HKS Brokers $109M Fortress Loan for SLS Hotel at 444 Park Avenue South

FINANCE WEEKLY The Insider’s Weekly Guide to the Commercial Mortgage Industry

In This Issue

3 Meridian Brokers $95M Refinance of Cammeby’s Office Tower

3 NCB Refinances Landmark Upper Manhattan Co-op With Better Terms

5 JLL Arranges $60M Credit Line for Canadian Investment Fund

5 Spreads on CMBS New Issuance Expected to Tighten

7 Wells Fargo, Citibank Loan $250M for Construction at Essex Crossing “I have always been interested in the brokerage industry because of its entrepreneurial nature” —Geoffrey Goldstein From Q&A on page 11

Extell Receives $150M HKS Brokers $109M Bridge Loan from Fortress Loan for SLS Hotel Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank provided a $150 million bridge loan to Extell Development at 444 Park Avenue South Company for the construction of its luxury condominium tower at 250 South Street in Lower East Side Manhattan, city records David Moinian of Moin Development story office building at the site in August show. and Sam Nazarian of SBE landed 2011 for $45 million and partnered with The development company is expected to the financing they need to complete Los Angeles nightclub operator and hote- seek out a construction loan for the site later their flagship SLS Hotel at 444 Park lier SBE to bring its successful SLS brand this year, a person familiar with the matter told Avenue South, Commercial Observer there. The $150 million project marks the Commercial Observer Finance. Finance can first report. first SLS hotel in New York City, following Once completed, the tower will primarily Ayush Kapahi and Gabrielle Simon two completed properties in Miami Beach house residential condos, as well as retail and of HKS Capital Partners secured a $109 and Beverly Hills. parking components. The Deutsche Bank loan million loan from Fortress Investment The redevelopment includes an addition- covers four parcels. Group on behalf of the sponsors to recapi- al six stories above the existing structure Extell purchased a one-story building occu- talize and restructure existing debt and a 6,000-square-foot sub-cellar. pied by a Pathmark and a surrounding park- on the Midtown South redevelop- The The boutique hotel, once complet- ing lot at the site, also known as 227 Cherry ment, according to the New York- ed, will contain a restaurant, rooftop Street, for $103 million in March 2013. The based mortgage brokerage. LEAD bar and basement bar and lounge. development firm then acquired Pathmark’s Spencer Garfield, a managing The SLS Midtown South hotel is long-term lease in a separate $46 million director in Fortress’ credit and real estate scheduled to open next spring. transaction, according to city records. business, originated the new loan, which “HKS was instrumental in recapitalizing/ While the condo tower is set to reach 68 sto- closed last week. restructuring the existing mortgage to allow ries, according to the most recent Department Puerto Rico’s Doral Bank provided con- for the project to utilize additional square of Buildings filing from June 23, published re- struction financing for the upcoming hotel footage,” Mr. Moinian said in a prepared ports have stated that Extell’s permit received a in 2012 and 2013, city records show. statement provided to COF. Moin Development purchased a 14- —Damian Ghigliotty See Extell... continued on page 5

1 | july 10, 2015 CAN YOUR BROKER DO THIS?

FLOATING INTEREST RATE $244,800,000 -YEAR LOAN 10 5 YEARS OF INTEREST-ONLY INITIAL RATE BELOW 2.30%

Multifamily Portfolio - 1,580 Units - Virginia and Maryland

Drew Anderman | Senior Managing Director 212.612.0236 | [email protected]

