This Week’s N.Y. Deal Sheet

The loan on a mostly empty New York office building that Blackstone handed back to its lender last year is set to be marketed and sold off.

Blackstone stopped making payments in March 2022 on the $308M CMBS loan backing  1740 Broadway, a 26-story office tower a block from Carnegie Hall, one of the first instances this cycle of an owner giving up on a major building. Green Loan Services was tapped as the special servicer at the…

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Banks across the country are tightening their lending standards at the same time regulators are considering ratcheting up their liquidity expectations, further stunting loan dollars directed toward commercial real estate as the impact of heightened interest rates persists.

During the second quarter, between 60% and 70% of senior loan officers at 85 banks surveyed by the Federal Reserve reported having tightened standards on all categories of CRE loans. Except for a brief moment at the beginning of the pandemic, capital for CRE deals is now harder to obtain than at any time since the Global Financial Crisis.

Fifty percent of respondents to the Fed's survey expect either somewhat tighter or considerably tighter lending standards later this year, while the other half expect standards to remain unchanged.

“Banks tightening their lending standards on CRE casts a long shadow on the sector,” LH Meyer economist Derek Tang said. “The effect is likely to last for quite some time. Banks are hitting the pause button on CRE borrowing, and no one is sure when to start again.” It isn't…

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In Case You Missed It...

It is early days for a United Auto Workers strike that has halted work at three facilities in Michigan, Ohio and Missouri, but a protracted stoppage could reveal implications of union-friendliness for site selection and corporate growth.

Depending on how long the strike lasts, it has the potential to impact long-term site selection in the auto industry, especially as carmakers transition to electric vehicle production, according to site selection experts.

“From a site selection perspective, this really puts an exclamation point on the attractiveness of right-to-work locations,” said John Boyd, a site selection specialist and principal of The Boyd Co.

“The center of gravity for the auto industry over the last 20 or 30 years has become the South, where there are fewer concerns about labor disruptions,” Boyd said, adding that as the industry converts to electric vehicle production, the cost of labor will be even more critical as a…

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