Kevin Hoo secures $479M loan for 441 Ninth expansion

Cove Property Group plans to add 17 stories to eight-story building

441 Ninth Avenue and Kevin Hoo (Credit: Cove Property Group)
441 Ninth Avenue and Kevin Hoo (Credit: Cove Property Group)

Kevin Hoo’s Cove Property Group has landed a $479 million construction loan for its project at 441 Ninth Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen.

The financing for Cove’s Hudson Commons office project comes from private equity firm Apollo Global Management, according to Debtwire, which first reported the deal.

Rendering of 441 Ninth Avenue (Credit: Cove Property Group)

Cove, led by Savanna alum Hoo, and the hedge fund Baupost Group bought the property, located between West 34th and 35th streets, in 2016 for $330 million from EmblemHeath, an insurer that occupied the whole building. The building currently stands eight stories tall and spans 423,000 square feet, but Cove plans to add 17 stories to the top of the building, making it roughly 700,000 square feet overall.

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Work on this new tower will start in January, and the building should be ready for tenants by the end of the summer in 2019. Cove hopes to start leasing the building’s lower eight stories by the end of 2018.

HFF brokered the financing.

Cove also owns the 26-story building at 101 Greenwich Street in the Financial District, which it purchased with Bentall Kennedy in 2016 for $225 million from Kushner Companies and CIM Group. [Debtwire]Eddie Small

This story was amended to reflect that Debtwire first reported news of the financing.