Apollo Writes Off Loan At Billionaires' Row Supertall, Chalks Up $82M Loss
Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance has written off a piece of the debt it owns backed by the luxury supertall at 111 West 57th St. due to slow sales at the building.
The lender wrote off the junior mezzanine B loan backing the project, registering an $82M loss on its books, Bloomberg reported. The 1,428-foot tower, which replaced the famed Steinway Hall building, has 60 residences and is one of the tallest and skinniest buildings in the country.
"While there has been a modest pickup in foot traffic and buyer interest resulting in some active negotiations on a handful of units, the velocity of unit sales remains behind expectations," Apollo CRE Finance CEO Stuart Rothstein said on an earnings call, per Bloomberg. "We are still reasonably confident in what we’re seeing from a pricing perspective, and I think we’ve certainly dialed back expectations with respect to timing."
Apollo CRE Finance provided a $239M refinancing loan on the building in September, The Real Deal reported. Construction finished late last year, and Rothstein said last October it was less than 50% sold. It reached 15% sold in February 2020, the threshold to make it an effective condominium.
The property was developed by Property Markets Group and JDS Development, and construction began in 2014. PMG principal Kevin Maloney told Bisnow in 2021 that its lender had extended the loan.
"They're going to sit and extend, and they're going to let us sell through the building," Maloney said at the time, adding that lenders in general do not want to become sponsors and take on the demands of selling out a building. "They want to see it be successful. They don't want to foreclose it, and they're gonna let us finish it."
Corcoran’s Pam Liebman told Bloomberg the sale of a penthouse in the building is set to close next week and there are “several offers being negotiated."
