Ivanhoé Cambridge Lands $1.1B Refi for Manhattan Tower

February 11, 2025

Office Featured Finance New York More News Northeast

JLL Capital Markets arranged the financing.

Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate group of CDPQ, has refinanced its 42-story trophy office tower at 3 Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan, to the tune of $1.12 billion. JLL’s Capital Markets group arranged the funding.

3 Bryant Park is a 42-story trophy office tower in Midtown Manhattan. *Image by C. Taylor Crothers, courtesy of JLL*

Hines, which serves as the 1.2 million-square-foot building’s asset manager and property manager, also participated in the deal, the funding of which was led by Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Bank of Montreal.

The building currently is 97.2 percent leased, with tenants including Salesforce, Stifel, Dechert LLP, US Bank, Lloyds Bank and Standard Chartered.

Ivanhoé Cambridge acquired 3 Bryant Park from EQ Office for $2.2 billion in early 2015, according to information provided by CommercialEdge. The building was completed in 1972.

Ownership reportedly has been making ongoing capital investment since acquiring the property. Amenities include direct access to Bryant Park, on-site retail anchored by Whole Foods and Equinox, an outdoor plaza of more than 16,000 square feet, a new conference center, a sky lobby with a coffee bar and immediate access to the 42nd Street Subway station, serving the B, D, F, M and 7 lines. The property also features an array of dining options including Valbella, Shake Shack and Rosetta Bakery.

The JLL Capital Markets Debt Advisory team who represented the borrower was led by Senior Managing Directors Christopher Peck and Drew Isaacson, Managing Director Lauren Kaufman and Directors Jennifer Zelko and Christopher Pratt.

More demand for big bucks

Based on its location equidistant from multiple transit hubs, including Grand Central Terminal, Penn Station and the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the Bryant Park micro-market is one of New York City’s strongest office submarkets, JLL stated. Its current 0.8 percent vacancy for trophy assets compares favorably with other submarkets, and its rents are running about 50 percent higher than the average for Midtown Class A properties.

More broadly, with respect to the capital markets, JLL commented that current trends “indicate increasing liquidity for large office loans, buoyed by ample debt capital and increased confidence in the sector.”

To put that in numbers, since the third quarter of 2024, JLL has seen a significant surge in demand for large commercial real estate loans. That’s part of a nearly 30 percent rise in lender quotes for deals exceeding $100 million in the second half of 2024, versus the same period in 2023.

This past August, Yeshiva University signed a 32-year lease expanding its presence at Herald Center, in Midtown, to 160,000 square feet. The Class A property is owned by JEMB Realty, which represented itself in the lease negotiations; the university was represented by Savills.

Yeshiva University intends to use the additional space at Herald Center to expand its presence in the health sciences, such as occupational therapy and speech-language pathology.