Carlyle, Gotham Secure $216M Loan on Lincoln Square Tower

The brand-new owners of The Aire secured financing for its purchase of the Upper West Side multifamily property.

The Gotham Organization and the Carlyle Group landed a $216 million bridge loan associated with their acquisition of the building at 200 West 67th Street, the Commercial Observer reported. The loan, provided by MF1 Capital, was brought to the market shortly after Gotham and Carlyle purchased the property from A&R Kalimian Realty for $265 million.

There was tight competition for the new financing, a source told the publication. The asking price on the loan request was $195 million, approximately 75 percent of the debt. But a “highly competitive debt process” resulted in the larger loan, which carries a loan-to-debt ratio of about 81 percent on the purchase price.

The $194 million mortgage on the property matured in November. That was one of several issues dogging Albert Kalimian, as the expiration of a 10-year tax abatement led to a spike in the annual tax property bill to $6.6 million when it was once a sixth of that.

A CBRE team including Tom Traynor and Tom Rugg arranged the financing.

In February, Gotham and Carlyle bought the 43-story, 310-unit luxury for roughly $855,000 per unit. One-bedroom units rent for upwards of $5,000 monthly, but rental income only covered 87 percent of borrowing costs for the previous owner, despite near full occupancy at the end of 2022, according to Moody’s.

Kalimian purchased the property from the Red Cross for $72.3 million in 2004, opening the rental building six years later. There are also retail units at the property, including a Polestar electric car dealership.

While supply constraints have kept New York’s rental market flowing, high interest rates have forced many owners to take on costlier debt.

MF1 has been a favorite lender of multifamily syndicators, originating at least $7.4 billion in debt between 2020 and 2021, including to Tides Equities.

— Holden Walter-Warner