the second quarter. Rithm has been building out asset management alongside its mortgage, credit and real estate operations, and the DRA partnership adds another example of third-party capital participating in an asset that Rithm continues to manage.

For DRA, the investment adds a fully leased Midtown office tower to a portfolio that already spans office, industrial, retail and multifamily properties. For Rithm, the immediate significance is control plus outside capital: Elecor remains the operator, Rithm remains the majority owner, and the company has said it plans to seek comparable partnerships elsewhere in the portfolio.