NEW YORK, June 9, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Richard Bassuk, Chief Executive Officer, and Drew Fletcher, Executive Vice President, of Greystone Bassuk, today announced the closing of a $200,000,000 construction-to-perm financing facility (the "Facility") led by Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., with M&T Bank and J.P. Morgan Chase as co-lenders, for an affiliate of Taconic Investment Partners LLC and its partner, Mitsui Fudosan Americas, Inc. The Facility was the largest construction financing to be structured entirely as a private placement to date under The New York State Housing Finance Agency's ("HFA") 80/20 Housing Program, and was the first private placement execution with multiple bond purchasers. The financing consists of (i) $10,000,000 of 2015 Series A low floater tax-exempt bonds, (ii) $60,000,000 of 2015 Series B taxable bonds, (iii) $55,500,000 of 2016 Series A low-floater tax-exempt bonds and (iv) $74,500,000 of 2016 Series B low-floater taxable bonds providing funds for the construction of 525 W. 52nd Street, New York, NY (the "Project").
The Project is located on a through-block site extending from 52nd Street to 53rd Street between 10th Avenue and 11th Avenue in a rapidly growing residential section of Manhattan's Midtown West neighborhood. The Project will consist of two luxury residential towers of 14 and 22 stories over a single-story base with a common lobby and ground floor retail. The building will contain approximately 445,000 gross square feet and 392 residential rental units, of which 80 units will be designated as affordable housing units for tenants whose household incomes are at or below 60% of the New York City Area Median Income ("AMI"), and the remaining 312 apartments will be leased at market rents. Building amenities will include a concierge and valet service; an expansive penthouse roof deck with 360-degree views; an outdoor sundeck and BBQ area; a resident lounge featuring a screening room, golf simulator, and pool table; a health club with state-of-the-art equipment; and a children's playroom.
Mr. Bassuk said, "Taconic's creativity, patience and long-term vision allowed them to recognize and unlock tremendous value from an underutilized commercial site in a rapidly changing neighborhood."
Mr. Fletcher added, "Once complete, Taconic's project will further the expansion and transformation of Midtown West into one of Manhattan's most desirable and vibrant residential neighborhoods." Mr. Fletcher led the marketing of the transaction, with support from Greystone Bassuk Director Matthew Klauer and Vice President Evelyn Savino.
Charles Bendit, Co-Founder and CEO of Taconic, said, "While we have always maintained deep relationships with our lenders and capital partners, Drew's professionalism, tenacity, and credibility with the lending community enabled us to achieve a financing structure which exceeded our expectations and created significant value for the project and for our partners."
Chris Balestra, Senior Vice President of Taconic, added, "Drew did an exceptional job managing a complicated financing process that continued for more than 16 months and involved several unanticipated challenges such as the replacement of our equity partner. Greystone Bassuk's deep understanding of the marketplace and ability to drive lender demand were instrumental in delivering a successful execution."
Structured entirely as a private placement, the Facility will deliver substantial savings by eliminating remarketing costs and illiquidity risk associated with a typical publicly offered bond transaction. The Facility also included an extension option with an earn-out feature to allow the partners to resize the loan and return a portion of the initial equity upon stabilization of the Project. Mr. Fletcher further stated, "The size and complexity of the transaction posed some unique challenges for the financing. Wells Fargo proved to be the ideal partner, and demonstrated a willingness and creativity to structure the transaction in order to meet the needs of the Project and the partners."
About Greystone Bassuk
Greystone Bassuk is a real estate finance intermediary and advisory firm serving a select group of New York City's most prominent developers and investors. Working strictly on an exclusive basis, Greystone Bassuk delivers exceptional financial expertise and creativity. Greystone Bassuk provides expanded real estate and financial services, including creative debt and equity financing.
About Taconic Investment Partners LLC
Taconic is a fully-integrated real estate investment and operating company. Since 1997, Taconic has acquired, redeveloped and repositioned over 12 million square feet of commercial office and mixed-use space and more than 3,000 units of luxury and workforce housing in the New York metropolitan area as well as in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. Collectively, these transactions represent over $1.25 billion of equity invested in projects with a total capitalization of approximately $3.6 billion.