MeridianCapital.com

july 10, 2015 COFW – CYBDT - $244.8MM – Multifamily Portfolio – D. Anderman – 7-10-15.indd 1 2 | 6/30/15 2:23 PM Meridian Brokers $95M Refinance of Cammeby’s Office Tower Meridian Capital Group secured a $95 million loan on behalf of Cammeby’s International to refinance its 32-story office skyscraper known as 45 Broadway Atrium. The 12-year loan, provided by Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, car- ries a fixed interest rate of 3.78 percent and six years of interest-only payments followed by a 30-year amortization schedule, according to two people familiar with the deal. The debt replaces a $72.4 million loan se- curitized by J.P. Morgan Chase. Meridian Senior Managing Director Abe Hirsch and Managing Director Daniel Jacob negotiated the refinancing. “As treasuries rallied earlier this spring, Meridian was able to leverage our relation- The Cherokee ship with the lender to secure a long-term forward rate lock allowing the client to close with an interest rate well below current market levels,” Mr. Jacob told COF. NCB Refinances Landmark The Class-A office property, which is located in the heart of Manhattan’s Financial Upper Manhattan Co-op District between Morris Street and Exchange Alley, totals 403,800 square feet. With Better Terms The office tower was designed by Fox & Fowle Architects and completed in 1983. National Cooperative Bank pro- office, told COF over the phone. The building’s main tenants include the vided New York-based property man- The six-story, 377-unit, four-building law firms Cozen O’Connor and Winget, agement firm Century Management property, located at 508-516 East 78th Spadafora & Schwartzberg, and the in- Services with a $26.5 Street and 509-517 East 77th Street, formation technology provider MTM EXCLUSIVE million first mortgage was built in 1910. Upgrades to the prop- Technologies. and $3 million line of erty will include new plumbing, a gas Representatives for Cammeby’s credit for The Cherokee, a landmark co- conversion project and re-coating the International and Cornerstone Real Estate operative building in Manhattan’s Upper buildings’ stairwells. Advisers were unavailable for comment. East Side, Commercial Observer Finance The borrower and lender have worked —Damian Ghigliotty has learned. together on various transactions for over The bank was able to lend at a fixed rate two decades and Mr. Howe estimates that of 3.26 percent over a 10-year, interest- NCB has financed nearly half of Century only term for the $26.5 million first mort- Management’s 80-plus properties. gage and at a floating rate, interest-only “We’ve been doing business with them term for the $3 million credit line. The for over 25 years, and they have a good combined loan-to-value ratio was low, at niche in this market, which certain- roughly 20 percent. ly makes the process a lot easier,” said The borrower is using the new mort- David Lipson, senior managing direc- gage to pay off a $16 million fixed-rate first tor of Century’s mortgage division. “On a mortgage and a $7.8 million floating-rate loan this size, it’s very competitive and a outstanding line of credit with NCB that lot of lenders were looking at it. NCB was dates back to 2008. Other proceeds will able to get the most aggressive pricing.” be added to the property’s reserves for NCB’s New York office also worked capital improvements. with Century Management’s Adam “[This was] a straightforward transac- Zerka, senior account executive, on the tion, and given the quality of the property transaction. there were a lot of other financial institu- “We are very happy to have them as a tions trying to win the deal, which forced longstanding customer. We worked with us into a highly competitive situation, them during the tough financial times and which translated into the extremely low are very happy to keep them during these rate they [received],” Edward Howe III, great financial times,” Mr. Howe added. a managing director in NCB’s New York —Danielle Balbi 45 Broadway Atrium

