Brookfield’s $515M Loan on Manhattan Tower Goes to Special Servicing

Brookfield Asset Management is set to refinance the top half of the 52-story, 1.5 million-square-foot New York Times Building at 620 Eighth Ave. in Manhattan. The firm has taken a proactive approach to its quickly maturing $515 million CMBS loan and sent the debt to special servicing.

The building has two ownership groups, with The New York Times owning the base through the 27th floor and Brookfield the upper stories. The NYT does not have any debt on its portion of the tower.

The CMBS loan, which was underwritten with a December 2020 maturity date, was extended five times in 12-month increments, reflecting broader capital market trends affecting office refinancing, and will reach its fully extended maturity next month, according to Trepp.

Joseph Iacono, CEO & managing partner at Crescit Capital Strategies in Manhattan, told Commercial Property Executive borrowers need their loans to be in special servicing so the servicer can consider a workout, discounted payoff, giving the keys back or other requests.

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“Those types of conversations can only formally happen once a loan is in special servicing. Sometimes, off the record conversations regarding potential paths will happen outside of special servicing, but for anything to take effect the loan must be in special servicing,” Iacono said.

In February, Fitch Ratings downgraded its outlook on the Brookfield portion of the tower to “negative”, noting the building only generates about 66 percent of the revenue to service the debt, according to Crain’s.

A maturing CMBS loan

The $515 million CMBS loan comprises the entirety of the collateral behind the single-asset, single-borrower deal, Trepp noted. The loan is secured by 738,385 square feet on floors 28 through 52 of the office tower and the ground-floor retail of the building that occupies the entire block of Eighth Avenue between 40th and 41st streets.

Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Americas originated the note in December 2018 after Brookfield took ownership of the upper portion of the building as part of its acquisition of Forest City Realty Trust, according to Yardi Matrix. Wilmington Trust acted as trustee and Trimont LLC as special servicer.

During the same month, the firm also obtained a $120 million junior mortgage loan from Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, Barclays and Citibank, as well as a $115 million mezzanine loan from a private lender.

The New York Times Building, up close

Located one block west of Times Square, the $1 billion tower at 620 Eighth Ave. opened in 2007. The building has 24,000 square feet of retail, a cafeteria, conference center and a 378-seat auditorium, while floorplates range from 17,733 to 60,562 square feet.

Tenants at the fully occupied building include Datadog Inc., which occupies 45 percent of the space with a lease that runs through June 2033. Law firms Covington & Burling LLP and Seyfarth Shaw LLP occupy 27 percent and 18 percent of the office space through September 2027 and December 2032, respectively.

Brookfield isn’t the only Manhattan office owner requesting its debt be sent to a special servicer. Last month, the $800 million CMBS loan against 650 Madison Ave., a 27-story, 595,000-square-foot office and retail building owned by Vornado Realty Trust and Oxford Properties Group, also went to a special servicer. The borrower requested the transfer after missing a payment. Trepp told CPE at the time a pre-negotiation agreement had been executed with the borrower and guarantor, but no decisions had been made and the loan was under review.