The 10 largest Manhattan loans recorded in January totaled $1.95 billion, a 7 percent decrease from December’s total.
For the first time, the top loan of the month was for an acquisition that went into contract during the pandemic: a hefty CMBS loan that 601W Companies secured for its $953 million purchase of SL Green’s 410 Tenth Avenue. The remainder of the top 10 included one other acquisition loan and a construction loan, while the rest were refinancings.
Here were the borough’s largest real estate loans in January:
1) 705M for 601W | $565 million (recorded amount)
JPMorgan provided a $705 million acquisition loan for 410 Tenth Avenue, a 20-story, Amazon-anchored office building near Hudson Yards, of which $565 million has been recorded in property records. In 2018, SL Green acquired a majority stake in the building from the Kaufman Organization in a deal valuing it at $440 million, and undertook a major renovation of the property. Just months before the most recent sale, SL Green had secured a $600 million loan from Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo for the property, replacing a $465 million loan provided by Singapore’s United Overseas Bank in 2019.
2) Aareal assistance | $360 million
SL Green secured a $360 million refinancing for 100 Park Avenue, a 36-story, 903,000-square-foot office tower next to Grand Central Terminal. Aareal Capital Corporation, the New York-based affiliate of German financier Aareal Bank, was the lender. Tenants at the property, which SL Green and PGIM Real Estate acquired in 2000, include AECOM Tishman, Wells Fargo Capital Finance and Aetna. The new debt replaced a $360 million loan provided by another German lender, Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, in 2014, according to property records.
3) Gr4mercy Square | $232.5 million
Middle-market bridge lending group G4 Capital Partners provided a $232.5 million loan to Joseph Chetrit and Clipper Equity to refinance the 223-unit condo project the Modern at Gramercy Square at 230 East 20th Street. U.K.-based billionaires the Reuben brothers bought a $100 million piece of the existing debt on the building at a discount in May. SL Green had originally provided a $380 million debt package in 2018. The four-building project is a conversion of the former Cabrini Medical Center. Chetrit and David Bistricer of Clipper bought the parcel in 2013 for $150 million.
4) Morningside mortgage | $180 million
Delshah Capital landed a $180 million refinancing from Arbor Realty Trust for its luxury rental conversion project at 30 Morningside Drive in Morningside Heights. The new debt replaced a $130 million construction loan from Square Mile Capital as well as a $50 million Israeli bond series, both from 2017. The property, which previously consisted of five medical buildings for St. Luke’s Hospital, received temporary certificates of occupancy for its 205 residential units in December.
5) Gotham Sachs | $162 million
Wells Fargo and US Bank provided a $162.4 million construction loan for 55 Suffolk Street, part of the two-building Broome Street Development complex spearheaded by a joint venture between the Gotham Organization and Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group.The 400,000-square-foot project (which also includes 64 Norfolk Street) will feature about 500 rental apartments, including 209 affordable units and 115 set aside for seniors. The Chinese American Planning Council nonprofit will also have its headquarters within the complex.
6) Laboratory loan | $151 million (recorded value)
Silverstein Properties and Taconic Partners received a $205 million, five-year floating-rate loan from Square Mile Capital for the 322,000-square-foot Hudson Research Center, a mixed-use life science facility at 619 West 54th Street. Taconic acquired the Far West Side property in 2012 for about $110 million, and Silverstein joined the project in 2017. A $150.75 million piece of senior debt was recorded in public records, and has been bought by MetLife Real Estate Lending, according to PincusCo.
7) Meadowpacking | $116 million
JPMorgan Chase provided a $116 million CMBS loan to Meadow Partners and CalPERS to finance the $232 million acquisition of the ground lease at 860 Washington Street. The 10-story, 117,000-square-foot office building in the Meatpacking District was completed by Romanoff Equities and Property Group Partners in 2016. Tenants include Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and Tesla’s Manhattan store, which occupies the ground floor retail space.
8) Xin Bloom | $90 million
Xin Development Group, the U.S. subsidiary of China-based Xinyuan Real Estate, secured a $90 million refinancing from Ares Capital for the Bloom on Forty Fifth, a 92-unit condo project at 500 West 45th Street. The new debt replaces a $108 million construction loan provided by Bank OZK in 2017. The development received its first temporary certificate of occupancy in November 2019.
9) Canadian connection | $60 million
TD Bank provided a $60 million refinancing to Toronto-based Madison Group for its 43-story, 122-unit rental tower at 306 West 48th Street in Hell’s Kitchen, also known as Icon. Kinsmen Property Group, Madison’s U.S. division, acquired the property in 2012 after the former condo building had sat vacant for several years amid an investigation into its finances by the Attorney General.
10) Jacob’s lender | $37 million
Jacob Kohn’s Jay Group received a $36.5 million loan from MF1 Capital to refinance 56 West 125th Street, a 17-story, 141-unit rental high rise in Harlem. MF1 Capital is a mortgage REIT established by CBRE Capital Markets in partnership with Limekiln Real Estate and Berkshire Group, with a focus on multifamily and senior housing lending.