Berkadia Secures $269M Loan
The transaction will finance the legendary New York City landmark 20 Exchange Place.
New York—Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC recently announced it had secured a $268.7 million loan to finance the high-end residential structure and legendary New York City landmark 20 Exchange Place. New York office managing director Nick Cassino arranged the 10-year, fixed-rate loan through Freddie Mac on behalf of New York City borrower DTH Capital Inc. Ackman-Ziff.
The 86-year-old property was originally built to house the headquarters of City Bank-Farmers Trust. The financial institution was at the time one of the largest banks in the United States, and is significant today as the predecessor of what is now known as CitiBank.
When completed, the structure was New York City’s fourth highest skyscraper. Today, the 57-story building continues to be the tallest structure south of Wall Street.
It is currently a 767-unit luxury apartment building featuring 90,000 square feet of retail space.
The loan was closed January 9, and was used to refinance the property’s existing debt.
“Berkadia has been one of the largest Freddie Mac Program Plus® lenders for many years,” Cassino told MHN. “Berkadia’s strong partnership with Freddie Mac and commitment to building a bench of deep professional and industry expertise allows us to provide customized solutions for our client’s commercial real estate needs. Ackman-Ziff and DTH Capital were aware of the offerings we could provide and our ability to structure competitive loan terms with Freddie Mac was an important factor in successfully closing this transaction.”
This was a highly structured and complex deal, Cassino added.
“Freddie Mac, Ackman-Ziff and DTH Capital all collaborated with Berkadia to work through the issues to structure a loan that was a win-win for everyone.”
Berkadia is a joint venture of Berkshire Hathaway and Leucadia National Corporation, and offers an integrated mortgage banking, investment sales and servicing platform.
