Largest Manhattan Real Estate Loans of April 2021
From left: 909 Third Avenue, 79 Fifth Avenue, 240 West 37th Street and 27 East 62nd Street (VNO, Cercone Exterior Restoration, Google Maps)
The top 10 Manhattan real estate loans taken out in April were around $ 790 million, less than half the total in March.
The commercial mortgage-backed securities market again produced the month’s biggest loan: a refinance for a Midtown office tower on a USPS warehouse. It was also the month’s only loan of more than $ 100 million.
Here were the county’s largest real estate loans in April:
1) You have mail | $ 350 million
Vornado Realty Trust secured a $ 350 million refinancing for 909 Third Avenue from Citi Real Estate Funding, Bank of America and BMO Harris. The property has a 490,000 square foot warehouse at its base that serves as the United States Postal Service’s main mail processing facility in New York City. The main tenants of the office tower include advertising company IPG DXTRA, pharmaceutical company Forest Laboratories and asset management company Geller & Company.
2) Flatiron Fund $ 62 million
Citibank provided a $ 62 million refinancing for 79 Fifth Avenue, an 18-story office building in the Flatiron District owned by A&R Kalimian Realty. The property’s tenants include French consultancy Capgemini and New School. The financing replaces the $ 45 million debt held by Wells Fargo and adds a $ 17 million mortgage.
3) (tie) signature | $ 60 million
Ray Yadidi’s Sioni Group has refinanced the 10-story office building at 240 West 37th Street in the Garment District with $ 60 million from Signature Bank. The building’s tenants include the German secret service platform Atheneum Partners and the digital marketing agency Likeable Media. Isaac Chetrit also reportedly owns an interest in the property after partnering with Yadidi in 2007 to buy it to avoid a bidding war.
3) (tie) MacAndrew’s mortgage | $ 60 million
Bank of America provided $ 60 million to refinance the office building at 27 East 62nd Street in Lenox Hill owned by Ron Perelman’s MacAndrews & Forbes. The former rental building with 30 residential units was converted into an office in 2018 and received a loan of USD 110 million from Citibank this year. Perelman’s firm sold two properties on the same block to the Chapman Group last month for $ 35 million.
5) Escape ladder | $ 51 million
R&B Realty Group has prevented the foreclosure of two Midtown office buildings at 28 West 36th Street and 32 West 39th Street with a $ 50.8 million loan from Ladder Capital. The financing paid off two defaulted loans that Signature Bank had sold to Maverick Real Estate Partners, which were the subject of a lawsuit in February. According to the lawsuit, rental income in the properties had fallen below 40 percent due to the pandemic.
6) Canaan Securities | $ 48 million
Orix Real Estate Capital granted Avenal Development & Construction a $ 48 million loan for the Canaan IV Towers at 95 Lenox Avenue, Harlem, a HUD-subsidized, low-income family apartment complex of 322 units. Previously, Signature Bank provided a $ 11 million loan for the property in 2014.
7) Condominium Cash | $ 48 million
Tegor Property SA, a Swiss company that owns Unit No. ST76 in the Time Warner Center, refinanced the residential complex with USD 47.8 million from Citibank. Société Anonyme acquired the unit in 2003 for $ 43 million, according to property records, and received a $ 37.5 million mortgage from JPMorgan Chase in 2011.
8) Cathay Construction | $ 43 million
California-based Cathay Bank provided $ 43 million in mortgage lending for Eastern Star Development’s 80-unit condominium project at 300 West 30th Street in Chelsea. The Flushing-based developer, led by Anthony Hu, acquired the former Chelsea Riff Hotel in 2018 for $ 27.5 million. The company is also behind the 182-unit Star Tower condominium project in Long Island City, which began closing in 2019.
9) Friedman Finance | $ 39 million
Robert Friedman’s Friedman management secured US $ 38.5 million in refinancing from Sterling National Bank for a portfolio owned by a 121-unit cooperative at 50 East 8th Street in Greenwich Village, a 57-unit rental building in 401 West 22nd Street in Chelsea, 48, comprises a rental unit at 404 East 75th Street on the Upper East Side and the non-residential area of a 16-story mixed-use property at 360 West 22nd Street in Chelsea.
10) Carter Conversion | $ 33 million
Raith Capital Partners provided Jason Carter’s Carter Management with a $ 33 million financing package for a condominium remodeling project at 305 East 61st Street in Lenox Hill. Carter acquired the former warehouse last fall from bankruptcy for $ 51.4 million. The previous owner, Mitchell Marks, had targeted a total sale of $ 105 million for the eight-unit condominium.