1 | june 19, 2015

A Hong Kong investment company is ac-cusing three companies of boxing it out of a deal to buy The Plaza Hotel, Dream Hotel in Chelsea and London’s Grosvenor Hotel, according to a new $350 million lawsuit.

“Plaintiff has been denied its rights under the agreement as the intended 70 percent owner of the general part-nership, including but not limited to various management fees, which cannot presently be determined but which are estimated would have been in excess of $350 million, as well as the an-ticipated increase in the value of the target properties,” the suit claims.

On Jan. 22, Hong Kong-based JTS Trading Ltd., which provides equi-ty and debt capital as well as support and

management for various commercial ven-tures, entered into a joint venture for the acquisition of the landmark Plaza Hotel at 768 Fifth Avenue at Central Park South and Dream Hotel at 355 West 16th Street as well as the Grosvenor House in London.

The three properties are owned and operated through various entities of the Indian financial services group Sahara India Pariwar.

Trinity White City Ventures Limited, a United Arab Emirates private trust, was going to contribute $250 million in the purchase and JTS was slated to pro-vide $850 million of equity capital in the deal through a general partnership, the suit says.

Morgan Stanley originated a $205 mil-lion acquisition loan to help finance Vornado Realty Trust’s purchase of the Old Navy building in Herald Square, records filed with the city show.

The three-year loan bears an interest rate of 2.25 points over Libor and two one-year ex-tension options, according to a statement from the borrower.

Vornado bought the three-story building at 144-150 West 34th Street from a part-nership between Starwood Capital Group and Crown Acquisitions for $355 million on June 2.

Starwood and Crown had paid the family-run KLM Construction Corporation $252 million for the retail property just 13 months prior, in late April 2014.

See Morgan... continued on page 8See UBS... continued on page 3

Morgan Stanley Lends $205M for Vornado’s Herald Square Old Navy Buy

The LEAD

In This Issue

3 jLL Brokers Brooklyn Construction Deal

3 jewish Private School Gets $25M Bridge Loan

5 nGKF Secures Financing for Portland Senior Housing Development

7 Student Housing Refinances With Redwood Trust CMBS Loan

7 Citizens Provides $28M for Brooklyn Mixed-use Apartment Development

8 northMarq Arranges $80M Bank of America Loan for Charlotte Purchase

8 Trimont and Amalgamated Team up for new York Affordable Housing Initiative

“Where clients aren’t able to get 9-percent tax credits

to finance their deals, they are going after bond allocations, which are in

the 4-percent credit range” —Maria Barry

From Q&A on page 12

The Insider’s Weekly Guide to the Commercial Mortgage Industry

FINANCE WEEKLY

UBS Named as Defendant in $350M Plaza Hotel Lawsuit

2 | june 19, 2015

DEBT MEZZANINE EQUITY INVESTMENT SALES W W W . A C K M A N Z I F F . C O M

G L O B A L C A P I T A L T E C H N O L O G Y

R E A L E S T A T E A D V I S O R Y

T R U S T O N E F I R M

3 | june 19, 2015

Westport, Conn.-based private bridge lender Titan Capital originated a $25 mil-lion loan for an international Jewish boarding

school in North Carolina, Commercial Observer Finance has learned.

The two-year loan retires $6 million in ex-isting debt and frees up cash to boost enroll-ment at American Hebrew Academy—the only pluralistic Jewish boarding school in the world, according to the lender. While Titan could not provide the interest rate, the loan-to-value ratio is around 28 percent, with the school recently appraised at $90 million, said Daniel Nadri of Titan, who worked on the deal.

The 100-acre nonprofit school, located in Greensboro, N.C., took the loan in its own name, without an additional guarantor.

AHA was founded in 2001 by Maurice “Chico” Sabbah, a philanthropist, who ini-tially donated $150 million to develop the campus, which holds 400,000 feet of space

in 31 buildings over 100 acres. Following Sabbah’s death in 2006, his nephew Glenn Drew took over as the executive director.

Sabbah’s business, aviation reinsurance firm Fortress Re, was embroiled in lawsuits following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and paid out a reported $400 million. As a re-sult, his pledge to the school was threatened, and many expected AHA to close. However, in 2005, the school and Sabbah were able to reach a settlement that provided the institu-tion with “a significant financial endowment,” according to Insurance Journal, although the amount was not disclosed.

