RXR And David Werner Secure $1.2B Loan For $1.65B Equitable Building Purchase
RXR Realty and investor David Werner were able to lock in a $1.2B loan for their $1.65B purchase of 1285 Avenue of the Americas, no small feat in today’s financing climate.
RXR and David bought the 42-story, Class-A office tower, better known as the Equitable Building, from AXA Financial and JP Morgan Asset Management. The building had been on the block since last summer, the Commercial Observer reports.
The deal is one of the biggest of the year, and is the biggest RXR and Meridian Capital Group, which brokered the financing, have ever closed.
The financing consists of a seven-year senior loan for $1.03B split evenly between AIG and Morgan Stanley, and $175M in mezzanine debt from Morgan Stanley alone.
The financing market has tightened somewhat in recent months, as Bisnow previously reported, but big loans are still getting written if the fundamentals are there, as several deals this year demonstrate.
Back in January, pension fund CalPERS purchased 787 Seventh Ave, formerly owned by AXA Financial and listed at the same time as the Equitable Building, for nearly $2B, using a $780M mortgage from Deutsche Bank.
As part of the Equitable Building deal, UBS agreed to renew its 900k SF lease at the building. Law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison also leases 550k SF there, and marketing firm BBDO leases 325k SF.
“It is only fitting that one of the city’s most prestigious buildings will remain the home to some of the city’s most prestigious companies for decades to come,” RXR chairman/CEO Scott Rechler said in a statement. [CO]
