Oceanwide Loses Control Of Manhattan Supertall Site
Oceanwide Holdings, like many Chinese developers in the middle of the last decade, had grand ambitions to make their mark on the Manhattan luxury condo development market. Instead, the market has left a mark on Oceanwide — the site where it planned to build a 1,500-foot skyscraper has been placed in receivership over a $175M default.
The site at 80 South St. has been taken over by Kalo, an insolvency and restructuring firm headquartered in the Caribbean, after Oceanwide failed to pay back $165M on its loan from New York-based DW Partners, The Real Deal reports, citing Hong Kong stock exchange filings.
DW Partners demanded immediate payment on the loan in January, Bisnow previously reported, after Oceanwide defaulted on a $1.3M loan payment. A development subsidiary of Oceanwide purchased the site from The Howard Hughes Corp. for $390M in 2016, part of a $3.5B spending spree on U.S.-based real estate assets.
Its plans for the site, which currently houses a six-story office building, involved a mixed-use skyscraper that would have been the tallest in lower Manhattan in roof height. It also enlisted Colliers in October to sell 80 South St. at a $200M asking price, after having marketed it for $300M shortly after acquiring it.
Oceanwide's spending spree has been almost entirely unwound: Lenders took over the company’s stalled, semi-complete project in the heart of San Francisco, Bloomberg reported in October. The Oceanwide Center was supposed to be the city’s second-tallest skyscraper, but it currently sits as an abandoned construction site.
The company said in March it plans to sell the rest of its U.S. holdings, save for one: the planned Oceanwide Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles. While multiple contractors have filed liens against the developer, including a $350M lien from general contractor Lendlease, it said it plans to complete development on the project, which is set to include 504 residences, a 184-room Park Hyatt Hotel and 153K SF of retail and restaurants.
