Nightingale, Wafra secure $500M loan package to revamp 111 Wall

Pair paid $175M for the ground lease in January 2020

Nightingale’s Eli Schwartz and 111 Wall Street (Google Maps, Nightgale)
Nightingale’s Eli Schwartz and 111 Wall Street (Google Maps, Nightgale)

Nightingale Properties and Wafra Capital Partners landed about $500 million in acquisition and construction financing for 111 Wall Street.

The loan package was provided by a lender consortium including SKW Funding, PIMCO, Oaktree Capital and Bain Capital, Commercial Observer reported. With that money, Nightingale and Wafra will redevelop the former Citibank building in the heart of the Financial District.

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Nightingale, led by Elie Schwartz and Simon Singer, and Wafra, a subsidiary of Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund, plan to renovate the lobby, install a new curtain-wall facade, floor-to-ceiling windows and new amenities such as a scooter charging room and a fitness center.

In January 2020, the pair acquired the ground lease of the 24-story property for $175 million, according to public records. The two firms went into contract to buy the ground lease less than a week after flipping the Coca-Cola building to Michael Shvo.

The acquisition was financed with a $100 million loan from SL Green Realty. Five months later, the real estate investment trust sold the loan to Axos Bank to create a cash buffer in the pandemic. Nightingale and Wafra were originally hunting for a five-year, $860 million loan to finance the property’s renovation.

[CO] — Akiko Matsuda