Philadelphia Office Building Trio Lands $355M Refi

By Gail Kalinoski

1635 Market St.

NKF Capital Markets secured two loans totaling $355 million for three Philadelphia CBD Class A office towers on behalf of Nightingale Properties and Wafra Capital Partners: 1835 Market St., 1635 Market St. and 1500 Spring Garden.

The NKF Capital Markets team was led by Vice Chairmen & Co-Heads of Debt and Structured Finance Dustin Stolly and Jordan Roeschlaub, along with Managing Directors Nick Scribani and Chris Kramer.

TPG Real Estate Finance provided the loan for 1500 Spring Garden, while KKR & Co. LP provided the financing for 1653 Market St. and 1835 Market St. The Market Street properties were refinanced with a $165 million floating-rate senior loan, while 1500 Spring Garden was refinanced with a $190 million loan, according to the Commercial Observer.

1500 Spring Garden

“1500 Spring Garden is one of only four buildings in the CBD with over 100,000 square foot floorplates, and offers sticky tenancy given the balance of data center tenants with significant capital commitments to their spaces,” Stolly said in a prepared statement.

One-third of the rent roll at 1500 Spring Garden, a 1.1-million-square-foot tower, comprises data center tenants. Nightingale purchased the property in November 2013 when it was approximately 81 percent occupied. Nightingale began a $10 million capital and tenant improvement plan to upgrade the lobby, elevators, restrooms and newly-leased spaces. The building also has retail tenants and on-site parking.

1635 Market St. is a 286,000-square-foot office and retail asset located between the Comcast Center and Liberty Place, at the northeast corner of 17^th and Market streets, an area known as “Comcast Alley.” Nightingale acquired the asset in December 2014, when the property was approximately 55 percent occupied. The owners invested more than $15 million in improvements and signed more than 220,000 square feet of new leases.

1835 Market St.

One block west, 1835 Market St. has more than 800,000 square feet of office and retail space, along with a three-level, subterranean parking garage. The property was 65 percent leased in December 2014, when Nightingale acquired it. After a $10 million capital improvement and leasing plan, Nightingale boosted the occupancy to 82 percent, with more than 275,000 square feet of new and renewed leases.

“Market West is widely recognized as the preferred submarket for office users in Philadelphia, and Nightingale is among the largest privately-owned office landlords in the city. This made for a best-in-class combination of asset, market and sponsorship for the capital marketplace to pursue,” Roeschlaub said in a prepared statement.

Nightingale, NKF Capital Markets Deals

Nightingale’s other Philadelphia holdings include Centre Square, a 1.8 million-square-foot office complex in the city’s CBD, which was acquired last July for $328 million from Equity Commonwealth. Located at 1500 Market St., the complex consists of the 36-story East Tower and the 43-story West Tower. At the time of acquisition, the property was 91.2 percent leased.

The same team at NKF Capital Markets recently announced a $342 million refinancing deal for the 617,300-square-foot 850 Third Ave. office building in Manhattan. NKF Capital Markets and Cooper-Horowitz structured the loan for owners HNA Property Holdings, MHP Real Estate Services and ATCO Properties & Management through a consortium of lenders consisting of Natixis, Paramount Group and Harbor Group International.

Images courtesy of NKF Capital Markets