Martocci and D'Arcy of M&T Bank and Wildauer of Apollo finance $163.5m loan

M&T Bank-New York City and Apollo Real Estate Advisors have provided a $163.5 million loan to a partnership that recently acquired most of the Verizon Building, a 1.2 million s/f commercial building at 375 Pearl St. M&T Bank financed the $110 million senior portion of the loan. The Apollo fund (Apollo Real Estate Finance Corp.), structured as a private REIT, retained the balance. The two lenders funded $126 million up front with the remainder earmarked for redevelopment expenses and interest reserves. Owned and occupied by Verizon, the 32-story building was acquired for $172.5 million in late 2007 by Taconic Partners and Square Mile Capital which plans to redevelop all but three floors retained by Verizon for use by multiple tenants. Bradford Wildauer, partner at Apollo's REIT, and Gino Martocci and Peter D'Arcy, respectively senior vice president and group manager of the structured real estate finance group at M&T Bank-NYC, were responsible for the 18-month loan. M&T is highly regarded for its ability to rapidly respond to meet its client financial needs, its innovative approach to transactions and creative finance solutions. "Our business model is highly flexible and we welcome the opportunity to build new long-term relationships based on a partnership approach," said Martocci. "This transaction is an example of a specialty lender and commercial bank working together to fund a transaction that, until recent market conditions, would have likely gone to a commercial MBS program," said Wildauer.