3 | july 10, 2015 Focused On YOU

4 | july 10, 2015 JLL Arranges $60M Credit Line for Canadian Investment Spreads on CMBS New Fund Issuance Expected JLL Capital Markets arranged a $60 million credit facility on behalf of Canada-based investment firm Dalfen America Corp., to Tighten Commercial Observer EXCLUSIVE Finance can exclusively Volatility in the commercial mort- report. gage-backed securities market and Bank of America was able to provide the excess deal supply—with eight con- credit facility at a floating rate on a three-year duits coming online last month— term with two one-year extension options, ac- pushed pricing wider on new issue cording to a person in the know. deals, a trend that market players ex- JLL’s Randy Fleisher, managing director, pect to soon dissipate. However, vol- led the transaction, bringing the firm’s total ume flow will remain heavy, with two business with DAC in the $200 million range. more conduits set to come out in the “The industrial sector is one of the strongest next week. in the country right now, as cross-border pur- JPMBB 2015-C30 came out chases grow to record numbers,” Mr. Fleisher this Wednesday, followed by GS noted. “Warehouse and distribution facilities, Mortgage Securities Trust-GC32 in particular, are extremely desirable.” next Monday, and finally, MSBAM DAC has used some of the credit line to pur- 2015-C24 next Wednesday. chase the South Texas Industrial Portfolio, As for the market’s most recently which is comprised of four Class A industrial priced deals, the $1.5 million COMM Ocean Key Resort & Spa buildings in the Sharyland Business Park in 2015-PC1 deal’s benchmark AAA- McAllen, Texas. rated, 10-year super senior tranche re- The properties total 635,752 square feet and ceived pricing of swaps plus 107—the Moody’s Investors Service pro- are 89 percent occupied. The credit line will widest pricing a conduit’s benchmark rates both deals. The Wells Fargo- also be used to refinance seven of DAC’s ware- has seen all year—preceded by the $914 sponsored conduit is comprised of house and distribution sites. million Wells Fargo Commercial 63 fixed-rate loans collateralized by “I can unequivocally state that [Randy] and Mortgage Trust 2015-NXS2, whose 77 properties, and features a Moody’s his team at JLL, are simply best in class,” said benchmark priced at swaps plus 100. Trust loan-to-value ratio of 119.9 per- Sean Dalfen, president and chief investment Market players noted that the Wells cent, in line with the higher leverage officer at DAC. “Bank of America has also been print is more indicative of where the trend seen in recent new issue CMBS terrific to work with and we look forward to market is right now, while the COMM deals. Fifty-six loans totaling 94.4 getting many more deals done with them in deal is seen as more of an outlier. percent of the pool’s balance have a the near future.” “I’m not sure if it’s necessarily the Moody’s LTV of over 100 percent, ac- —Danielle Balbi CMBS market speaking or the macro cording to the rating agency’s presale headlines speaking, and credit-wise, report. Additionally, the pool features Extell...continued from page 1 [market players] would opine that,” a weak amortization profile, with 36 an investor, who asked not to be iden- loans structured with amortization height reduction from 71 stories to 56 stories. tified, told Commercial Observer during the entire loan term. The 939,850-square-foot development, Finance. “Credit probably was not the Similarly, the COMM deal also re- next to the Manhattan Bridge, has been hit best out there [on those two deals], but ceived a very high Moody’s-rated le- with several complaints over the past year, levels are pretty attractive from where verage rate of 121.5 percent, with 70 of including allegations that construction at we’ve been going throughout the year. the deals 80 loans featuring a Moody’s the site damaged one of the surrounding Liquidity is definitely tougher right LTV between 110 and 120 percent. blocks, according to complaints filed with now, we don’t see as many offers on Another area of concern, according to the DOB. bonds, and we don’t see much trading.” the rating agency, is subordinate debt Additionally, the Two Bridges Both conduits featured above-av- held outside of the trust, which is a Neighborhood Council has cited construc- erage hotel concentrations, with 18.8 feature of three loans totaling 7.1 per- tion-related concerns regarding both the safety percent of the Wells Fargo and 23.3 percent of the pool. of residents and the preservation of neighbor- cent of COMM pools featuring lodging “Still … there remain lots of buying structures and walkways. properties. Only one of the Well’s print ers out there, as opposed to prior dire The community organization also pointed top 10 largest loans is a hotel property, scenarios where dealers couldn’t get to the loss of Pathmark, a source of easily ac- while four of the COMM deal’s top 10 a bid on their paper, so I predict we cessible food for lower-income residents in are hotels. The third largest loan com- get back into the 90s relatively soon, the neighborhood, and requested that Extell prising 5.1 percent of the COMM pool after some of the noise from Europe, provide another affordable replacement for is collateralized by the 100-room lux- China, et al passes,” another investor the neighborhood’s 30-year landmark. ury Ocean Key Resort & Spa in Key said. Representatives for Extell and Deutsche West, Fla. —Danielle Balbi Bank declined to comment. —Danielle Balbi

5 | july 10, 2015 Delivering on the Assignment

CAPITAL PARTNERS LLC T H . K S

The ability to execute in this business depends on reliable access to capital. HKS Capital Partners has closed more than $13 Billion in transactions since April 2011.