With the new loan from Titan—which has offices in Connecticut, Manhattan and Miami—the school’s financial future seems secure once again.

“The funds we are providing will allow the school to increase its marketing efforts and expand its enrollment to students around the world,” said Mr. Nadri.—Guelda Voien

That general partnership was going to “hold (through an intermediate limited partnership [‘the Limited Partnership’]) majority interests in, and receive management fees from, real es-tate investment trusts (‘REITs’) and special purpose entities (‘SPEs’), which were to own the acquired properties,” the suit charges.

The deal would have made JTS a 70 per-cent owner and TWCV a 30 percent owner of the properties. The acquisition financ-ing was slated to be 25 to 35 percent equi-ty with the balance as debt provided by UBS Financial Services.

From Jan. 27 through Feb. 8, JTS and TWCV worked together to create propos-als for the properties. The next day, TWCV revealed financing agreements for the three hotels between TWCV and a Sahara sub-sidiary, allegedly leaving out JTS. That deal called for one-year loans totaling $1.5 billion and the purchase of $882 million in existing debt. This arrangement, JTS says, was real-ly a “loan to own” transaction and included the same structure as the deal initially dis-cussed with JTS.

According to the suit, TWCV indicated that UBS was going to provide the debt and equity capital to fund the Feb. 9 deal. UBS is a defendant in the suit because the bank al-legedly “tortiously induced TWCV to breach its exclusivity provision with plaintiff” and “acted intentionally and willfully to enrich itself from the financing arrangements re-garding the target properties, at plaintiff’s expense.”

TWCV used JTS’ $850 million equity cap-ital to “open the door to negotiations with Sahara, and then when the opportunity pre-sented itself TWCV, under the transparent guise of a “loan-to-own” structure, refused to honor its contractual commitments to the plaintiff,” the suit says. JTS was then in-vited to participate in the new transaction with different terms.

The plaintiff’s attorney, Andrew J. Goodman, Esq. of Garvey Schubert Barer, told Commercial Observer Finance that on July 8 the court will hear an argu-ment about whether JTS can put a lien on Sahara’s interest in the two New York City properties during the course of the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal re-ported a little over a week ago that two Monaco-based brothers, David and Simon Reuben, completed a deal with the Sahara Group’s lender, the Bank of China, to pay more than $800 million for the debt on the three hotels. Sahara has sought to sell the hotels to raise money to release company Founder Subrata Roy from jail. He is being held on $1.6 billion bail in New Delhi.

Defendants TWCV and Sahara India Pariwar weren’t reachable for comment and UBS didn’t respond to a request for comment.—Lauren Elkies Schram

A Brooklyn-based developer landed the financing it needs to complete the re-development of 336 Himrod Street in

Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood.

JLL’s capital mar-kets group secured $21 million in con-struction financing for the mixed-used, 80/20 project, Commercial Observer Finance has learned.

Santander Bank provided the three-year loan, according to a representative for the brokerage.

JLL Vice President Jonathan Schwartz and Managing Director Max Herzog led the negotiations on behalf

of the design and development firm, ASH NYC.

The project calls for the partial con-version of the former Dannenhoffer’s Opalescent Glassworks factory and partial ground-up construction.

Upon completion, 336 Himrod Street will contain 63 apartment units, 4,600 square feet of ground-floor commercial space with an adjoining 4,200-square-foot concourse level, outdoor space and parking.

Representatives for ASH NYC could not be reached for comment by publica-tion time.—Damian Ghigliotty

JLL Brokers Brooklyn Construction Deal

A rendering of 336 Himrod Street

EXCLUSIVE

UBS...continued from page 1

Jewish Private School Gets $25M Bridge Loan

EXCLUSIVE

4 | june 19, 2015

In 2014, Meridian Capital closed over 800 acquisition and construction loans totaling more than $10 billion

Shouldn’t you be working with America’s most active debt broker?

EAT.SLEEP.CLOSE.REPEAT.

