Northwood Investors Obtain $230M Refi for SoHo Buildings

Northwood Investors has refinanced 520 and 524 Broadway, two historic mixed-use properties with a total of 235,000 square feet in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, with a $230 million loan provided by Barings and arranged by Newmark.

The refinancing follows a $227.1 million bridge loan provided by Ares Management in 2021, according to Yardi Research Data. That year in June, Northwood acquired the properties from Tahl Propp Equities for $323.5 million, the same source showed. Tahl Propp had owned the assets since 1937.

The Newmark team was led by Jordan Roeschlaub, co-president of global debt and structured finance, and Vice Chairman Nick Scribani. Barings Managing Director Jonathan Neff handled the origination at Barings.

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The financing will provide future funding to support leasing across both the retail and office components, according to Newmark. Located at the southeast corner of Broadway and Spring streets, the properties have a combined 180,000 square feet of office and 55,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, including the Balthazar restaurant and Lululemon. Abercrombie & Fitch is set to soon open a retail store at the site.

Closer look at buildings

The Beaux-Arts limestone buildings share a newly renovated and attended lobby. The 66,000-square-foot 520 Broadway was built in 1900 and includes 7,278 square feet of retail on floors one and two, with office space on floors three through 11. It has 5,539-square-foot floorplates The building had a cosmetic renovation in 2015. Office tenants include advertising agency LaPlaca Cohen and NoHo Hospitality Group.

The 11-story building at 524 Broadway was completed in 1902. It was completely renovated in 1998 and had a cosmetic renovation in 2014, Yardi Research Data reported. The building has 15,000-square-foot floorplates and first-floor retail space. WeWork rents the top five floors, totaling about 60,000 square feet, according to Yardi Research Data. Real estate agency The Corcoran Group is also an office tenant.

The building has also recently signed crypto firms as office tenants. Artemis, which provides data and analytics for digital assets, is subleasing 5,539 square feet on the ninth floor, according to the Commercial Observer. MoonPay, a global leader in crypto payments, is leasing more than 5,000 square feet on the eighth floor for its U.S. headquarters. The company stated the SoHo space is its largest office in the U.S.

The buildings are within a 10-minute walk to 16 different subway lines.

Strong retail, office markets

The Manhattan retail leasing market has been strong this year with the second quarter seeing steady demand and historically low availability, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The availability rate across Manhattan’s premier retail corridors dropped to 12.8 percent. That’s the lowest rate since the fourth quarter of 2014 and a significant improvement from the pandemic peak of 27.8 percent. Cushman & Wakefield reported retailers committed to new brick-and-mortar opportunities in Manhattan, bringing the leasing volume to 2.5 million square feet in the first half of 2025, surpassing the pre-pandemic volume in the first half of 2019.

Average asking rents across Manhattan’s prime retail corridors were steady in the second quarter, rising just 1 percent year-over-year for the market. But SoHo saw asking rents jump 6.3 percent due to sustained demand, particularly by apparel and cosmetics brands.

Manhattan office leasing volume surged to the highest level in nearly six years during the second quarter, with new leasing hitting 8.4 million square feet, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The increase was driven by six leases for more than 100,000 square feet, including New York University taking 1.1 million square feet at 770 Broadway. It was the largest new lease since the fourth quarter of 2019.

Renewal activity was also up, with 4.7 million square feet of lease renewals—a 47.2 percent increase year-over-year.