The saga of 125 Greenwich continues.
Fortress Investment Group, Bizzi & Partners and Bilgili Group are seeking to refinance their existing loan at 125 Greenwich, a Manhattan supertall luxury condo tower in the Financial District, The Real Deal has learned.
The developers are hoping to replace their existing $350 million construction loan from Northwind Group with cheaper financing, according to sources. The group is also seeking to replace the construction loan with a condo inventory loan to carry the project through sell out.
The existing loan with Northwind is current on payments, according to sources. The project is expected to be completed in the first quarter of this year.
Newmark’s Jordan Roeschlaub and Nick Scribani are marketing the loan with Arrow Real Estate Advisors Morris Betesh and Matt O’Hanlon.
The 88-story condo tower is viewed as a metric of the strength of Downtown’s Manhattan condo market, an area where some new developments have struggled with sales. This includes Macklowe Properties’ One Wall Street.
Fortress’s attempts to refinance could highlight renewed optimism in the debt markets. The powerhouse is betting that the new year will bring more financing options at lower rates.
The Lower Manhattan high-rise gained infamy as one of New York’s most visible stalled projects. Construction paused around 2019, with the Rafael Viñoly-designed tower about 85 percent finished.
Fortress, who held the debt, came in as the project’s lead developer in 2023 and restarted the project with the loan from Northwind. It formally launched sales last year.
Plans to construct the skyscraper began in 2014. A group led by Michael Shvo, Bizzi, and Howard Lorber’s New Valley paid $185 million for the site at 22 Thames Street. The project was expected to top out by 2018 with a projected sellout of $875 million. In 2015, Cindat joined as a partner and the investment group raised $194 million in EB-5 money from foreign investors. The following year, Shvo was sidelined from the project because of his tax evasion indictment. The partners bought out his stake in 2018.
The developers closed on a $473 million construction loan from United Overseas Bank and Bank of China in 2018. Sales never took off and many blamed the location, which was seen as a dead-zone in Lower Manhattan.
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When the Bank of China stopped funding the loan, the lenders sold the loan to BH3 in 2019, who then sold the loan for Fortress for $230 million in early 2020. Instead of foreclosing, Fortress converted its debt to equity. Bizzi remained in the development group and added its deal partner Bilgili Group.
The project is unusual in that the developers chose to use the top three floors for amenities as opposed to penthouses.