COFW – ESCR - AcquisitionAndContruction – 800 Loans – $10B – 6-19-15.indd 1 6/17/15 2:21 PM

5 | june 19, 2015

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s capital markets group arranged $37.2 million in con-struction financing and preferred equity for a 147-unit senior hous-ing development in Portland, Ore., Commercial Observer Finance first reported this week.

BBVA Compass provid-ed a $27.5 million construction loan and an institutional inves-tor provided $10 million of pre-ferred equity, the proceeds of which Portland-based Rembold Companies will use to build The Ackerly at Timberland.

The senior housing develop-ment, once completed, will total 162,000 square feet for inde-pendent living, assisted living and memory care residents. The Ackerly will also contain a sepa-rate area for parking, a courtyard and a porte-cochere entryway.

NGKF Capital Markets Senior

Managing Director Jordan Roeschlaub and Managing Director Daniel Fromm secured and structured the financing on behalf of the sponsor.

“Rembold’s expertise and prov-en track record developing se-nior living facilities allowed us to structure a favorable deal for our client,” Mr. Fromm told COF. “The Ackerly at Timberland will be the perfect complement to the borrower’s other senior housing properties in Portland, a city in which more than 10 percent of the population is over the age of 65.”

Rembold’s other local proper-ties in Portland include the 154-unit Russellville Park East independent living apartments and the 140-unit Russellville Park West independent living, assisted living and memory care apartments.

In the first quarter of 2015,

more than $3 billion in senior housing and nursing care facil-ity transactions closed in the U.S., according to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care, a nonprofit organization.

NIC reported that the major-ity of independent living prop-erties had a stable occupancy of 91.2 percent—the same as the fourth quarter of 2014 and the best showing since late 2007. Rent growth in the sector also ac-celerated to 2.7 percent, the fast-est rate since 2009, according to the organization’s statistics.

“There will continue to be fi-nancing for strong developers and operators of senior housing facilities and we look forward to working with clients across the country capitalize their projects,” Mr. Fromm said.—Damian Ghigliotty

NGKF Secures Financing for Portland Senior Housing

Development

A rendering of The Ackerly at Timberland

6 | june 19, 2015

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7 | june 19, 2015

Citizens Bank provided a $28 mil-lion construction loan to Jonathan Rose Companies for its Brooklyn Cultural District: Apartments project in Downtown Brooklyn, according to a release from the lender.

The 11-story mixed-use apartment building is being developed at the corner of Lafayette Avenue and Ashland Place, across the street from the BAM Opera House. The develop-ment site is just south of the new Theatre for a New Audience and adjacent to the Mark Morris Dance Center.

“Jonathan Rose Companies is a great client with an excellent business,” Gary Magnuson, Citizens Bank’s head of commercial real es-tate finance, said in prepared remarks. “We are very pleased to help the Jonathan Rose man-agement team achieve their strategic and fi-nancial goals.”

The finished project will consist of 123 rental apartments, in addition to about 21,400 square feet of cultural space and a 2,800-square-foot Wichcraft restaurant.

The development’s units will accommodate a range of incomes—20 percent of the apartments

will be designated for households earning 80 per-cent of the average median income, 20 percent will be designated for households earning 130 percent of AMI, and the other 60 percent will be rented at market rates.

BCD:A is due for completion in December

2016, according to the developer’s website.“The deal team at Citizens was very respon-

sive, competitive and brought a number of great ideas to the table to help get this project closed,” said Jonathan Rose, the firm’s president.—Damian Ghigliotty

An Auburn University student housing com-plex in Auburn, Ala., grabbed a $13.7 million refi-nancing, broker Eastern Union Funding told

Commercial Observer Finance. Eastern Union Senior

Managing Director Phil Krispin handled the 10-year, non-recourse CMBS loan, which was originated through Redwood Trust, a publicly traded REIT based in Mill Valley, Calif. The loan has an interest rate of 4.56 percent and a three-year interest-only period, said a spokesperson for Redwood.

Howard Weissinger’s property develop-ment firm, The Garden District Auburn, which owns over 400 total units at Auburn and Georgia Southern University, built this property in 1996. Now, the owner has cashed out $1 million, Mr. Krispin said.

