Ashkenazy Lands $430M Refinancing Deal For Union Station Retail
The real estate company that manages Union Station's retail and office space has closed a nine-figure refinancing deal.
Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. secured a $430M floating-rate loan with Citigroup and Natixis for the 383K SF of combined retail and office space at the station, Commercial Mortgage Alert reports.
The New York firm has managed the space through a lease with the U.S. Department of Transportation since 2007. The majority of the $430M loan will be used to retire a $275M loan it originated in 2014. The two banks will securitize about $330M of the loan and have structured the remainder as mezzanine debt to be placed with high-yield investors.
Union Station consists of 211K SF of retail and 172K SF of office and concourse space, occupied by Amtrak. Several new retail tenants have opened in recent months, including Blue Bottle Coffee, eyeglass company Warby Parker, used book store Carpe Librum and Chick-fil-A.
In November 2016, the station unveiled the $20M restoration of its main hall. Amtrak is working on a major redesign of the concourse aimed at doubling ridership over the next 20 years.
The rail yard behind Union Station will eventually be built over with 3M SF of mixed-use development. Akridge needs to wait for the passage of an environmental impact study and the reconstruction of the H Street bridge before it can break ground on the Burnham Place megaproject, which the company has estimated could begin in 2022.
