Tishman Speyer and its joint-venture partner H&R Real Estate Investment Trust picked up a $640 million construction loan for three luxury rental towers in Long Island City.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo are each offering half of the syndicated loan.
The construction loan will fund the development of a 1,789-unit luxury rental complex built across three towers in the rapidly changing Long Island City neighborhood, according to the New York Observer.
The three towers would rise at 28-34 Jackson Avenue, 28-10 Jackson Avenue and 30-02 Queens Boulevard. The 53-story, 501,000-square-foot building at 28-34 Jackson would hold 658 apartments and a ground-floor retail space. The other properties will be a 44-story, 521,000-square-foot tower with 683 rentals on Jackson Avenue and a 33-story, 365,000-square-foot tower with 448 rentals.
Tishman Speyer filed plans last November, with architecture firm Goldstein Hill & West leading the design. The project is estimated to be completed in 2018 at a cost of $875 million.
Tishman Speyer has held an interest in the plot since 2003. Toronto-based H&R bought a 50 percent stake in the development site in June of 2014 for $55 million.
The development sits adjacent to 2 Gotham Center, a 670,000-square-foot office tower developed by Tishman Speyer in 2011 and sold to H&R later that year.
Queens City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer last month said residents in the borough are terrified of the prospect 40- and 50-story towers eventually rising in neighboring Astoria and Sunnyside. [NYO] — James Kleimann