The 181-unit, garden-style apartment complex at 190 East University Drive in Auburn, has pri-vate patios, pools and an exterior reminiscent of New Orleans’ historic Garden District.

“Phil and his team at Eastern Union loved the ‘city-scape’ feel, and delivered exactly what we had outlined going into the refinancing process,” Mr. Weissinger said in prepared remarks provid-ed exclusively to COF. “Phil told me ‘you get the exact feel of being in New Orleans here,’ with these tight streets, elevation changes, cantilevered bal-conies—all of these features that were designed to make it feel as if you are actually walking down the streets of the French Quarter.” —Guelda Voien

Student Housing Refinances With Redwood Trust CMBS Loan

The Garden District

EXCLUSIVE

Citizens Provides $28M for Brooklyn Mixed-Use Apartment Development

A rendering of Brooklyn Cultural District: Apartments

8 | june 19, 2015

Trimont Real Estate Capital NYC and Amalgamated Bank, the country’s larg-est union-owned bank, have formed a new joint venture to provide small to mid-sized construction loans to affordable housing developers in New York City.

The Trimont-Amalgamated initiative will focus primarily on moderate rehabilitation and construction lending across the five boroughs, according to a recent announce-ment from the organizations. The effort will support Mayor Bill de Blasio’s goal of creating and preserving 200,000 affordable housing units over the next 10 years.

“It is an honor to work with Amalgamated on such a historic initiative,” Frank Creamer, president of Trimont, said in the announcement. “By improving housing conditions for more New Yorkers, we hope to strengthen communities throughout the city.”

Trimont Real Estate Capital NYC, an af-filiate of Atlanta’s Trimont Real Estate Advisors, was established as a platform for capital providers seeking small-balance commercial real estate loans.

While the initiative’s primary target is the rehabilitation of existing properties, it will also include select ground-up construc-tion loans. Eligible revitalization projects include a range of capital improvements

and an emphasis on “green” upgrades to in-crease a property’s energy efficiency.

The “announcement builds on Amalgamated Bank’s long history of help-ing make affordable housing possible in New York,” said Keith Mestrich, the bank’s president and CEO. “The agreement with Trimont equips Amalgamated with access to top talent in loan sourcing, credit un-derwriting and construction loan servicing, thereby enabling the bank to expand fund-ing for the construction and rehabilitation of affordable homes for working families.”—Damian Ghigliotty

A partnership between Connecticut-based Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers and New York metro-based LRC Properties closed on a Charlotte, N.C., office building with an acquisition loan from Bank of America.

NorthMarq Capital’s Keith Braddish arranged the $79.8 million for the purchase of 101 North Tryon Street, according to a press release from NorthMarq. The asset is in the heart of Charlotte, N.C. The partner-ship paid $107.8 million for the building in May, the Charlotte Business Journal reported.

The loan covers the partnership’s purchase of the 566,000-square-foot of-fice complex, as well as additional costs including building upgrades and leas-ing commissions. The floating rate loan has a three-year interest-only period,

according to NorthMarq.“Realizing the inherent value of ex-

isting below-market rental rates at the property along with the need for a cap-ital infusion to upgrade the asset, the partnership will engage in a capital plan, which will bring the asset up the stan-dards of the top echelon of the class ‘A’ office market,” Mr. Braddish said in pre-pared remarks. “Bank of America provid-ed a balance sheet loan, which facilitates the acquisition as well as allowing future funding for these aforementioned capi-tal upgrades as well as tenant improve-ments and leasing commissions.”

Bank of America happens to also be a tenant in the building, according to the Charlotte Business Journal, with a lease that ends in 2021 for 261,000 square feet.—Terrence Cullen

NorthMarq Arranges $80M Bank of America Loan for Charlotte Purchase

It’s a familiar asset for the New York-based lending giant. Morgan Stanley provided $175 million—with $25 million of that syndicated to another lender—for the previous purchase of 144-150 West 34th Street, as Commercial Observer Finance reported at the time.

Manhattan retail acquisitions, on the whole, are among the bank’s most desired deals as it looks to expand its presence in top markets in 2015, Morgan Stanley’s global head of com-mercial real estate lending James Flaum said in an interview this March.

