Brookfield Closes $1.3B CMBS Refi for 660 Fifth Avenue

Year end may be fast approaching, but the megadeals just keep closing. 

Brookfield has officially sealed its $1.3 billion refinance of 660 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, bringing its total financing activity so far this year to a whopping $35 billion. 

The deal was composed of a $1.2 billion, five-year, floating-rate, single-asset, single-borrower (SASB) commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loan from a syndicate of lenders that included Citigroup, Barclays, ING, Bank of America and Santander Bank, plus an $89 million mezzanine loan from Rockwood Capital, which earlier this month integrated its business into Harrison Street Asset Management. 

Eastdil Secured’s Grant Frankel negotiated the debt, with the senior loan being securitized in the BFLD Commercial Mortgage Trust 2025-660F CMBS SASB deal, which was oversubscribed. 

The Promote reported news of the deal being underway earlier this month. 

“We are encouraged by the market’s strong reception to our high-quality assets,” Zachary Cohn, managing partner at Brookfield, said. “660 Fifth Avenue is part of a select group of properties with significant leasing momentum that is driving scarcity premiums for high-quality office in major markets. As an owner, borrower and lender, we are in a unique position to capitalize on opportunities and quickly adapt to current market dynamics. We look forward to continuing to deliver for investors while enhancing landmark assets in major gateway cities.”

Indeed, the building’s leasing velocity is nothing to be sneezed at. In 2022, Australian investment bank Macquarie took 222,000 square feet as its U.S. headquarters; Citadel leased 504,000 square feet in January while it waits for its new headquarters at 350 Park Avenue to be ready; Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global also took 100,000 square feet at the property to meet the demands of its expansion in New York City; and last, but not least, Scotiabank signed a lease for 205,000 square feet just last month, bringing the building to full occupancy. 

The 1.25 million-square-foot tower between 52nd and 53rd streets was built in 1957. Brookfield acquired the leasehold interest in the building’s office condominium from Kushner Companies in 2018, and undertook a $400 million gut renovation of the then-distressed property — saddled with debt and vacancy issues — starting in 2020, shelling out $1.7 billion in total between the acquisition and renovation. 

The building was stripped back to basics to kick off its next chapter and, despite all the challenges that the pandemic brought at the time, Brookfield completed a full makeover of the building’s facade, constructing a new lobby and outdoor terraces, raising its ceiling heights, and upgrading of its mechanical systems and elevators in 2022. 

“We completed our lease-up after a significant transformation, restoring 660 Fifth into one of New York’s premier office assets,” Cohn said. 

“The refinancing of 660 Fifth Avenue marks another milestone in the property’s remarkable revival and reflects continued confidence in Brookfield’s sponsorship,” Ben Brown, Brookfield’s head of Americas Real Estate, said in a statement.  “We’re proud of how this transformation has re-established 660 Fifth Avenue as one of the city’s premier business addresses and a symbol of reinvestment and renewal in Midtown Manhattan.”

Of  the $35 billion in financings completed by Brookfield this year, roughly $10 billion involved office assets. “It has been an incredibly active year for markets and our portfolio — financing activity has been diversified across our core sectors, including office, logistics, housing, hospitality and retail,” Cohn said. 

Headline-grabbing deals included the $1.25 billion CMBS loan for 5 Manhattan West, a 1.7 million-square-foot office tower within Manhattan West, and a $2.4 billion SASB CMBS loan for Ala Moana, the firm’s shopping and office complex in Honolulu, Hawaii. 

After all that activity, Brookfield surely deserves a mai tai on the beach. 

Cathy Cunningham can be reached at ccunningham@commercialobserver.com.