Barclays, Citi provide CIM with loan to buy 16 Court St.

Lenders plan to securitize financing backing $171M Brooklyn purchase

From left:Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat, Barclays CEO Jes Staley and 16 Court Street
From left:Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat, Barclays CEO Jes Staley and 16 Court Street

Barclays and Citigroup provided a $110 million loan to CIM Group for its purchase of the 38-story office tower at 16 Court Street in Downtown Brooklyn, sources told The Real Deal.

CIM closed Tuesday on its $171 million purchase of the building, Brooklyn’s tallest office property, from SL Green Realty. The Los Angeles-based private equity firm financed the deal with a 10-year, $110 million fixed-rate loan that Barclays and Citigroup will securitize into the CMBS market, sources said.

Spokespersons for CIM and Citigroup declined to comment. Representatives for Barclays and SL Green did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The 317,600-square-foot 16 Court Street, at the corner of Cadman Plaza West near Downtown Brooklyn’s civic buildings, was 94 percent occupied as of August, according to an announcement SL Green made at the time. Tenants include the City University of New York, the software firm Maker’s Row and landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates.

SL Green bought the property in 2007 for $107.5 million with the City Investment Fund, and bought its partner out six years later for $62.5 million in a deal that valued the property at $96.2 million.

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Barclays recently participated in a $1.1 billion CMBS loan that Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Citi Real Estate Funding provided SL Green and Vornado Realty Trust to refinance the 1.26 million-square-foot trophy office tower at 280 Park Avenue.

Citigroup earlier this took part in the $2.3 billion refinancing of Boston Properties’ GM Building, as well as a $500 million refinancing of the Bloomberg Tower at 731 Lexington Avenue, which is owned by Vornado affiliate Alexander’s Inc.

CBRE’s Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan represented SL Green in the sale of 16 Court to CIM. James Millon and Tom Traynor, also of CBRE, handled the financing for CIM.

The brokers either declined to comment or couldn’t be immediately reached.