The Manhattan landlord Joseph Moinian announced today that he has refinanced a trio of properties.
The news appears to be an encouraging sign for Moinian, who owns a large portfolio of Manhattan commercial and residential buildings and has been identified in written reports as vulnerable to the ongoing difficulties in the capital markets.
Moinian’s real estate company, the Moinian Group, said that it had refinanced the senior mortgage and extended a mezzanine loan at One West Street, a rental apartment building it owns in Lower Manhattan.
The company also extended $400 million of loans for 180 Maiden Lane and 17 Battery Place, two downtown office buildings.
180 Maiden Lane’s debt, which includes mezzanine loans, was restructured the company said in its statement without elaborating on how that restructuring was accomplished.
The statement also revealed that the real estate investment trust SL Green is a debt holder at 17 Battery Place and included a quote from SL Green’s chief executive Marc Holiday stating that the company has “confidence in Joe Moinian’s ability to add value to the properties.”
SL Green’s apparent support of Moinian could be a positive sign because the company has appeared willing to take control properties via its debt positions.
Last year SL Green foreclosed on 100 Church Street, a roughly one millions square foot office property where it held a mezzanine loan, when the building’s then-owner, the Sapir Organization, failed to meet certain income thresholds required under it mortgage.
More recently SL Green has begun foreclosure proceedings on 620 Avenue of the Americas, a building it provided with mezzanine financing and where it also owns a subordinate portion of the mortgage. SL Green also purchased the construction loan at 510 Madison Avenue, a new office tower that was developed by Macklowe Properties, but that many real estate experts feel SL Green will eventually try to take control of.
At One West Street, a 492-unit residential tower known as The Ocean, Moinian stated that he refinanced the property with a first mortgage from the insurance company MetLife and that Deutsche Bank and Resource, a division of Macquarie Bank, had agreed to extend mezzanine debt.
Robert Verrone, a former executive at Wachovia who was one of the most prolific commercial mortgage originators for the syndication market, acted as a “special consultant” according to Moinian’s statement. Verrone is now a principal at the real estate capital advisory firm Iron Hound Management.