Brookfield Puts Up $173M To Refinance Brookfield Place Tower

Brookfield Corp. is coughing up a bundle of cash to refinance a piece of its most valuable office property.

Brookfield Properties' 225 Liberty St., where ownership scored a new CMBS loan this week after it put more than $1.7M of its own cash equity into the deal.
Brookfield Properties' 225 Liberty St., Where Ownership Scored A New Cmbs Loan This Week After It Put More Than $1.7M Of Its Own Cash Equity Into The Deal.

The Canadian investment giant has lined up an $800M CMBS loan for 225 Liberty St., a 44-story tower in the Brookfield Place office and retail complex, which sits a block from the World Trade Center.

Along with the mortgage, Brookfield plans to spend $172.5M of cash equity to refinance the 2.4M SF property's $900M CMBS loan, according to a KBRA report published Wednesday. The existing debt was originated in 2016 and matures on Friday, according to a 2023 S&P Global Ratings report.

Citi Real Estate Funding, JPMorgan Chase, The Bank of Nova Scotia and Wells Fargo are all lenders on the new fixed-rate, five-year mortgage for the Class-A tower in Battery Park City, with an expected interest rate of nearly 5.9%. The previous interest rate was 4.7%, according to the S&P report.

A recent appraisal valued the tower at $1.3B, according to KBRA. Brookfield Properties is the largest tenant, occupying 535K SF in the building, which was 90.1% leased as of November.

That figure doesn't include Saks Global, which signed a 233K SF office lease — 9.4% of the building — in 2014. The retailer filed for bankruptcy in January. Its lease expires in 2031, but it is delinquent on its rent and “is considered vacant,” according to the KBRA report.

“Brookfield Place continues to garner top-of-market rents, and 225 Liberty is fully leased,” a Brookfield spokesperson said in a statement. “In 2025 alone, companies leased 2.1 million square feet of office space at Brookfield Place, more than 40 percent of all office leasing done in Lower Manhattan. If we do end up with unexpected space to lease, we will be very confident in the outcome.”

The refinancing follows Brookfield extending its ground lease for the entire Brookfield Place complex until 2119 with the Battery Park City Authority, which owns the land underneath.

The 14-acre property, which also includes a sprawling retail complex and the office towers at 200 and 250 Vesey St., was developed in the late 1980s as the World Financial Center by Brookfield's predecessor, Olympia & York.

Brookfield pays the BPCA $7M a year through the ground lease, which increases by 10% every five years and by 20% after 16 years, according to KBRA.

Brookfield Place is the most valuable office property in the $1T portfolio of Brookfield Corp., valued at $4B, according to a 2025 investor presentation. Its other NYC holdings include the Manhattan West complex, valued at $3.3B, and the retail condo at 730 Fifth Ave., valued at $1.2B.

Those holdings don't include the assets owned by Brookfield Asset Management, the New York-based private equity company that owns 660 Fifth Ave. and a portion of The New York Times Building on Eighth Avenue. BAM is a separate company majority owned by Brookfield Corp.

Both entities have been tapping the CMBS market to refinance their Manhattan properties. Brookfield landed a $1.25B CMBS package at Five Manhattan West and a $1.3B loan at 660 Fifth Ave. last year.

UPDATE, FEB. 5, 2:45 P.M. ET: This story has been updated to include a statement from a Brookfield spokesperson.

Continue reading this story with a free account

Log in or register
Sign up for more articles like this
Subscribe to Bisnow's New York Newsletters
Related Stories

Wildfires Reignite Case For Landlords To Invest In Air Quality

3 Suburban Philly Office Buildings With Strong Occupancy Hit The Market

Lightstone Group Acquires Amazon Robotics Building For $43M

100% Of European Asset Managers Hold Stranded Assets. So Why Aren't We Fixing Them?

'Not In The Business Of Losing Our Customers': Renewals Dominate Boston Office Market

Tax Break Fight Threatens Development In Housing-Starved Long Island

REPORT: JLL In Talks To Relocate Global Headquarters

Vornado, Related's Google-Anchored Office Building Faces 'Imminent Default'

City Block Sold For New Houston Center Parking Garage

Whoop Looks To Double Boston Footprint With 107K SF Lease

Pied-À-Terre Tax Won't Deter Buyers Long Term, Developers Say

Long Island City Lab Sells At A Loss: The N.Y. Deal Sheet