NEW YORK (Reuters) – Blackstone is in talks to buy a sizeable stake in a New York 50-story office building from institutional investors of JPMorgan Asset Management, two sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The planned move comes as Blackstone executives signalled on an earnings call that the troubled commercial real estate sector was stabilizing.

The Manhattan building, 1345 Avenue of the Americas, is jointly owned by institutional investors advised by J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives and Fisher Brothers.

JPMorgan Asset has no equity interest in the building, which is partly owned by its institutional investors, one of the sources said.

Blackstone and JPMorgan Asset Management declined to comment. The sources declined to be named because the talks are not public.

In 2023 law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP signed a 20-year, 765,000 square-foot lease, initially occupying 18 floors of the building, according to an announcement then.

Bloomberg News earlier reported Blackstone’s talks to buy the building.

(Reporting by Saeed Azhar, editing by David Evans)