Dialing Korea for debt: Chetrit scores $101M Trinity Place refi from KTB, Rexmark

The Chetrit Group scored a $101 million refinancing of 90 And 100 Trinity Place, sources told The Real Deal.

South Korean fund manager KTB Asset Management and Midtown-based investor Rexmark provided the loan, which is the latest in a flurry of debt deals by Korean investors.

The 15-story property at 90 Trinity and the 10-story property at 100 Trinity together span about 210,000 square feet. They are connected by a sky bridge and fully leased to the New York School Construction Authority, housing the High School of Economics and Finance and the Leadership and Public Service High School.

The Chetrit Group paid $64 million for the buildings in 2007.  The new financing replaces an $82 million senior mortgage, sources said, and is fixed for a 10-year term.

PD Properties advised KTB on the transaction. KTB, headquartered in Seoul, has done nearly $300 million in loans in the New York area in recent months, sources said, part of a trend of Korean funds throwing their hat into New York’s financing market. In November, KTB provided a $100 million loan for the 667-room New York Marriott in Downtown Brooklyn to Muss Development. The firm was also among a group that purchased about $68.5 million in mezzanine debt on 850 Third Avenue from the Blackstone Group, according to the Korea Economic Daily.

Korea was the fourth-biggest foreign investor in U.S. offices in 2015, according to JLL data, and observers expect Korean investors to make bigger bets on the New York market in coming years. In February, Korean insurers invested about $220 million in mezzanine debt for AXA Financial’s 787 Seventh Avenue.