NEW YORK CITY-Vornado Realty Trust has completed a $600 million loan secured by its 220 Central Park South development site. The loan bears interest at Libor plus 2.75% and matures in January 2016, with three one-year extension options. The firm declined to comment on the loan to GlobeSt.com.
Last October, VNO revealed it had bought the development site's land and air rights from Extell Development Co. for $194 million. The two firms had been embroiled in a legal dispute over the property, but the sale ended the battle.
At the time of that transaction, Gary Barnett, president of Extell, said, “We are thankful that our differences with Vornado have been resolved amicably. We wish them great success.” Extell is in the process of developing its own luxury apartment tower nearby, One57, where buyers have paid more than $90 million for upper-floor duplexes.
That project, slated to rise at least 1,400 feet at 225 W. 57th, was what figured in a longstanding dispute between the developer and VNO. Starting in 2005, when VNO bought an existing rental apartment building at 220 CPS with the intent to develop on the site, the two companies had sought to block one another's neighboring developments from going forward, according to the New York Times.
Citing unnamed sources, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2011 that Extell held a lease on the parking garage underneath the existing 220 CPS rental building and refused to sell it to VNO.
Earlier in 2013, the Times reported, Extell and VNO began negotiating a deal. Under terms of that deal, VNO shifted its site slightly to the west, while Extell did likewise in the opposite direction.
VNO has rights at 220 CPS for 137,000 zoning square feet. It plans to build a 920-foot condo tower—with uninterrupted views of Central Park—that will be designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects.
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Rayna Katz
Rayna Katz is a seasoned business journalist whose extensive experience includes coverage of the lodging sector, travel and the culinary space. She was most recently content director for a business-to-business publisher, overseeing four publications. While at Meeting News, a travel trade publication, she received a Best Reporting award for a story on meeting cancellations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
