Blackstone locked in a ten-figure loan to refinance its largest rental property in New York City.
Wells Fargo provided $3.15 billion in debt to refinance Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village, Crain’s reported. A $3 billion debt from Fannie Mae backing Manhattan’s largest apartment complex was nearing maturity.
Since purchasing the complex alongside a Canadian pension fund for $5.5 billion in 2015, Blackstone has invested $460 million into the property. That includes renovations, expansions and the installation of 9,600 solar panels. Blackstone also added a Whole Foods and a restaurant to the retail portfolio.
Notably, all of the units in Stuy Town are rent-stabilized. At the time of its acquisition, Stephen Schwarzman’s firm planned to lift more than half of the complex’s 11,200 apartments out of stabilization in a deal brokered by the city.
Stuy Town’s apartments were slated to become unstabilized by June 2020, but tenants sued Blackstone under the protections afforded to them by changes made to the rent laws the prior year.
In early 2023, a state court judge ruled in favor of the complex’s tenants, saying the changes in the rent law meant Blackstone couldn’t deregulate roughly 6,200 apartments in a decision with major implications for other properties that received J-51 tax benefits.
Blackstone appealed the ruling, but ultimately ended its attempts to challenge a decision on the status of the portfolio last winter.
Blackstone has been busy in the Big Apple lately. Last week, a joint venture between TPG and Acadia Realty Trust agreed to purchase The Shops at Skyview in Flushing from Blackstone for roughly $425 million. The shopping center at 40-24 College Point Boulevard is anchored by a grocery store, spans 550,000 square feet and is almost fully leased.
Outside of city limits, Blackstone is nearing the acquisition of the 277-room Four Seasons hotel in downtown San Francisco for approximately $130 million.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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