Safehold, Melohn Group Refinance 32 Old Slip Ground Lease

Safehold and the Melohn Group turned to some old, reliable institutions to refinance the leased fee interest of 32 Old Slip in Lower Manhattan.

Goldman Sachs, Barclays and Morgan Stanley provided $167 million in debt to refinance the leased fee interest in the ground lease of the 36-story property, the Commercial Observer reported.

A Newmark team of Jordan Roeschlaub, Daniel Fromm and John Caraviello arranged the debt.

Four years ago, iStar bought a stake in the land beneath the building for $90.5 million, picking it up from the family trust of developer Leon Melohn; iStar would go on to merge with Safehold in 2023 after the latter served as iStar’s ground lease real estate investment trust.

Melohn bought the fee interest for $197.5 million in 2015 from Scott Rechler’s RXR in partnership with David Werner. RXR had just purchased the property from Beacon Capital Partners for $675 million and decided to split the fee and leasehold positions, controlling the 1.2 million-square-foot office tower through a 150-year lease.

In 2019, Mesa West Capital provided RXR with a $404 million loan.

Tenants at the 1987-built property include personal injury law firm Harris Law, international law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel and fintech firm GTN. Last month, financial services firm CFG Merchant Solutions agreed to relocate from another Financial District location, leasing 21,000 square feet at 32 Old Slip.

None of the parties involved in the debt transaction provided comment to the Observer.

This is just the latest significant Lower Manhattan refinancing.

In December, New York City’s Housing Development Corporation issued $550 million of municipal bonds for Blackstone to refinance the 900-unit property at 8 Spruce Street.

A month earlier, the Chetrit Group refinanced its planned two-tower, 1,300-unit apartment development in Two Bridges, ending a foreclosure threat from Madison Realty Capital.

— Holden Walter-Warner