Vornado Locks Down Nearly $1B Loan For Tower It Co-Owns With Trump
The most valuable holding in the real estate empire of former President Donald Trump has secured a refinancing package from JPMorgan Chase.
The bank, alongside Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Bank of Montreal, has provided $950M in fresh debt for 1290 Sixth Ave., which is controlled by its majority owner, Vornado, Bloomberg reports.
The financing for the office skyscraper is expected to be parceled into a commercial mortgage bond, per Bloomberg, citing Kroll Bond Rating Agency. The building — of which The Trump Organization owns 30% — is 98% leased to 25 tenants, per Yahoo. Rumors about the future of the building have been swirling for some time, however.
At the start of the year, Vornado was reported to be working to end its relationship with The Trump Organization and planning to buy the firm out both at 1290 Sixth Ave. and at 555 California St. in San Francisco, in which Trump also owns a minority stake.
Plans to refinance hadn’t panned out, and the company was said to be concerned that the Trump connection was off-putting to lenders and buyers, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. Vornado was also reportedly exploring ways it could stop paying The Trump Organization income from the property, which could have sparked a legal battle and put a rapid end to the partnership.
Vornado CEO Steven Roth, a longtime friend of Trump's, denied that was the case during an earnings call in February. In May, Trump released a statement saying 555 California St. had scored a $1.2B loan.
“The interest rate is approximately 2%. Thank you!” he wrote in a statement, per Bloomberg.
A few months earlier, several banks and companies, including Deutsche Bank and Signature Bank, had sought to distance themselves from Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Cushman & Wakefield Tri-State President Toby Dodd said in the days that followed that the brokerage would explore ways of moving its Midtown offices out of 1290 Sixth Ave. It still lists the address on its website.
