Crain's

The Macklowe organization, which has been developing the 30-story, 345,000-square-foot boutique office tower since 2007, earlier this year lost 1330 Ave. of the Americas in a foreclosure sale. Last year, Macklowe returned its seven-building Equity Office Properties portfolio to Deutsche Bank after missing payments; the office towers were sold to Boston Properties and others.

In a statement, Marc Holliday, CEO of SL Green, says, "While the commercial office sales market in Midtown has been in an essential deep freeze, we have been actively exploring opportunities on the structured finance front, looking for situations where we can take debt positions which would garner us attractive returns. The acquisition of this loan is a phenomenal and unique opportunity for SL Green to invest in what is sure to be one of Midtown's most desirable addresses."

Earlier this fall, SL Green assumed control of 100 Church St., on which it held most of the mezzanine debt, after the Sapir Organization failed to make payments. The REIT expects to assume full beneficial ownership of the 21-story Lower Manhattan office property in the first quarter of 2010. That will mean a leasing assignment of 600,000 square feet at 100 Church, but president and CIO Andrew Mathias said in October that "we're very confident our leasing team is up to the challenge."