JDS, Largo land $660M loan for American Copper Buildings

Michael Stern’s JDS Development Group and Largo Investments landed $660 million in financing for their American Copper Buildings, a pair of rental towers on the East River that will have 761 apartments.
American International Group provided a $500 million senior loan while SL Green Realty Corp. partnered with a fund managed by Apollo Global Management to provide a $160 million mezzanine loan. The cash infusion will replace a $390 million construction loan for the buildings, at 626 First Avenue, which are named for the 5,000 copper panels that will compose their facades.

The deal represents “the appetite investors have for the product that fulfills the huge demand for high-quality multifamily assets in Manhattan,” said JLL’s Aaron Appel, who brokered the financing, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Designed by ShoP Architects, the buildings will have 601 market-rate units and 160 affordable units. They will be joined by a 100-foot skybridge and will have 13, 441 square feet of ground-floor retail space. [WSJ] — E.B. Solomont