After a scorching hot August, Manhattan lending cooled in September.
The city’s top five deals totaled just over $2 billion — a roughly 50 percent drop from the previous month. Lenders doled out dollars across submarkets and asset classes, from a trophy office tower to mixed-use projects and a luxury condo development. Leading the pack was SL Green and Prudential’s $1.4 billion refinancing of 11 Madison Avenue. Rabsky Group’s $320 million Tribeca condo loan came in a distant second.
Here are September’s top five Manhattan loans.
Towering refi | $1.4B | Midtown South
A consortium of banks led by Wells Fargo originated a $1.4 billion CMBS loan to refinance SL Green and Prudential Financial’s office tower at 11 Madison Avenue. The five-year, fixed-rate loan replaced the previous $1.4 billion of debt on the property, which included a $1.075 billion senior mortgage and $325 million in mezzanine loans. The interest rate is expected to jump from 3.6 percent to 5.8 percent and the owners will need to put up a $52.5 million down payment to secure the loan, according to Crain’s. SL Green acquired the full-block office property from the Sapir Organization and CIM Group in 2015 for $2.6 billion. A year after the acquisition, SL Green offloaded a 40 percent stake to Prudential’s PGIM Real Estate for $480 million.
Condo cash | $320M | Tribeca
G4 Capital Partners provided a $320 million construction loan for Rabsky Group’s ground-up condo project spanning an assemblage of lots on Franklin Street in Tribeca. Rabsky is planning a 280,000-square-foot condominium across three parcels: 65 Franklin Street, 59 Franklin Street and the corner site at 356 Broadway. Previous projects on the site by other developers had failed to get off the ground. Henry Bodek of Galaxy Capital arranged the deal.
Broadway bankroll | $229M | Soho
Barings provided a $230 million loan to Northwood Investors to refinance the adjacent mixed-use office and retail buildings at 520 and 524 Broadway. Northwood acquired the properties in 2021 for $325 million, using a $227 million acquisition loan from Ares Commercial Real Estate. The pair of buildings, which have a combined 180,000 square feet of office space and 60,000 square feet of retail space, had been owned by the Propp family since 1987. A Newmark team including Jordan Roeschlaub and Nick Scribani arranged the deal.
Multifamily money | $220M | Harlem
Bank Hapoalim provided a $220 million loan for Artimus and Grid Group’s new mixed-use development at 1440 Amsterdam Avenue in Harlem. The fresh financing replaced a $210 million construction loan from Valley National Bank. The 28-story building has 490 rental units, 147 of them affordable. Amenities include a gym, media room, outdoor terraces and coworking space. Grid Group purchased the land and air rights for the project from the New York City Housing Authority for $28 million in 2022. Artimus bought a 50 percent stake in the project the following year for $17 million.
Saks score | $145M | Midtown
JPMorgan Chase provided a $145 million loan for Vornado’s purchase of the Charles Cohen-owned Manhattan office tower at 623 Fifth Avenue. Steven Roth’s real estate investment trust bought the 36-story tower above the flagship Saks Fifth Avenue store in September for $218 million. The building was 75 percent vacant and Vornado plans to redevelop it into a Class A boutique office building.
Read more
SL Green, PGIM near $1.4B refi for 11 Madison
Rabsky locks $320M loan for Tribeca condo play
Northwood buys two Soho buildings for $325M
