Gary Barnett Scores $900M Loan for Disney Campus Purchase
By Celia Young March 22, 2022 11:30 am
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Gary Barnett’s Extell Development Company snagged more than $900 million in acquisition financing for his purchase of the final part of the former Walt Disney Company-owned ABC campus on the Upper West Side from Silverstein Properties and Seven Valleys, Commercial Observer has learned.
Guggenheim Partners and Aquarian Holdings provided the financing.
Aquarian, Beaumont Partners and JVP Management are also equity investors in the roughly $930 million purchase of Disney’s New York City headquarters, located on West 67th Street, according to a spokesperson for Extell. Extell did not immediately respond to questions on the exact amount of financing or form of equity the three provided. The financing deal closed last week Friday, according to a spokesperson for Aquarian, who also declined to comment on the terms of the deal.
“Extell looks forward to working with Disney over the next several years as they transition to their new headquarters in Hudson Square,” Barnett, founder and chairman of Extell, said in a statement.
Silverstein and Seven Valleys struck a deal to sell the properties to Barnett last month, with Barnett putting down a $50 million deposit for the office towers, CO first reported. The properties Barnett purchased are located at 149 and 147 Columbus Avenue, 7, 47 and 77 West 66th Street and 30 West 67th Street.
Disney will be leasing the Upper West Side space for several more years as the company builds its new 22-story headquarters at Four Hudson Square — where workers have started to install the tower’s facade. It’s unclear what Extell’s plans are for the site.
Silverstein sold part of the campus at 125 West End Avenue, 320 West 66th Street and Lot 61 to Taconic Investment Partners and Nuveen Real Estate in 2019 for $220 million, and should break even on its $1.2 billion purchase of the properties with the close of Barnett’s buy.
Seven Valleys co-owned the buildings with Silverstein and is the U.S. family office of Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi, the co-founders of SOHO CHINA, though it’s unclear what the firm’s stake in the properties was, CO reported.
An Eastdil Secured team of Gary Phillips and Will Silverman brokered the sale to Barnett. The firm declined to comment.
There were no brokers on the deal, according to Extell. Aquarian helped arrange the financing for Guggenheim and itself, according to a source familiar with the deal. Guggenheim, Beaumont Partners, Silverstein and JVP Management did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Celia Young can be reached at cyoung@commercialobserver.com.
