HGI recapitalizes 55 Broadway – $107.7 million; arranged by Meridian

Manhattan, NY Harbor Group International, LLC (HGI), refinanced and recapitalized 55 Broadway, a class A, 32-story office building in the Financial District. HGI refinanced the existing senior mortgage with an initial $107.7 million senior loan from an insurance company lender with a future funding component of up to $8.4 million for future leasing. New equity capital was invested in the property to retire Paramount Group Inc.’s preferred equity and to fund costs associated with significant recent leasing activity at the building.

Meridian Capital Group’s Ronnie Levine, senior managing director, and Ben Jacobs, senior vice president, provided mortgage brokerage services to HGI in connection with the refinancing of the senior loan.

55 Broadway features 356,059 s/f of office and ground floor retail space. Currently, the building is approximately 89% leased to nearly 40 office and retail tenants, with 69,000 s/f leased since January 2020.

Full floor tenants include The Kingdom of Morocco, Bank of Communications, Syscom and Assurant, Inc.

“As the New York office market begins to recover, we believe the recapitalization of 55 Broadway will create new opportunities for the property and position it to take advantage of the improving Downtown market fundamentals,” said Richard Litton, president, HGI. “Despite the impact of the pandemic on urban office assets, HGI’s strategic leasing strategy continued to secure strong, long-term tenants amid external economic stress.”

“It was a pleasure working again with the HGI team on this financing assignment. Their ability to drive leasing activity during a pandemic is a testament to the quality of the asset and sponsorship. This loan provides flexibility for HGI to continue implementing their business plan in order to maximize value at the asset,” said Levine.