Top October loans: Cash cows, big buys, foreclosure avoidance
October’s loans included a cash-out refinance, acquisition loans for Black Rock in Midtown and Hudson Yards’ observation deck, and funding that helped the Chetrits escape foreclosure in Midtown East.
Larry Silverstein and a California pension fund will refinance 1177 Sixth Avenue with a $450 million CMBS loan, from which the owners will draw about $78 million in cash. The loan was led by Deutsche Bank affiliate DBR Investments and Wells Fargo and comes just months after Silverstein and CalSTRS bought out former partner UBS’s stake in the Midtown office skyscraper in a deal that valued the building at $860 million. The loan will retire $360 million in previously securitized debt.
Harbor Group International secured a $420 million senior loan from Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs to finance its $760 million purchase of 51 West 52nd Street from ViacomCBS. Known as Black Rock, the 1965 building was designed by Eero Saarinen and had never been sold before. Financing for the deal totaled $558 million in CMBS loans, including $138 million from Brookfield Real Estate Finance in the mezzanine position.
Private equity firm KKR secured $391 million from the Carlyle Group to purchase a majority stake in the observation deck at 30 Hudson Yards – the tallest outdoor deck in the Western hemisphere – for $509 million. KKR bought the space, called Edge, from the Related Companies. Tourist attractions have had a rough go: At the Empire State Building, which has relied on visitors to its observation center, drops in revenue have been steep. (more…)