Samuels Lands $360M Refinance Loan For Back Bay Office Complex
An air rights project on the border of the Back Bay and Fenway neighborhoods has received a hefty refinancing package.
Samuels & Associates and its international partner Jiaming Investment America Inc. secured a $360M CMBS loan from Morgan Stanley Bank and Goldman Sachs, KBRA reported. The loan, attached to the Lyrik office tower, will be used to refinance the partnership's $323M in construction debt, landlord obligations, closing costs and $17M of equity to the sponsor.
Samuels declined to comment on the loan.
The firm developed the $1.1B project in the years following the pandemic, with construction completed in 2024. The 20-story, 492K SF office building is 93.4% leased to 11 tenants.
Online car sales platform CarGurus signed a 225K SF lease across eight floors in 2019, and Lego signed a 131K SF lease in 2023. Other tenants include Rivian, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and Brooks Running.
The property borders Back Bay and Fenway and is marketed as a connection to the two neighborhoods.
The Back Bay submarket has continued to improve at a faster rate than other submarkets in the office sector, standing at 14% vacancy, compared to 18.7% across the whole Boston metro market, according to CBRE. Class-A assets have seen even lower vacancy in the Back Bay at 13.2%.
Samuels first filed plans for the project in 2018. The project marked the first air rights project across the Massachusetts Turnpike since the Copley Place project in the early 1980s. The mixed-use complex is also home to several retail tenants and a 399-room citizenM hotel.
