NEW YORK CITY- It’s official: The Blackstone Group took the title at 1140 Avenue of the Americas yesterday, picking up $98.25 million of debt on the class A 236,000-square-foot building in Midtown, HFF confirms in a statement. HFF marketed the senior loan and mezzanine loan on behalf of the seller, a bank group led by Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg. GlobeSt.com previously reported that Blackstone was the front-runner out of 30 bidders just weeks ago.
From a citywide perspective, the loan sale “sums up the distressed assets market in New York City,” says Dan Fasulo, managing director at Real Capital Analytics. “The way to play the distressed market in Manhattan is through the debt, and Blackstone’s purchase is a prime example of that strategy,” he tells GlobeSt.com.
Despite that, Fasulo says 1140 Sixth is not a typical distressed asset. “It didn’t look like a distressed price,” he explains. "Honestly, it has created a lot of frustration among investors who thought they would be able to pick up prime properties at lower prices."
GlobeSt.com previously reported that Stellar Management and Rockpoint Group bought the property from SL Green Realty Corp. in September 2006 for $97.5 million, but the partnership defaulted on a $116-million mortgage. An HFF spokeswoman tells GlobeSt.com that the company has no comment.
Before this deal came to fruition, Fasulo says investors “got into trouble” when shareholders made top tier purchases in 2006 and 2007, but put too much leverage on the properties. Now, things are taking a turn. “We are seeing a steady flow of situations where savvy investors are trying to get access to these properties either through buying the debt, foreclosing or working with the owner and lender to become the ‘white knight’ and help restructure them,” he says.
The HFF team representing the seller included senior managing directors Andrew Scandalios and Whitney Wilcox and director Jeffrey Julien, according to a statement from HFF.
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