Berkadia Commercial Mortgage has closed on a $135 million Freddie Mac (FMCC) loan for the 446,000-square-foot condo unit on floors 14 through 31 of the landmarked Whitehall Building in Battery Park City.
Vice president Erik Storz and senior vice president Stewart Campbell worked to originate the loan to refinance the 492-unit property for The Moinian Group. It’s a fixed-rate, seven-year loan with three years of interest only payments, the duo said.
Though this may sound straight forward, the deal was complicated due to the interconnected nature of condo units at the building.
“Basically in 2000 the property was broken into three separate condo units—each roughly 500,000 square feet and so there are common elements,” Mr. Storz said. “The issue with Freddie Mac was that they just wanted to be comfortable that their loan was safe and that condo unit #1 was not in a position where it could be negatively affected by the other condo units and the fact that they are sharing certain common elements.”
Those shared areas and elements include the roof and parts of the ground floor, such as boilers.
Because of this, the Berkadia team had to construct a deal that would satisfy Freddie Mac and also work well for a borrower that, though not necessarily pressed for time, was eager to refinance its existing MetLife loan.
“They were paying a much higher interest rate,” said Mr. Storz, “so we were able to lower their interest rate significantly, saving the borrower a tremendous amount.”
This condo is known as The Ocean and is located at One West Street, though the former Whitehall Building has an address of 17 Battery Place.
Mr. Stewart pointed to the building’s landmarked status as a factor making the complicated deal satisfying.
“While it was a complex deal, the real estate here really shone through,” he said. “It’s the type of deal where you go through the structure because the real estate is so good, as opposed to the opposite type scenario where it’s an okay deal but the structure is going to kill it.”
