Dealmaker: Meridian Capital Group Arranges $275M in New York
Meridian Capital Group, New York, arranged $275 million for Manhattan retail and office properties.
Meridian Managing Director Carol Shelby arranged $150 million for BLDG Management and Crown Acquisitions to refinance One West 34th Street, a retail and office property in the city’s Midtown West submarket. Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs provided the 10-year fixed-rate commercial mortgage-backed securities loan at 4.31 percent.
Built in 1906, One West 34th Street is a 12-story, 212,000-square-foot property with 88 office spaces and three retail spaces. Tenants include Duane Reade and Bank of America. Shelby said the retail corridor along 34th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues has some of the heaviest pedestrian traffic in the city.
“The existing loan was entering its amortization period and given the property’s prime location and strong 96 percent occupancy, Meridian was able to negotiate a new 10-year interest-only loan,” Shelby said.
In central Harlem, Meridian Executive Vice President Aaron Birnbaum and Vice President Tal Savariego arranged $125 million in balance sheet and mezzanine financing for a retail property at 100 West 125th Street.
Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan provided the first mortgage and mezzanine loans, respectively, to Jeff Sutton/Wharton Properties. Both loans included LIBOR-based floating interest rates and interest-only payments for up to five years.
The institutional-grade property on the southwest corner of 125th Street and Lenox Avenue is a six-story, 200,000-square-foot retail property with 150 feet of frontage on 125th Street and 200 feet of full-block frontage along Lenox Avenue. Tenants include Whole Foods, Burlington Coat Factory and TD Bank.
“Meridian arranged first mortgage and mezzanine financing to repatriate the borrower’s equity and refinance construction financing that Meridian previously arranged for this property,” Savariego said. “The new balance sheet financing provides interest-only payments at a favorable rate and gives the borrower flexibility to continue its operation of the asset.”
