Michael Shvo and Deutsche Finance Group secured a $162.4 million construction loan from Northwind Group for their Mandarin Oriental-branded condos at 685 Fifth Avenue.
The new funding replaces a $120 million construction loan by CIM Group from December 2019. The loan should help the investors finish up work at the 69-unit project on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 54th Street, which launched sales in December.
Shvo didn’t immediately return a request for comment on why his eponymous firm elected to refinance. But the Federal Reserve’s efforts to push up interest rates suggest borrowing may soon get more expensive, creating an incentive to lock in today’s rates before they get even higher.
Northwind is a Manhattan-based real estate private equity firm founded in 2008 by Ran Eliasaf. While it owns several buildings across the city, Northwind’s debt arm focuses on loans between $10 million and $250 million, according to its website.
News of the loan first broke on Traded, the mysterious social media advertising company that has taken the commercial brokerage scene by storm.
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The condo project is an unusual one for the neighborhood: Most of its neighbors are the high-end retail shops that made Fifth Avenue an international shopping destination. But its amenity-rich sales pitch aims to draw buyers with, among other perks, a private restaurant by Daniel Boulud.
The building formerly housed the Gucci headquarters and stands near some of Midtown’s busiest tourist attractions, just a block from the Museum of Modern Art and four blocks north of Rockefeller Center.