It’s a covered-land play: when the office building doesn’t pencil, the land still holds value. Ground-lease proceeds help fund the reposition or conversion the deal needs — non-recourse, non-amortizing — without expensive rescue equity. We buy the land; you keep the building and 100% of the upside.
| With a Valor ground lease | The usual path | |
|---|---|---|
| Reposition capital | Land value funds the conversion — the office-to-resi, hospitality, or mixed-use reposition closes on a thinner check. | A larger common-equity raise or a costly bridge to fund the redevelopment. |
| Cost of the money | ~6–6.75%, non-amortizing ground rent — the cheapest layer in the stack. | Rescue equity or a pref at 9–15%, often with promote and control strings attached. |
| Recourse | Non-recourse — the land sale carries no personal guarantee. | A construction or bridge loan that may demand a completion or repayment guarantee. |
| Acquisition / DPO | Land value funds the basis — bid the dirt under the buyer of a distressed or foreclosed office for a discounted-payoff or repositioning play. | A larger all-equity check to win the asset and fund the turnaround. |
| Maturity pressure | Permanent capital retires a maturing or defaulted senior to a level the reposition can carry. | An extension fee, a cash-in paydown, or a forced sale at the bottom. |
| Your upside | 100% kept — you own the converted building, the cash flow, and the appreciation. | Shared with whatever rescue equity or pref you brought in to fund the reposition. |
And: we size off the as-complete stabilized value of the conversion, not today’s empty floors · the land comes out as permanent capital with no balloon and no maturity wall · one note: fee ownership has to be yours to sell — an asset on a public-authority or PILOT parcel, where the authority holds title, can’t be ground-leased the same way.
It is a covered-land play: even when the office building does not pencil on today's income, the land underneath still holds value. Monetizing the land brings in non-recourse, non-amortizing capital at roughly 6 to 6.75% to fund the residential, hospitality, or mixed-use conversion, instead of expensive rescue equity or a pref. You keep the building and 100% of the upside.
Yes. A stalled or under-occupied office is a reposition candidate, not a refinance candidate, so we do not price it on today's empty floors. We size off the as-complete stabilized value of the conversion against real comps for the finished product, then quote the land value that supports it.
Yes. We buy the land and lease it back, so the ground rent is a non-recourse, non-amortizing operating cost with no personal guarantee and no balloon. That is a meaningfully cheaper and safer layer than the rescue equity or bridge debt a stalled reposition would otherwise need.
Often it does not. A ground lease requires that you actually own the fee, so it can be sold and leased back. Where a public development authority holds title to deliver a tax abatement or PILOT, the land is locked and a private ground lease generally cannot coexist. We check the recorded title and any bond or PILOT documents before quoting a land value.
Stalled, under-occupied, or distressed office with a credible reposition or conversion thesis — a covered-land play where the dirt holds value the building has lost. Send the address, the as-complete stabilized NOI of the conversion, and total project cost — we return an indicative land value in 48 hours, as principal or arranged capital.
Email us the deal