CIM Group has refinanced $113 million in mortgage loans at William Beaver House through Axa Equitable Life Insurance, part of a debt restructuring that could help revive sales at the luxury condominium building in Lower Manhattan, The Real Deal has learned.
According to documents filed with the New York City Department of Finance April 18, Manhattan-based Axa Equitable was assigned $112.7 million in loans from iStar Financial, a Manhattan-based real estate investment trust that held the mortgage loans at William Beaver, a 47-floor tower at 15 William Street,Between William Street and Exchange Place.
“AXA Equitable’s real estate lending program is active on a national basis and across all property types, including multi-family, office, retail, industrial and selectively hotels,” an AXA spokesperson told The Real Deal in an email. “The William Beaver loan is representative of our lending program. It is a fixed-rate, fixed-term loan to an experienced property owner in a quality location for a property type we like in today’s market.”
CIM took over as the sponsor at William Beaver House in late 2010, when the property went into default under its previous owners, billionaire developer Tamir Sapir and SDS Investments.
In 2010, iStar filed a $189 million suit against Sapir to foreclose on 209 unsold units at William Beaver, following a previous suit by GSO Re Onshore, a fund controlled by the Blackstone Group, seeking a judgment against Sapir on a $66 million loan.
The group hired Rose Associates to manage the property and began renting out the unsold units as rentals. Loan documents obtained by The Real Deal show that a temporary certificate of occupancy was issued March 23 and expires June 12, 2012. The sponsors must continue to renew the certificates until a permanent certificate is issued, according to the loan documents. Rose Associates officials were not immediately available for comment.
The loan documents also show that the developers must abide by “minimum release” and “maximum pay down prices” of $850 a square foot to $1,100 a square foot, which ranges from $593,300 for a studio up to $1.35 million for a large one-bedroom unit.
A spokesperson for CIM declined to comment on whether the developers were planning to put units back on the market, but a February story by Bloomberg News quoted Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Heather McDonough, former director of sales at the building, as saying the owners “eventually” want to put the units back on the sales market, but noted that for right now rental units are in high demand.
“Their long term plan has always been to sell the units,” said McDonough. “If it was up to me I’d try to convince them to sell now. They’re patient sellers.”
Streeteasy.com shows that 34 rental units at William Beaver are available for up to $8,700 per month for a 1,600 square foot, three-bedroom apartment. Recent market reports show that average rental prices in Manhattan are at an all-time high of $3,650 a month.