Let us put our expertise to work for you.

• Debt • Equity • Mezzanine • Construction • Bridge • Private • Joint Ventures

127 West 24th Street, 2nd Floor, NY 10011 • (212) 254 1600 • www.hks.com

6 | july 10, 2015 Wells Fargo, Citibank Loan $250M for Construction at Essex Crossing Delancey Street Associates, the joint venture developing Essex Crossing, is about to get one of its biggest construction deliveries: a truck full of cash. L+M Development Partners, BFC Partners and Taconic Investment Partners received more than $250 million in construction financing on Tuesday for their 1.9-million-square-foot mixed-use project on the Lower East Side, Commercial Observer Finance first reported last week. The debt from Wells Fargo and allows Delancey Street Citibank Essex Crossing Associates to move forward with residential and retail developments on the project’s nine sites, which Delancey Street Associates addi- the lending activity is part of future span four blocks from Ludlow Street tionally closed a $144 million con- work with the developers on Essex to Clinton Street. Construction on struction loan from Citibank with Crossing. Wells Fargo has bid and Sites 2 and 5, which began earlier $15 million in tax-exempt bonds is in the process of closing a deal to this year, will eventually lead to 400 from the New York City Housing finance construction and buy the rental apartments, half of which will Development Corporation for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits be designated as affordable hous- work at Site 2, according to anoth- for Site 6, they said. That deal in- ing for low- and middle-income er person familiar with the deal. cludes $42 million in debt and $26.5 residents. The Citibank loan covers about million of equity from the tax cred- Wells Fargo provided a $109 mil- 55 percent of Site 2’s $264 million its. Those units will be allocated for lion construction loan for work at project cost, which includes con- senior housing. Site 5, a 211-unit apartment building struction of 195 rental apartments “We are finalizing that deal and that will consist of half market-rate and 188,000 square feet of retail moving towards a closing with the and half-affordable rentals, accord- space, that person said. borrower,” Mr. Mutti said. ing to the lender. The three-year As with Site 5, those apartments Several of the sites have sat dor- construction debt covers about 75 will be split between market-rate mant for close to 50 years following percent of the $142 million project, and affordable units. Wells Fargo is the demolition of several tenements. which also includes 66,000 square buying the tax credits for $13.9 mil- Area residents and the city gov- feet of retail. lion, the company confirmed. ernment debated over what to do “During the whole request for The retail space at Site 2 will pro- with the plots until the city named proposal process that the city ran vide a new home for the 75-year-old Delancey Street Associates the de- to select the developers, the local Essex Street Market. The longtime veloper in late 2013, as The New community was very involved in the public market will stay in its cur- York Times reported. The joint ven- type of retail space that would be of- rent location at 120 Essex Street ture agreed to pay the city $180 mil- fered in these projects,” said Duane between Rivington and Delancey lion for the sites. Mutti, a senior vice president at Streets until the new facility is com- “Tuesday’s closing marks the cul- Wells Fargo Community Lending pleted and handed over to vendors mination of a 48-year community re- and Investment. “That’s very much in 2018, according to the New York vitalization effort on the Lower East needed retail space for the commu- City Economic Development Side,” a Delancey Street Associates nity, and they were very involved.” Corporation. spokesman said regarding the Wells Mr. Mutti worked on the deal The retail space also includes a Fargo and Citi loans. “It’s been a with Alan Wiener, the group head 14-screen Regal Cinemas, which long time coming, but now the work of Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital. inked a deal in December to open at of bringing back this long-dormant The financing closed on June 30, 115 Delancey Street, a part of Site 2. corner of the LES can begin.” pursuant to an escrow agreement. Regal Cinemas loaned itself $6 mil- A Citibank spokesman declined Wells Fargo is also buying the site’s lion to build the 65,000-square-foot to comment. Low-Income Housing Tax Credits theater, sources involved told COF. —Terence Cullen and Damian for $11.5 million, Mr. Mutti said. Messrs. Mutti and Wiener said Ghigliotty

