HFF Orchestrates Financing for Purchase, Transformation of Brooklyn Asset

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

47 Hall St., Brooklyn, N.Y.

New York—Westbrook Partners and RXR Realty set their sights on the 665,000-square-foot Hall Street Complex in Brooklyn, N.Y., and with the help of HFF, the industrial asset across from the Brooklyn Navy Yard is now under their ownership. Acting on the partners’ behalf, commercial real estate and capital markets services provider HFF reeled in $162 million in financing for the acquisition of the multi-structure property and its metamorphosis into a creative mixed-use office destination.

HFF arranged the financing through Starwood Property Trust Inc., which provided a floating-rate first mortgage loan. Westbrook and RXR utilized the majority of the proceeds to fund the $161 million purchase of the Hall Street Complex from, according to New York City records, 9-47 Hall Street Owner LLC, leaving the remaining funds for the repositioning of the property.

The new owners’ goal: create coveted, creative loft office space. And, as noted in a fourth quarter 2015 report by commercial real estate services firm JLL, flex and retail space will also be among the Class A offerings at this site in the Flushing Avenue Corridor of Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill neighborhood. “RXR and Westbrook are uniquely equipped to reimagine the asset to accommodate the growing demand of Brooklyn-based tenants looking to grow within the market, as well as Manhattan-based companies eager to plant their flag where many of their employees live, work and play,” Christopher Peck, associate director with HFF, said in a prepared statement.

The timing appears to be right for the project. “[The Flushing Avenue Corridor] represents enormous potential for future growth, including ground-up development and redevelopment projects,” according to the JLL report, which concludes that Brooklyn “will continue its dramatic transformation into a competitive office market in the coming years.”

Image courtesy of RXR Realty