Manhattan’s 10 biggest real estate loans in August totaled $1.5 billion as lenders looked with favor on large multifamily projects as well as hotel and office redevelopments.
The Chetrit Group and A&E Real Estate each nabbed two of the largest loans. The Dermot Company, Toll Brothers and the Sapir Organization had one apiece.
The central borough’s biggest borrowers pulled in $2.3 billion from lenders last month, down from $3.2 billion in August of last year. Here were last month’s largest real estate loans:
Neat Chetrit | $365 million
The Chetrit Group and Stellar Management refinanced the 850-unit Park West Village complex, a luxury building on the Upper West Side, with $365 million from Bank of Montreal. A portion of the loan is securitized in the CMBS market, where the interest-only loan has an interest rate of 4.65 percent for a term of five years. Prior CMBS debt on the building had an interest rate of 2.62 percent. Chetrit and Stellar will use loan proceeds to renovate 325 units.
Major renovations in the building, which include combining 55 units into 27, are expected to cost $48,000 per unit and increase rent to $81 per square foot from $46. Smaller renovations are expected to cost $19,300 per unit and increase rent to $81 per square foot from $65, according to Moody’s. A total of 418 units are rent-stabilized.
Square Mile’s millions | $286 million
Douglas Eisenberg’s A&E Real Estate secured $286 million from Square Mile Capital Management to buy 160 Riverside Boulevard — a 33-story, 455-unit building on the Upper West Side — for $415 million. A&E, one of New York’s largest apartment landlords, has spent more than $1 billion expanding its rental portfolio in the city this year alone.
Berkshire’s bet | $138 million
A&E Real Estate refinanced 575 Amsterdam Avenue, a 266-unit residential tower on the Upper West Side, with $138 million from Berkshire Residential Investments. The prior lender was KKR Real Estate Finance Trust. A&E bought the property in 2018 for $220 million. Built in 1975, it is also known as 561 Amsterdam Avenue. A studio apartment in the building is listed for $3,210 per month after a half-month concession.
Wise move | $121 million
Sage Realty and Principal Real Estate Investors landed $121 million from Acore Capital Mortgage to refinance 77 Water Street, a 52-year-old office tower in Lower Manhattan. The loan includes $72 million in new debt as Acore replaces AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company as the senior lender. The total loan amount at the 26-story building, which is 70 percent occupied, comes to $128 million, Commercial Observer reported.
William Kaufman Organization, the parent company of Sage Realty, constructed the 614,000-square-foot building in 1970. Improvements coming to the building reportedly include a lobby renovation and redesign of its exterior pedestrian plaza.
Hotel hovel | $120 million
The Chetrit Group landed a $120 million senior loan from Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies to renovate the shuttered, low-budget Carter Hotel at 250 West 43rd Street. Total financing for the redevelopment comes to $185 million, replacing a 2018 loan from JPMorgan of $152 million. The Times Square establishment was called “undeniably, unequivocally, the worst hotel in New York City” by The Observer in 2014, the year Chetrit bought it for $192 million. It closed that same year.
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Superior interiors | $120 million
The Dermot Company refinanced the senior debt on the Landon, a 375-unit residential tower in Hell’s Kitchen, with $120 million from German lender Helaba. The funds replace Dermot’s acquisition loan, originated by HSBC when it bought the property in 2018 for $193 million. A one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment at the address, 520 West 43rd Street, is listed for $4,300.
It tolls for thee | $98 million
Toll Brothers secured $98 million in construction funds from Bank OZK for the Rockwell, a 81-unit condominium project underway at 2688 Broadway on the Upper West Side. Hedge fund Sculptor recently acquired a minority stake in the project, Crain’s reported. Toll Brothers bought the site, where Hank Fried’s Marrakech Hotel operated with questionable legality, in 2019 for $44 million.
SoHotel | $89 million
Alex Sapir’s Sapir Corp raised $89 million from corporate bond investors in Israel to refinance the senior debt on the NoMo SoHo hotel, 9 Crosby Street. The new financing will mature in 2026 with an interest rate of 6.75 percent, according to the stock exchange, and replace debt issued by Goldman Sachs. Alex Sapir and his partner Gerard Guez bought the 26-story hotel from Deutsche Bank at a foreclosure sale in 2015 for $205 million. Sapir later bought out Guez.
Middle East moolah | $80 million
Bahrain’s Premier Group, which is controlled by that country’s monarch, secured $80 million from First Abu Dhabi Bank, based in the United Arab Emirates, to refinance a 242-key hotel at 170 Broadway in the Financial District. The funds replace debt held by Aareal Capital. The hotel is operated by Marriott.
Flatiron refi | $77 million
The Olnick Organization secured $77 million from New York Community Bank to refinance 130 Fifth Avenue, a 140,000-square-foot office building in Flatiron. The loan includes $25 million in new debt and replaces M&T Bank as the senior lender. Amer Rada of Olnick filed interior renovation plans in May with the Department of Buildings.