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NEW YORK CITY-Construction will move forward on a mixed-use project in Lower Manhattan that has gone through several redesigns. Edward J. Minskoff Equities' 270 Greenwich St., 1.1-million-sf multi-building effort secures a package totaling $452 million.

The Warren Street Condominium encompasses an entire city block adjacent to Battery Park City. The financing includes a $320-million construction loan facility for creation of a 228-unit condominium tower. It also contains an $82-million loan facility for the construction of a 155,000-sf commercial project including a 400-unit garage. Also part of the package is a $50-million letter of credit enhanced bond financing, supporting the construction of a "50/30/20" residential rental building consisting of 163 units for low, moderate and market-rate units.

Minskoff's plan for the L-shaped lot is a city-sanctioned project awarded to the developer through a New York City Economic Development Corp. RFP designation back in 2001. The project, originally expected to be completed in 2004, has gone through a number of incarnations since that time. The 90,565-sf lot is bound by Greenwich, Murray, and Warren Streets on the urban-renewal site known as Site 5B. In addition to the residential units, the project is now scheduled to include retail space for a planned Whole Foods supermarket and Barnes & Noble.

Bank of America was administrative agent and sole lead arranger. JP Morgan Chase Bank and Landesbank Hessen-Thringen were the other lenders participating in the financing at initial closing. Mezzanine financing was provided by an affiliate of BlackRock. Law firm Morrison & Foerster LLP represented BofA. The letters of credit issued by the banks in connection with the residential rental building back a Fannie Mae credit facility, which in turn secured bonds issued by the NYSHDC.

The transaction team was led by Morrison & Foerster partners Mark Edelstein and John McCarthy. Others working on the deal included Christopher Delson, Gunilla Haac, Scott Kohanowski, Joshua Bloodworth, Alethea Jones, Jason Jones, Justine Martin, Angela Garcia and Jeanette Harris, all in the New York City office.

"This was a complex, multi-tiered arrangement, combining several different financing types on components of a larger, singular project," says Edelstein, who chairs Morrison & Foerster's real estate finance practice. He notes that now that the financing is in place, the developer has taken "a major step to bringing a brilliant new residential and retail property to what has unquestionably returned as a prime place in the New York market."

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Mixed-Use Development Secures $452M in Financing

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