L&L, Safehold lock in $592M in financing for Downtown building

UPDATE: Friday, Nov. 8, 2019, 2:10 p.m.: L&L Holding Company and its partners have secured a $350 million financing package for 195 Broadway, a 29-story Manhattan office building in which the partners recently took a majority stake.

The lender was Germany-based Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen Girozentrale (Helaba), according to property records filed Thursday. The deal includes a nearly $171 million mortgage. L&L declined to comment and the bank did not respond to a request for comment.

The loan is a five-year deal, equally split between Helaba and DekaBank, with two one-year extensions and will be further sold down by Helaba, according to people close to the transaction.

L&L, founded by David Levinson and Robert Lapidus, had owned a 5 percent stake in the property with JPMorgan’s asset management arm. But the bank recently opted to sell its fee and leasehold positions in the property in two deals valued at $800 million.

L&L brought in Korea Investment & Securities and Samsung to acquire the remaining interest, and Safehold, a ground-lease real estate investment trust controlled by iStar, took the ground beneath the building for $275 million.

Meanwhile, New York Life Insurance lent Safehold $242 million for its part of the deal, according to property records. Representatives for the firms did not immediately respond to inquiries.

L&L purchased the building, located a block from the World Trade Center, in 2005 for about $266 million and has had several partners involved in the asset over the year.

JPMorgan entered the scene in 2013, acquiring its stake in a deal that valued the property at $500 million.

Update: This article was updated to include additional details about L&L’s loan.