Extell Development’s Gary Barnett is looking to a Chinese bank for a roughly $1 billion loan to finance his planned combination condominium and hotel skyscraper at 225 West 57th Street, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Barnett – who has more ongoing Manhattan projects than any other developer — is in talks with the Export-Import Bank of China for the financing, sources told the Journal. If the deal goes through, it would likely be the largest loan for a U.S. real estate construction project since the downturn and would be the Chinese bank’s first real estate project.
Generally, “the Chinese bank will provide the financing on very favorable terms,” Joel Rothstein, an attorney at Paul Hastings LLP, told the Journal. “At the same time, ‘China Inc.’ is supported and promoted, as Chinese contractors and construction-material suppliers win high-profile international assignments.”
The building, just south of Central Park, is poised to be the country’s tallest residential tower, with a building permit application seeking a height of 1,550 feet. It will be completed in 2017 or 2018, as The Real Deal has previously reported. The architect on the project also designed the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest building. Nordstrom committed to put its first Manhattan outpost at the base of the tower last fall. [WSJ] – Hiten Samtani