Gary Barnett and Extell Development have finally secured all the financing needed to complete Central Park Tower.
Extell closed a $900M construction loan from JP Morgan Chase that it had been negotiating for months, along with a $235M equity deal with an unnamed hedge fund, The Real Deal reports. With the $1.1B in hand, according to documents filed with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Central Park Tower is now fully funded.
The end of the long negotiation was made possible by the patience of SMI USA, a subsidiary of Shanghai Municipal Investment, which invested $300M of equity and extended the put option on its investment three times. Most recently, the investment firm pushed the deadline on its exit from the project to December from July, meaning that Extell needed just under a month of its additional time to close the deal.
At 1,550 feet, the 95-story building will be the tallest residential building in the world and the second-tallest overall in New York when completed, passing the 1,396-foot 432 Park Ave., which stands on the other end of Billionaire's Row. Barnett projects a $4B sellout on its 197 units, which would set the record for New York's most expensive condo building. Twenty of the units will be priced at over $60M, the most ever to cross that asking price in a single building in the city.
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Although Central Park Tower is now sure to be built, selling the condos is crucial for Extell to avoid future financial troubles. Last year was a concerning one for New York's most expensive condos, with slow sales, discounts and a foreclosure across Billionaire's Row and in other ultra-luxury Manhattan buildings.
JP Morgan's loan matures in 2021, and per the terms of that deal and others in Central Park Tower's capital stack, Extell must sell $500M worth of its apartments within three years. In that capital stack is the $400M Nordstrom paid for its seven-story flagship location at the base of the tower, which Extell hopes to use as a significant amenity for potential residents.
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