7 | july 10, 2015 New York Real Estate Summit www.nyrealestatesummit.com Outlook for 2015-2016: The Sky is the limit what can we expect? Monday, June 22, 2015 -8:00 AM to 12 Noon Schedule for the event: Graduate Center of the City University-365 Fifth Ave, New York City

Industry Pro’s View on the state of market & economy-where are we headed? 7:30 AM-8:30 AM: Registration & breakfast

Michael Maturo, President, RXR Realty LLC 8:30 AM-9:30AM: Industry Pro’s View on the Stephen Siegel, Chairman, Global Brokerage, CBRE market-Where are we headed? Steven Witkoff, Chairman & CEO, Witkoff Group Ofer Yardeni, Chairma n & CEO, Stonehenge Partners 9:40 AM-10:40 AM: Money, Money & More Money for real estate: Debt, equity, Israeli Money, Money & more money for real estate: Debt, equity, Israeli bond Bond Financing, EB 5, Crowd funding, Joint financing,EB-5, Crowd funding, Joint ventures & other sources of funds to fuel Ventures & other sources of funds to fuel the the hot, hot, real estate market hot, hot, real estate market

Ralph Herzka, President & CEO, Meridian Capital Group 10::40 AM-11:00 AM: Coffee Break Mary King, Chief Operating Officer, New York City Regional Center Philip McAndrews, Sr. Managing Director, Chief Investment Officer-Global Real Estate, TIAA-CREF 11:00 AM - 12:00 Development Forum: Dan Miller, Co-Founder & President, Fundrise Opportunities in the five boroughs & Gold Ofer Grinbaum, CEO, Leumi Partners Un dewriting Coast of New Jersey Jeffrey Ruidl, Director, Northwestern Mutual Real Estate Investments Shimon Shkury, President, Ariel Property Advisors, Co-Founder, Arlington Equity Group 12:00 PM-1:00 PM: Networking Peter Sotloff, Managing Member & CIO, Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies For additional information visit the website

Development Forum: Opportunities in the five boroughs & Gold Coast of New or call: Jersey www.nyrealestatesummit.com Michael Stoler, 646-442-0717 Adam Altman, Managing Member, KABR Group [email protected] Peter D’Arcy, President, New York City & Long Island, M & T Bank [email protected] Jeffrey Levine, Chairman & CEO, Douglaston Development, Levine Builders Joe McMillan, Chairman & CEO, DDG www.michaelstolertelevision.com Alan Suna, CEO, Silvercup Studios, Principal, Silvercup Properties www.buildingnynylifestories.com Josh Zegen, Managing Member & Co-Founder, Madison Realty Capital www.thestolerreport.com

www.michaelstolertelevision.com

8 | july 10, 2015 Greenbrook Gardens NYCB Finances New Jersey Apartment Complex Buy

New York Community Bank SDK Apartments paid Segal & Segal, “In such a rapidly moving interest provided a $52.8 million acquisi- another landlord with properties in the rate environment, Meridian was able to tion loan for a multifamily complex area, $66 million for the property, so capitalize on our relationship with the in northern New the loan covers about 75 percent of the lender and a drop in treasuries to lock EXCLUSIVE Jersey, Commercial purchase, another person in the know this seven-year loan at the bottom of Observer Finance confirmed. the market and then hold the rate until can exclusively report. The seven-year acquisition loan car- the acquisition closed,” Mr. Hammer Meridian Capital Group arranged ries two years of interest-only payments, said in prepared remarks. the loan on behalf of Hackensack, a 3.5-percent fixed rate and a five-year Located at 1275 Rock Avenue in N.J.-based SDK Apartments for its extension option, according to Judah North Plainfield, the complex includes purchase of Greenbrook Gardens Hammer, a vice president at Meridian, 35 buildings that are made up of 407 in North Plainfield, according to the and Zev Karpel, a managing director, units. brokerage. who negotiated the debt deal. —Terence Cullen

