Manhattan Office Asset Lands $105M Refi

By Veronica Grecu

New York City—Meridian Capital Group has arranged a 12-year refinance loan provided by a local savings bank for an office condominium that occupies the first six floors of the 10-story building at 521-533 W 57^th St. in Manhattan’s Midtown West neighborhood. The property is fully occupied and serves as the corporate headquarters of the International Flavors & Fragrances. Other tenants include CBS Broadcasting, Labcorp and the Multiple Sclerosis Research Center of New York.

521-533 W 57th St.

The $105 million loan features a fixed rate of 3.75 percent and five years of interest-only payments. Meridian’s team consisting of Managing Director Allan Lieberman, Managing Director Steven Adler and Vice President Jeffrey Berkes negotiated the transaction on behalf of 521-533 West 57th Street Associates, an entity associated with Himmel + Meringoff Properties.

Lenders showed tremendous interest in the refinance of this asset, given its central location in the desirable Midtown West market,” Meridian’s Allan Lieberman said in prepared remarks. “Meridian capitalized on the strong demand by lenders for this asset and sponsorship and leveraged this momentum to negotiate a competitive fixed rate for 12 years with five years of interest-only payments.”

Located between 10^th and 11^th Avenues, close to Time Warner Center, Hearst Publishing and Columbus Circle, the 480,000-square-foot office building was completed in 1927 and originally served as an automobile showroom and factory building. In 2004, Himmel + Meringoff Properties acquired a 61.1 percent ownership stake in the property—that is the condominium ownership of the first six floors totaling 310,000 square feet of space—from Townsend Capital for $56.5 million and went on to convert the asset into Class A office space and biotech center. According to Yardi Matrix, Weinreb Management paid nearly $111 million for the remaining ownership stake in the property in August 2007.

Image courtesy of Himmel + Meringoff Properties