The 10 largest Manhattan real estate loans recorded in April totaled about $790 million, less than half of March’s total.
Once again, the commercial mortgage-backed securities market produced the month’s largest loan: a refinancing for a Midtown office tower on top of a USPS warehouse. It was also the month’s only loan of more than $100 million.
Here were the borough’s largest real estate loans in April:
1) You’ve got mail | $350 million
Vornado Realty Trust secured a $350 million refinancing for 909 Third Avenue from Citi Real Estate Funding, Bank of America and BMO Harris. The property has a 490,000-square-foot warehouse at its base, which serves as the United States Postal Service’s main mail processing facility in New York City. Major tenants in the office tower include advertising firm IPG DXTRA, pharmaceutical company Forest Laboratories and wealth management firm Geller & Company.
2) Flatiron funds | $62 million
Citibank provided a $62 million refinancing for 79 Fifth Avenue, an 18-story office building in the Flatiron District owned by A&R Kalimian Realty. Tenants at the property include French consulting firm Capgemini and the New School. The financing replaces $45 million in debt held by Wells Fargo and adds a $17 million gap mortgage.
3) (tie) Signature move | $60 million
Ray Yadidi’s Sioni Group refinanced the 10-story office building at 240 West 37th Street in the Garment District with $60 million from Signature Bank. The building’s tenants include the German intelligence platform Atheneum Partners and digital marketing agency Likeable Media. Isaac Chetrit reportedly owns a stake in the property as well, having teamed up with Yadidi to buy it in 2007 to avoid a bidding war.
3) (tie) MacAndrews mortgage | $60 million
Bank of America provided $60 million to refinance the office building at 27 East 62nd Street in Lenox Hill, owned by Ron Perelman’s MacAndrews & Forbes. The former 30-unit rental building was converted into offices in 2018, and received a $110 million loan from Citibank that year. Perelman’s firm also sold two properties on the same block to the Chapman Group for $35 million last month.
5) Escape ladder | $51 million
R&B Realty Group staved off the foreclosure of two Midtown office buildings at 28 West 36th Street and 32 West 39th Street with a $50.8 million loan from Ladder Capital. The financing paid off two defaulted loans that Signature Bank had sold to Maverick Real Estate Partners, which were the subject of a lawsuit in February. According to the suit, rent collections at the properties had fallen below 40 percent due to the pandemic.
6) Canaan collateral | $48 million
Orix Real Estate Capital provided a $48 million loan to Avenal Development & Construction for the Canaan IV Towers at 95 Lenox Avenue in Harlem, a 322-unit family low-income apartment complex subsidized by HUD. Signature Bank previously provided a $11 million loan for the property in 2014.
7) Condo cash | $48 million
Tegor Property S.A., a Swiss corporation that owns unit #ST76 at the Time Warner Center, refinanced the residential condo with $47.8 million from Citibank. The société anonyme acquired the unit for $43 million in 2003, according to property records, and received a $37.5 million mortgage from JPMorgan Chase in 2011.
8) Cathay construction | $43 million
California-based Cathay Bank provided $43 million in construction financing for Eastern Star Development’s 80-unit condo project at 300 West 30th Street in Chelsea. The Flushing-based developer, led by Anthony Hu, acquired the former Chelsea Riff Hotel for $27.5 million in 2018. The firm is also behind the 182-unit Star Tower condo project in Long Island City, where closings began in 2019.
9) Friedman finance | $39 million
Robert Friedman’s Friedman Management secured a $38.5 million refinancing from Sterling National Bank for a portfolio that includes a 121-unit co-op at 50 East 8th Street in Greenwich Village, a 57-unit rental building at 401 West 22nd Street in Chelsea, a 48-unit rental property at 404 East 75th Street on the Upper East Side, and the non-residential portion of a 16-story mixed-use property at 360 West 22nd Street in Chelsea.
10) Carter conversion | $33 million
Raith Capital Partners provided a $33 million financing package to Jason Carter’s Carter Management for a condo conversion project at 305 East 61st Street in Lenox Hill. Carter acquired the former storage facility out of bankruptcy for $51.4 million last fall. The prior owner, Mitchell Marks, had targeted a total sellout of $105 million for the eight-unit condominium.