Tax-efficient way to gift US real-estate owned by foreign person

[Ivan C.]

A family member is a foreign person (foreign national living outside the US) and he owns real-estate in New York City. He wants to gift it to my wife and I. We understand that real-estate is a US situs asset so it is subject to US gift tax. My understanding is that if he can sell the real-estate and convert the proceeds into a non-US situs asset then it can be gifted with no tax. However, it's not clear what qualifies as a non-US situs asset. If the property's proceeds go into a US bank account does that qualify as non-US situs? If he then wires me the money will there be any gift tax liability?