The top 10 Manhattan loans recorded in January totaled just over $2.9 billion, staying more or less flat for the third straight month. Brookfield Asset Management was involved in the top two loans, first as a borrower for its refinancing of 666 Fifth Avenue, and then as a lender for Rockpoint’s acquisition of One Dag Hammarskjöld.
1. Kushner & Brookfield – $750 million
Brookfield Asset Management secured a $750 million loan for its renovation and repositioning of the former Kushner crown jewel, 666 Fifth Avenue. The loan, provided by ING Bank, is the main piece of a reported $1 billion refinancing of the the 1960s office tower. Apollo Global Management is also expected to provide a $300 million mezzanine loan as part of the final deal. The Kushners, who still own the land under the tower, courted controversy while attempting to refinance the property, meeting investors such as Qatar’s finance minister months after Jared was tapped to be a senior adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump.
2. Dag, nabbed – $430 million
Rockpoint Group landed $430 million in financing from Wells Fargo and Brookfield Asset Management for its $600 million purchase of the One Dag Hammarskjöld office tower in Midtown East. The sale of the 815,000-square-foot tower from Ruben Companies to Rockpoint was the second deal between the two firms — Rockpoint also bought the office building at 1700 Broadway from Ruben for $465 million last year. One Dag Hammarskjöld is steps away from the United Nations complex, and counts a number of foreign missions and the UN’s pension fund as tenants.
3. Société Hell’s Kitchen – $410 million
Societe Generale provided a 10-year commercial mortgage-backed securities loan to the Georgetown Company for its office redevelopment at 787 11th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen. The new $410 million loan replaces a $350 million construction loan on the property from 2016, provided by Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs and ICBC. A group of celebrities, including LeBron James and Arnold Schwarzenegger, are also investors in the property. The 500,000-square-foot historic building was originally the home of Packard Motor Company.
4. Ozark by the Park – $350 million
Bank OZK, formerly known as Bank of the Ozarks, provided a $350 million loan to GFI Capital Resources Group and Elliott Management for their $420 million purchase of the Parker New York hotel in Midtown, at 119 West 56th Street, south of Central Park. The new owners are reportedly planning to convert many of the hotel’s 729 rooms into private residences. GFI had previous experience developing a hotel/condo hybrid at 5 Beekman Street.
5. OKO, what’s this? – $285 million
Vladislav Doronin’s OKO Group and partner Aman Group secured a $284.5 million loan from Cain International for the conversion of the Crown Building at 730 Fifth Avenue, where the upper floors will be turned into luxury apartments and an Aman hotel. Doronin and then-partner Michael Shvo bought floors four through 24 of the office building for $475 million in 2015. Shvo was later pushed out as a co-developer following tax evasion charges, but kept a stake in the project.
6. Westin: Host out – $197 million
Goldman Sachs provided a $197 million short-term, floating-rate loan to Davidson Kempner Capital Management for its $302 million acquisition and renovation of the Westin Grand Central hotel at 212 East 42nd Street. Maryland-based REIT Host Hotels was the seller. Host had bought the property from the estate of hotelier Leona “Queen of Mean” Helmsley in 2011, repositioning it under the Westin brand.
7. Ava-loan – $150 million
AvalonBay Communities landed a $150 million mortgage from Wells Fargo to refinance its apartment building at 525 West 28th Street in West Chelsea, known as AVA High Line. AvalonBay developed the building and continues to manage it, despite selling an 80 percent stake to Invesco as part of a portfolio deal last year. An Avalon officer signed the mortgage paperwork.
8. By George – $136 million
David Bistricer’s Clipper Equity secured a $136 million refinancing for its 480-unit Bridge Apartments at 111 Wadsworth Avenue and 1360 St. Nicholas Avenue, a four-building complex by the George Washington Bridge. Walker & Dunlop, a Bethesda, Maryland-based commercial real estate finance firm, provided the 10-year fixed-rate, Freddie Mac loan.
9. Solari power – $135 million
AIG Investments provided the Torkian Group with $135 million to refinance the Solari, a newly-constructed 41-story luxury rental tower at 42 West 33rd Street in Midtown. Forty-five of the building’s 223 units are designated as affordable. Torkian was recently sued by the city for allegedly continuing to market and lease short-term rentals — with over 1,000 such deals between 2015 and 2018 — despite warnings from officials.
10. Shanghai Heights – $131 million
Youngwoo & Associates obtained $130.6 million in financing from Hong Kong’s Shanghai Commercial Bank for a 22-story, mixed-use development at 2420 Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights. The project at will be a joint hotel, office and retail project and is designed to look like an interconnected stack of colorful blocks. Shanghai Commercial has been one of the busier hotel construction lenders in recent years.