1500 Broadway Owner Coughs Up $20M To Hang Onto Struggling Tower
Tamares Group has agreed to pay a special servicer's pound of flesh to modify a $335M mortgage and hang onto an iconic tower in the heart of Times Square.
The London-based property investment firm defaulted on the mortgage at 1500 Broadway when it matured last year. After failing to find a lender to refinance the debt, it struck a forbearance deal last week, according to special servicer commentary surfaced by Morningstar Credit.
Special servicer Rialto Capital Advisors has agreed to grant the landlord forbearance on the loan until Oct. 6, 2026, with two 12-month extension options, after Tamares agreed to put $20M in equity into the building and guaranteed an additional $20.3M to cover leasing and capital expenditures.
“The extension of this loan, accompanied by the significant equity infusion made by ownership, represents the culmination of multiple months of good faith negotiation by all parties,” Iron Hound Management Managing Director Chris Herron, who assisted with the transaction, told Bisnow in a statement.
The property was appraised at a value of $335M in December, a 59% cut from its $810M valuation in 2014. The new value is the same as the senior loan balance but below the $505M in total debt tied to the building — it is also encumbered with a $170M mezzanine loan, according to a Morningstar report.
The loan was originated by UBS and Citigroup in 2014 and moved to special servicing ahead of its October 2024 maturity.
Rialto agreed not to try to foreclose on the building for at least another 19 months, though it will continue to monitor its performance.
Tamares seems set on stabilizing the property, though it faces an uphill climb. The 500K SF building in the heart of the Times Square bowtie has been home to Good Morning America since 1999. The studio is scheduled to move to Hudson Square this spring, and Nasdaq, which had been headquartered there since 2002, is already gone.
“Having owned the asset for over 30 years, ownership was proactive in putting forth a comprehensive plan to ensure that the building was adequately capitalized to address all future capital needs following the departure of Disney and Nasdaq from the property,” Herron said.
Occupancy was roughly 75% in March 2024. Officials with Tamares didn't immediately respond to Bisnow’s request for comment.
While Manhattan's office market has recovered its leasing momentum and is starting to attract investors again, those wins have largely been confined to recently developed or renovated buildings. Class-B buildings with large vacancies and dwindling cash piles like 1500 Broadway have continued to lose value.
CORRECTION, MARCH 12, 4:25 P.M. ET: A previous version of this story misstated 1500 Broadway's net operating income and the amount of equity put into building. The story has been updated to include confirmation and comment from Iron Hound Management, which arranged the loan extension.
