Time Equities’ Francis Greenburger has closed on a nearly $400 million financing deal that enables him to build a 63-story residential tower in Lower Manhattan. The Helmut Jahn-designed building at 50 West Street will overlook Battery Park and the Hudson River. Construction is slated to begin this fall and finish by 2016. Greenburger has owned the site since 1983, but plans for the building were put on the back burner when the financial crisis hit.
“We figured that building in a storm is not the best way to go about it,” Greenburger told the Wall Street Journal.
The debt financing came from PNC Bank, which led a $288 million loan syndication that also includes Wells Fargo and other major banks. Time Equities also secured $110 million in equity financing from hedge fund management firm Elliott Management for the tower, a deal was brokered by Cushman & Wakefield, according to the newspaper.
The ability to secure a construction loan of this size is a welcome sign for the market. Greenburger’s deal follows several other large deals in recent months, including a $475 million financing deal at Hudson Yards, which also included a rare construction mezzanine loan, as The Real Deal reported. [WSJ] – Hiten Samtani