Meridian Capital Group Scores $60M for Manhattan Office Refi

By Keith Loria

729 Seventh Ave., NYC

Meridian Capital Group has arranged $60 million in financing on behalf of 729 Acquisition LLC, an entity owned by Himmel + Meringoff Properties, to refinance the office component of a mixed-use office building located at 729 Seventh Ave., in Manhattan.

A local commercial bank provided the seven-year balance sheet loan, which features a competitive fixed-rate of 4.25 percent and an interest-only component during the initial years of the term. Allan Lieberman and Rael Gervis, managing directors of Meridian, worked out the details of the loan on behalf of the ownership group.

A 17-story building, 729 Seventh Ave., offers a total of 164,500 square feet of office space. The building also consists of 4,730 square feet of retail located underground, 700 square feet of retail on the mezzanine and a separately parceled privately owned retail condominium.

The building’s lobby and entrance recently underwent a renovation, with a new design by Dan Shannon of MdeAS Architects. The new entryway provides light and air and features contemporary lobby materials, including Carrara Marble, steel, and glass. “With the lobby renovation completed and new leases signed, Meridian negotiated a refinancing which included income from the spectacular signage unique to the property’s strategic location in the Times Square market,” Lieberman said in a prepared release.

An Entertaining History

The mixed-use building was originally built in 1915, and underwent cosmetic renovation in 1997, 2006 and 2016. It was once known as the United Artists building, when it housed the company’s New York offices including a penthouse office constructed for Mary Pickford and her future husband, Douglas Fairbanks.

The property has long attracted those in the entertainment industry. To that end, the building has a current tenant roster that includes Columbia University, Playbill, Q Prime, the Actors Fund of America, Magno Sound Studios and Key Brand Entertainment.

Meridian Capital Group recently facilitated the development of Pod Philadelphia, a new 252-key micro-hotel project, arranging $53.5 million in construction financing for the hotel on behalf of development partners Modus Hotels and Parkway Corp. In January, the company arranged $48 million in CMBS financing for an office building in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood.

Last summer, Himmel + Meringoff Properties acquired a 127,000-square-foot, six-story office/warehouse property situated in Queen’s Long Island City neighborhood.

Image courtesy of Yardi Matrix