Vornado Realty Trust and Bobby Cayre’s Aurora Capital Associates obtained a $90 million construction loan for its 164,000-square-foot Meatpacking District office-and-retail project at 61 Ninth Avenue, which will house the largest Starbucks Coffee store in the world.
Germany-based bank Helaba and Midtown-based financing holding company CIT Group provided a five-year, floating-rate loan Thursday to the developers, according to JLL, which arranged the deal.
From left: Dustin Stolly and Aaron Appel
The Rafael Vinoly-designed Class A property, which will have ceiling heights of more than 14 feet, is already under construction. It’s slated for completion by late 2017.
JLL’s Dustin Stolly and Aaron Appel brokered the financing deal.
A spokesperson for Vornado declined to comment, while Aurora could not be immediately reached.
Starbucks signed a 20-year lease in April to occupy the 20,000-square-foot retail component at the base of the building for its Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room concept. Asking rent on the ground floor was about $650 per square foot. No office tenants have signed for the building’s remaining space yet.
Vornado and Aurora acquired the long-term lease on the former Prince Lumber site near West 15th Street in 2014 for $140 million.