NEW YORK CITY—CRE investors and developers in doubt about the need for more high-end condominiums around Manhattan are about to get bad news. One such project, a nearly 800-foot condo tower just south of Madison Square Park, has secured $420 million in financing, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The commitments—including more than $340 million from a Goldman SachsGroup debt fund and more than $80 million in preferred equity from Dune Real Estate Partners and Fortress Investment Group—give the planned glass tower at 45 E. 22nd St. the funding it needs to be completed, sources familiar with the deal told the Journal.
The deal marks a major shift for the project's troubled developer, Ian Bruce Eichner, who became a symbol of real estate's last down cycle when his planned $4 billion Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas resort casino stalled due to the credit crunch. After he was unable to refinance a loan, he surrendered the development to Deutsche Bank, which completed it and sold it to Blackstone Group earlier this year. Eichner also defaulted on a loan for a glitzy office tower in the 1990s, creating a legacy that has been a deterrent for some lenders, according to the Journal.
The deal is the latest luxury condo tower to get financed in New York, joining a host of towers that have been selling units for well over $3,000 per square foot, an unimaginable price just a few years ago. An influx of foreign buyers and a growing amount of wealthy buyers have helped move the market, which has led the price of land to escalate across Manhattan.
For more on this story, see the Wall Street Journal.
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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.