Madison Realty Capital Lends on Three Queens Properties

New York-based middle-market lender “The velocity of transactions in today’s mar- August 2015. The renovated building will be and investor Madison Realty Capital pro- ket requires buyers to move quickly, and we’re fully occupied by Green Apple Supermarket vided $37 million in debt collateralized by pleased to provide this customized financing & Food Court and a Rent-A-Center three properties in Jamaica solution to help close a time-sensitive deal,” location. EXCLUSIVE and Flushing, Queens, Mr. Zegen said. Nearby 163-25 Archer Avenue is a devel- Commercial Observer “The borrower approached us based on our opment site that offers roughly 700,000 build- Finance has learned. speed and certainty of execution, and we are able square feet. The borrower, New York-based Jamaica familiar with these Queens submarkets as an The third property supporting the loan is Tower LLC, needed immediate funding to active real estate lender and owner there,” he a newly developed condominium building in close a separate acquisition in New York, ac- added. “With that background and the sup- Flushing, which includes residential and med- cording to the lender, and MRC was able to port of our vertically integrated platform, we ical office units, according to the lender. provide the required liquidity through a deal were able to underwrite and close the transac- MRC closed 13 debt investments totaling backed by the Queens assets. tion on an accelerated timeline.” $240 million in the second quarter of 2015, The lender closed the transaction within six The collateral for the MRC loan includes consisting of special situation loan origina- days of sourcing the opportunity, according to 163-05 Archer Avenue, a 32,471-square-foot tion opportunities and loan acquisition deals, Josh Zegen, co-founder and managing prin- retail building in Jamaica that is currently un- according to Mr. Zegen. cipal of MRC. dergoing renovations due for completion by —Damian Ghigliotty

9 | july 10, 2015 The Takeaway “After a significant improvement in May, the Trepp CMBS Delinquency Rate moved modestly higher in June,” said Sean Barrie, an analyst with Trepp. “The delinquency rate for U.S. commercial real estate loans in CMBS is now 5.45 percent, up five basis points for the month. It is now 60 basis points lower than the year-ago level and 30 basis points lower year-to-date. In June, $1.4 billion in loans became newly delinquent while about $400 million in loans were cured. CMBS loans that were previously delinquent but paid off either at par or with a loss totaled over $1.1 billion in June. Removing these previously distressed assets from the numerator of the delinquency calculation helped offset new delinquencies.” Source:

Top 5 Loans Taking Losses

Property Name Previous Bal Prop Type City State Status Realized Loss Government Property 89,785,396 OF Various VR Foreclosure 37,905,927 Advisors Portfolio One & Two Securities Centre 65,202,497 OF Atlanta GA REO 892,936 Fairfield Inn by 55,932,280 LO Various — REO 13,315,138 Marriot Hotel Portfolio Stafford Place II 52,279,203 OF Arlington VA Current 536,871 Woodbridge Hilton 33,477,468 MU Iselin NJ REO 29,865,054 Pool (2),(3)

Top 5 Newly Delinquent Loans

Property Name Previous Bal Prop Type City State New Delinquency Status Deal Central Mall 117,666,612 RT Various — Non-Perf Beyond Mat MSC 2005-IQ9

NGP Rubicon GSA Pool 199,501,926 MU Various — Non-Perf Beyond Mat WBCMT 2005-C20,C21 390 Park Avenue 97,979,469 OF New York NY Non-Perf Beyond Mat CSFB 2005-C2 Garden City Plaza 82,355,655 OF Garden City NY Non-Perf Beyond Mat GECMC 2005-C3 Best Western President 70,000,000 LO New York NY 30 Days CSMC 2006-C5

UPCOMING SPECIAL EXPANDED FINANCE ISSUES

June 3rd: Retail Lending UPCOMING SPECIAL EXPANDED FINANCE ISSUES July 8th: Alternative Finance August June5th: Europe 3rd: Retail & Asia Lending Investments SeptemberJuly 8th:9th: AlternativeLawyers | Mortgage Finance REITs AugustOctober 5th: Europe 7th: Hotel & Asia Lending Investments SeptemberNovember 9th: 4th:Lawyers Top 30 | Mortgage Under 30 REITs OctoberDecember 7th: Hotel2nd: CMBS Lending November 4th: Top 30 Under 30

