Hirschfeld refinances UES building that is home to Sports Club/LA

Hirschfeld Properties CEO Elie Hirschfeld and 330 East 61st Street (building credit: PropertyShark)

Manhattan property owner Hirschfeld Properties has several deals in the works, CEO Elie Hirschfeld told The Real Deal, and the first one to become official is a refinancing of its 175,000-square-foot building at 330 East 61st Street.

The $10 million refinancing closed last month, with a 6.28 percent fixed rate and a 20-year amortization period, Hirschfeld said. He noted that he made the transaction due to favorable market conditions and the previous loan coming due. Hirschfeld bought the land in 1980, public records show, and erected a structure specifically for a fitness center, which has since become Sports Club/LA, the city’s largest free-standing sports club, according to Hirschfeld, who is a triathlete himself (note: correction appended). While the refinancing was not necessarily done for any improvements within the building — the Sports Club is currently funding a three-year, cosmetic capital upgrade of the space — the firm simultaneously agreed to a $7 million credit facility with the refinancing lender, M&T Bank.

“We’re planning on using that credit for investments outside this building,” Hirschfeld said. “We have a good relationship with M&T… and seeing the commitment of the club to the building certainly helped this process.” The Sports Club/LA has a 20-year renewal option on its lease.

Hirschfeld declined to disclose the specifics of those investments, but he did say he was closing on a lease with a new tenant in the next two weeks for the ground-floor and first-floor space in the building next door, which once housed a synagogue for Rabbi Yishayahu Yosef Pinto and recently inked a lease with the Ballet Club.