Fitch raises credit outlook for iStar

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From left: One Madison Park (source: Eden Pictures via Flickr), Trump Soho and William Beaver House

Fitch Ratings upgraded the issuer default ratings of iStar Financial, citing the lender’s
recently announced $2.95 billion credit agreement, which lowered the amount of debt coming due in June.

The funds are comprised of two credit lines that will help iStar extend its debt payments
until 2013 and 2014. The Manhattan-based lender had warned of a potential collapse
unless it was able to extend the deadline on its payments.

The lender has suffered through a spate of collapsed condo and office projects in
New York in recent years, including the foreclosure of One Madison Park, an extended stay foreclosure at 47 East 34th
Street, the foreclosure and sale of William Beaver House
in the Financial District and the near collapse of Trump Soho, the high rise tower at 246
Spring Street.

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Fitch said that lender will now have only 42 percent of its overall debt maturing in June,
compared with 71 percent coming due before the credit line was announced.

Fitch said the quality of iStar’s loan portfolio has modestly improved, with non-accrual
loans representing only 37 percent of the company’s portfolio by the end of 2010,
compared with 43 percent Sept. 30 of last year.

Fitch said 78 percent of loans that have been foreclosed are either condo loans or land
loans, a sign of the high number of high risk loans made by iStar.