Gary Barnett is ready to rock.
A month before its 446-key Hard Rock-branded hotel is slated to open in Times Square, Barnett’s Extell Development has secured a $325 million package from Guggenheim Investments to refinance the property, records show. The funding includes a new gap loan of $100 million and replaces a $225 million construction loan originated by Bank of America in 2020.
The 37-floor hotel, completed last year, will open for business next month amid an uncertain future for the city’s hospitality sector.
Guggenheim, which holds a major stake in the real estate investment bank Eastdil Secured, cautioned last year that investors and lenders should remain patient during a “protracted recovery” for the U.S. hotel market.
The Hard Rock at 159 West 48th Street isn’t as flashy as the brand’s guitar-shaped hotel slated to rise on the Las Vegas Strip, but it still features plenty of musical accoutrement. Guests can rent Fender guitars and amplifiers through room service, or take in acoustic performances from a three-story atrium in the hotel’s bar and restaurant. It will also include a rooftop lounge.
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Extell took over the lease on the property for $26.7 million in 2011, but waited until 2017 to file plans for the SLCE Architects-designed hotel. SLCE has worked with Extell before on One57, the smaller of the developer’s two condo towers on Billionaire’s Row.
Extell did not return a request for comment in time for publication.