Starwood Provides $105M on Meatpacking Restoration Hardware Site

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Bobby Cayre‘s Aurora Capital Associates and William Gottlieb Real Estate today closed a $105 million loan backed by its Meatpacking District property 9 Ninth Avenue, sources close to the deal told Commercial Observer. 

The ten-year financing from Starwood Mortgage Capital is interest-only for the entire term, one source said. The take-out loan retires a $60 million mortgage from Wells Fargo (WFC), another source added. 

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Rob Verrone, principal of Iron Hound Management, brokered the deal, he confirmed to CO. 

“Starwood was just good to deal with,” he said. “They told us what they could do on day one; they were true pros.”

The site is in the midst of conversion to a 60,000-square-foot retail project. Restoration Hardware signed a 15-year lease worth a reported $250 million in 2014, but the sponsors have struggled with Department of Buildings’ permits and controversy that enveloped the project after a construction worker died in an accident there—a death ruled contractor Harco Construction‘s fault last July, as reported by Crain’s New York Business. 

Officials at Aurora did not immediately return a request for comment. Officials at William Gottlieb were not immediately available for comment. 

With additional reporting by Cathy Cunningham