Five Banks Pooling $1.5B For Loan To Build One Vanderbilt
SL Green appears to have secured a $1.5B loan for its massive One Vanderbilt office tower in Midtown East. Or rather, it's secured a hodgepodge of sorts from a who’s who of lenders to finance the construction of the neighborhood-transforming project.
The loan will combine debt from Bank of China, Bank of New York Mellon, JP Morgan Chase, TD Bank (which has committed to a 200k SF lease as the building’s anchor tenant) and Wells Fargo.
The five banks will co-lead the loan, which hasn’t yet closed and is expected to carry a five-year term, the Commercial Observer reports. A formal groundbreaking for the tower is set for this coming fall, and by the end of this summer the monster loan is expected to close.
Demolition is already underway on the low-slung buildings that occupy the assemblage for the tower. The financing package covers just under half the project’s projected cost of $3.14B.
That cost includes picking up a $220M tab for public improvements in a deal that got SL Green a zoning change necessary for the tower to reach its 1,400-foot height and raise its allowable floor area ratio.
The improvements include major updates to the Lexington Avenue Subway station at Grand Central, adjacent to the site of the future building.
Andrew Penson, the owner of Grand Central Terminal, has filed a $1.1B lawsuit against SL Green and the City of New York, alleging that air rights he owned were essentially given to SL Green through the rezoning. [CO]
