C&W Arranges $275M in Financing for Historic NYC Tower

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

Cushman & Wakefield served as the exclusive advisor to an affiliate of SL Green Realty Corp., New York, in arranging a $275 million, seven-year senior mortgage loan for 220 East 42nd Street in New York, Cushman announced last Friday.

The financing for the 37-story, 1.2-million-square-foot office building, which is also known as the News Building, was provided by Wells Fargo. The refi closed in mid-October, a Cushman & Wakefield spokesperson told Commercial Property Executive.

20 East 42nd St., also known as The News Building, is located between Second and Third avenues, not far from Grand Central Terminal.

“Lenders were highly attracted to this exceptional financing opportunity, a chance to provide financing to SL Green Realty Corp. on a high-quality office property near Grand Central,” Steve Kohn, president of Cushman & Wakefield’s Equity, Debt & Structured Finance group, said in a release.

“The lending environment is very competitive right now for core buildings in major markets,” Kohn told CPE.

A team of Kohn, Dave Karson, Alex Hernandez, Christopher Moyer and John Spreitzer served as exclusive advisors to the borrower.

Completed in 1930, the building was the headquarters of the New York Daily News until 1995. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.

Its major current tenants include Omnicom Group; law firm Martin Clearwater & Bell; WPIX, a TV station owned by the Tribune Co.; and the United Nations.

The building’s lobby features a rotating globe, which was made famous by the “Adventures of Superman” TV series that ran from 1952 to 1958. At one time, the globe reportedly was the world’s largest indoor globe.