Ian Bruce Eichner is back in the market for a condominium inventory loan at Madison Square Park Tower, seeking about $180 million in financing for the new building’s many unsold units, sources told The Real Deal.
The developer’s firm Continuum Companies is on the hunt to finance the nearly one-third of apartments that haven’t sold at the Flatiron District’s tallest tower, sources said.
The loan would cover roughly 120,000 square feet of apartments at the 65-story, 372,684-square-foot building, located at 45 East 22nd Street, sources said. About $180 million in inventory financing would come out to north of $1,500 per square foot.
The number of the total 83 apartments that have not sold were not immediately clear. A spokesperson for the project said more than 75 percent of the apartments have sold – either recently closed or in the process of closing – but declined to comment further. Sources familiar with the loan search, however, said that the percentage is lower.
The Kohn Pedersen Fox-designed tower topped out in July. Closings began the following month, three years after sales launched.
Eichner is now seeking a bigger condo inventory loan than what he was eyeing just a few months ago.
The developer had opted out of negotiations for a $125 million inventory loan in July, after sales looked like they were picking up. At least $43.9 million in condos went into contract between May and July, according to StreetEasy data cited by Commercial Observer at the time. First Republic Bank was one of the lenders in talks to provide the loan. He intended to repay the entirety of a $340 million construction loan from Goldman Sachs instead.
Sources said Eichner repaid the Goldman loan.
Eichner retained two sets of brokers to jointly handle the search – Meridian Capital Group’s Ronnie Levine and Abe Hirsch and Cooper-Horowitz’s Rob Horowitz, sources said. The latter handled the Goldman loan. The brokers declined to comment.
A condo inventory loan typically allows the sponsor extra time, often a few years, to sell the rest of the apartments at a lower rate.
Apartments at the building have ranged in asking price from $2.75 million to $48 million, with the unsold units being largely ones on the higher end. In September 2016, when sales had dramatically slowed, the developer replaced Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group with Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes’ team at Douglas Elliman.
Two of the most expensive units to sell so far were priced at $24.95 million and $19.9 million, StreetEasy data shows.
The duplex penthouse listed in June for $48 million comes with two extra condos and two parking spots. It is not yet in contract.
Eichner sold a distressed East Harlem development site last year to the Durst Organization, and has been focused on putting the finishing touches on Madison Square Park Tower.
The project has been seen as something of a comeback for Eichner, who struggled in past cycles. He developed and lost control of 1540 Broadway in Times Square and a Las Vegas casino. He had success developing CitySpire Center in Midtown and the Continuum condo towers in Miami.