The 10 largest Manhattan loans recorded in December totaled $2.1 billion, a slight decrease from November’s total.
For the second month in a row (and the third time in four months), the biggest was a single-asset, single-borrower CMBS loan on an office building co-owned by Brookfield. The CMBS market produced three of the month’s top four, with the exception being a construction loan for SL Green’s next major office development.
Here were the borough’s largest real estate loans in December:
1) SASBrookfield | $835 million
Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and BMO Harris Bank originated an $835 million loan for Manhattan’s southernmost skyscraper, One New York Plaza. Brookfield acquired the 50-story, 2.6 million-square-foot office building in 2006 as part of its acquisition of Trizec Properties, and in 2016 sold a 49 percent stake to Chinese sovereign fund China Investment Corporation and 16 percent to AEW Capital Management. Morgan Stanley occupies more than half of the total space.
2) Mad money | $425 million (recorded amount)
SL Green Realty landed a $1.25 billion construction loan for its One Madison Avenue office redevelopment, of which $425 million was recorded in property records last month. The loan was provided by a consortium of banks including Wells Fargo, TD Bank, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and Axos Bank. In May the developer sold 49.5 percent of its interest in the 1.4 million-square-foot, $2.3 billion project to Hines and the National Pension Service of Korea.
3) Fisher price | $309 million (senior debt)
Morgan Stanley provided a $309 million CMBS refinancing for Fisher Brothers and JPMorgan Asset Management’s 605 Third Avenue, a 44-story, 1.1-million-square-foot office tower near Grand Central Terminal and the United Nations. In October, JPMorgan put its 49 percent stake on the market, aiming for a price that would value the building at about $600 million. JPMorgan bought the stake in 2015 from Rockpoint Group.
4) Elo rating | $141 million
Jack Elo’s Elo Organization secured $141 million in CMBS financing from Citi Real Estate Funding for a trio of Diamond District office properties. The loan financed Elo’s $110 million acquisition of 15 West 47th Street from the Chetrit family and also replaced debt on 151 West 46th Street and 48 West 48th Street, which the landlord has owned since 2001. In addition to numerous jewelry industry tenants, major tenants in the portfolio include Cuban restaurant Havana Central.
5) Best… bye | $122 million (senior debt)
Silverstein Properties landed a $171 million refinancing from JPMorgan Chase for 529 Fifth Avenue in Midtown, of which $122 million hit public records. The 283,000-square-foot, 20-story building’s retail tenant, Best Buy, is set to move across the street to Moinian Group’s 535 Fifth Avenue this year, and anchor office tenant Citrin Cooperman has announced that it will depart in September. The landlord will undertake major renovations following these vacancies.
6) *Cooperative* Bank | $70 million
National Consumer Cooperative Bank provided $69.9 million in leasehold financing for Rivercross, a 365-unit cooperative at 531 Main Street on Roosevelt Island. The former Mitchell-Lama building was privatized in 2014, making it the first privatized co-op on the island.
7) Pinnacle portfolio | $64 million
Joel Wiener’s Pinnacle Group, listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange as the Zarasai Group, raised $64 million through a new Israeli bond series secured by four New York multifamily properties. These include the 84-unit 3647 Broadway and 79-unit 3657 Broadway in Manhattan, as well as the 90-unit 86-06 35th Avenue in Queens and the 53-unit 143 Linden Boulevard in Brooklyn. The Series E bonds have an interest rate of 5.45 percent and mature in 2025.
8) Mortgageside | $51 million
Principal Life Insurance Company provided a $51 million refinancing for Morningside Gardens, a six-building, 982-unit co-op complex between LaSalle Street and West 123rd Street in Morningside Heights. According to property records, the loan replaces a $38.5 million package provided by Wells Fargo in 2011.
9) Chetrit check | $49 million
Chetrit Group received a $49.25 million senior inventory loan from Axos Bank for 51 unsold condo units at 49 Chambers Street in Tribeca. Also, Silverstein Properties issued a $41.5 million mezzanine loan for the units. Loan proceeds were used to pay off part of the 97-unit condo project’s existing loans, which were issued by SL Green Realty in early 2019 and later sold to Silverstein.
10) Mystery mansion? | $32 million
First Republic Bank provided $32 million in financing to an anonymous LLC to fund its $26 million acquisition of a five-story garage at 332 West 11th Street in the West Village, as well as future development on the site. No plans have been filed with the Department of Buildings. Curbed reported in 2019 that the seller, Jack Jakub of Apple Parking, was seeking nearly $50 million for the site, dubbed “one of the last mega-mansion opportunities in the West Village.”