NYC Office Tower Receives $342M Refi

By Barbra Murray

850 Third Ave.

The office asset at 850 Third Ave. in Midtown Manhattan has been refinanced to the tune of $342 million. Acting on behalf of HNA Property Holdings, MHP Real Estate Services and ATCO Properties & Management—owners of the 617,300-square-foot building—NKF Capital Markets and Cooper-Horowitz structured the loan through a consortium of lenders consisting of Natixis, Paramount Group and Harbor Group International.

Designed by Emery Roth & Sons, 850 Third Ave. made its debut in 1963, a striking, tiered stack of glass-clad boxes spanning an entire block. The 21-story tower, redeveloped in 1996 and renovated in 2008, is 91 percent leased to a variety of tenants including the City of New York, international law firm Shearman & Sterling LLP and interactive entertainment platform TouchTunes Music Corp. However, it’s lead tenant Discovery Communications’ impending exit in 2020 from its approximately 189,500-square-foot space that presents the building’s ownership with a key prospect. 

“The opportunity to re-tenant more than 30 percent of the building positions the property to realize significant upside rent potential, considering the anchor’s rental rate compared to recent leasing at the building and current market levels,” Jordan Roeschlaub, vice chairman & co-head of NKF Capital Markets’ Debt and Structured Finance Group, said in a prepared statement.

Roeschlaub was joined on the NKF team by Dustin Stolly, vice chairman & co-head with the firm’s Debt and Structured Finance Group, and Managing Directors Chris Kramer and Nick Scribani. On the Cooper-Horowitz side, Principals Richard Horowitz and David Horowitz led the way.

A history of financing

The new financing takes the shape of a short-term, floating-rate loan and comes two years after HNA and MHP joined forces to acquire 850 Third from Shorenstein Properties in a $463 million off-market transaction. The office tower has long been the type of asset that attracts lenders—a premier property in a premier location with solid sponsorship and a bright future.

When the joint venture purchased the asset in 2016, Morgan Stanley and Blackstone came through with $335 million in acquisition financing. In 2014, then-owner Shorenstein was on the receiving end of a $170 million loan from MetLife Inc. to replace a previous $180 million financing, which had been provided by Deutsche Bank in 2010.

Image courtesy of HNA Property Holdings/MHP Real Estate Services via NKF Capital Markets