For advertising information, contactDecember Barbara Shapiro 2nd: at CMBS 212.407.9383 or [email protected]

10 | july 10, 2015 For advertising information, contact Barbara Shapiro at 212.407.9383 or [email protected] FINANCE WEEKLY Q+A 321 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036 Geoffrey Goldstein 212.755.2400 Director at HFF Damian Ghigliotty Editor Commercial Observer Finance: Where are you from? Danielle Balbi Mr. Goldstein: I grew up in New Staff Reporter Providence, N.J., about 30 miles from the city. I moved to New York after col- Cole Hill Copy Editor lege and currently reside in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.

How did you get started in com- Barbara Ginsburg Shapiro mercial real estate finance? Associate Publisher I was fortunate to land a great in- Miguel Romero ternship with Forest City Ratner dur- Art Director ing business school. At the time the firm was heavily involved with the develop- Lisa Medchill ment of Atlantic Yards and The New Advertising and Production Manager York Times Building. One of the senior finance guys advised me to start my career with a balance sheet lender to see OBSERVER MEDIA GROUP deal flow and learn about construction lending. I took his advice and joined Jared Kushner Helaba the following year to work under Publisher Rick Lavrich, a 30-year industry veter- Joseph Meyer an. I thought I would spend a few years Geoffrey Goldstein Chief Executive Officer at Helaba, but it was a terrific place to work and learn the business, so I ended Matthew Talomie up working there for eight years. sales team as well. For the first time in my Chief Revenue Officer career, I can leverage the firm’s platform in Ken Kurson You recently left your position as a order to offer my relationships many differ- Editorial Director vice president at Helaba to join HFF’s ent products. New York office. What inspired you Robyn Reiss to make that move? What are some of the more notable Vice President of Sales While I enjoyed my time at Helaba, I construction deals you have financed? have always been interested in the bro- While at Helaba I helped finance the Thomas D’Agostino kerage industry because of its entrepre- conversion of 200 Fifth Avenue in May Controller neurial nature and it seemed like the 2008. We provided a very large senior loan Laurence Rabinowitz right time to make a transition while to convert the former Toy Building into a General Counsel the market remains strong. I closed a modern office building anchored by Grey few deals with HFF in their New York Advertising. Shortly after Lehman filed for For editorial comments or to and D.C. offices, and was always highly bankruptcy in September, the mezzanine submit a tip, please email impressed with their professionalism lender stopped funding halfway through the Danielle Balbi at and the quality of their clients. A po- project. Fortunately, the sponsor demon- [email protected]. sition became available to work close- strated a huge commitment to the project by For advertising, contact ly with Mike Tepedino in the New York contributing more equity, as did the senior Barbara Ginsburg Shapiro office and I jumped at the opportunity. lenders. The building got completed, new at [email protected] The New York team at HFF has closed leases were signed with Eataly and Tiffany, or call 212-407-9383. some huge deals lately, including a $556 and the loan was fully repaid in 2011. For general questions million construction loan on 425 Park Last year, I financed a large construc- and concerns, Avenue and a $360 million construction tion loan for a deal called Apollo on H contact Damian Ghigliotty at loan on 100 East 53rd Street. Street in Washington, D.C. The construc- dghigliotty@commercialobserver. tion loan, which was brokered by HFF, will com What does your new role entail? help finance the development of a mixed- or call 212-407-9308. The great thing about the firm is that use building containing 430 luxury apart- it’s very team oriented and offers an ments above a Whole Foods grocery store. To receive a trial subscription to array of services to its clients. In ad- The project is still under construction, but Commercial Observer dition to investment sales, equity and I think it will be a game changer for the H Finance Weekly, debt placement, HFF has a growing note Street Corridor. contact Shannon Rooney at [email protected], or call 212-407-9367 11 | july 10, 2015