The 78,000-square-foot Herald Square building is fully leased to Old Navy, the Gap-owned retail brand that sells moderately priced clothing and accessories. That lease ex-pires in May 2019, according to Vornado.

The property, which is located across the street from Macy’s, contains air rights that allow for redevelopment of up to 300,000 square feet, property records show.

The building was completed in 1900.—Damian Ghigliotty

Morgan...continued from page 1

144-150 West 34th Street

Trimont and Amalgamated Team Up for New York Affordable Housing Initiative

Mayor Bill de BlasioG

ett

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aGes

101 North Tryon Street

9 | june 19, 2015

New York Real Estate Summit Outlook for 2015-2016: The Sky is the limit what can we expect? Monday, June 22, 2015 -8:00 AM to 12 Noon Graduate Center of the City University-365 Fifth Ave, New York City

www.nyrealestatesummit.com

Schedule for the event:

7:30 AM-8:30 AM: Registration & breakfast 8:30 AM-9:30AM: Industry Pro’s View on the market-Where are we headed? 9:40 AM-10:40 AM: Money, Money & More Money for real estate: Debt, equity, Israeli Bond Financing, EB 5, Crowd funding, Joint Ventures & other sources of funds to fuel the hot, hot, real estate market 10::40 AM-11:00 AM: Coffee Break 11:00 AM - 12:00 Development Forum: Opportunities in the five boroughs & Gold Coast of New Jersey 12:00 PM-1:00 PM: Networking For additional information visit the website or call: www.nyrealestatesummit.com Michael Stoler, 646-442-0717 mstoler@madisonrealtycapital.com michaelstoler@icloud.com www.michaelstolertelevision.com www.buildingnynylifestories.com www.thestolerreport.com

www.michaelstolertelevision.com

Industry Pro’s View on the state of market & economy-where are we headed? Michael Maturo, President, RXR Realty LLC Stephen Siegel, Chairman, Global Brokerage, CBRE Steven Witkoff, Chairman & CEO, Witkoff Group Ofer Yardeni, Chairman & CEO, Stonehenge Partners

Money, Money & more money for real estate: Debt, equity, Israeli bond financing,EB-5, Crowd funding, Joint ventures & other sources of funds to fuel the hot, hot, real estate market Ralph Herzka, President & CEO, Meridian Capital Group Mary King, Chief Operating Officer, New York City Regional Center Philip McAndrews, Sr. Managing Director, Chief Investment Officer-Global Real Estate, TIAA-CREF Dan Miller, Co-Founder & President, Fundrise Ofer Grinbaum, CEO, Leumi Partners Undewriting Jeffrey Ruidl, Director, Northwestern Mutual Real Estate Investments Shimon Shkury, President, Ariel Property Advisors, Co-Founder, Arlington Equity Group Peter Sotloff, Managing Member & CIO, Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies

Development Forum: Opportunities in the five boroughs & Gold Coast of New Jersey Adam Altman, Managing Member, KABR Group Peter D’Arcy, President, New York City & Long Island, M & T Bank Jeffrey Levine, Chairman & CEO, Douglaston Development, Levine Builders Joe McMillan, Chairman & CEO, DDG Alan Suna, CEO, Silvercup Studios, Principal, Silvercup Properties Josh Zegen, Managing Member & Co-Founder, Madison Realty Capital

10 | june 19, 2015

Jonathan Pollack, former global head of commercial real es-tate at Deutsche Bank, has joined Blackstone Group as a senior man-aging director in the New York private equity firm’s real estate division, according to a re-lease from Blackstone.

Mr. Pollack, who also served as head of risk for structured finance at Deutsche Bank, is taking over as chief investment officer for Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies. He will report to Michael Nash, the global head of BREDS, in his new role.

“I am delighted to join Blackstone,” Mr. Pollack said in the release. “They are the leading real estate investor in the world today in almost every sector. I see terrific opportunities here, and I am looking forward to working with the team.”

Mr. Pollack, who joined Deutsche Bank from Nomura Bank in 1999, took the helm of the German banking giant’s global CMBS business in 2011. In 2014, Deutsche Bank led U.S. CMBS issuance with $23.5 billion in deals and ranked as the top global and national bookrun-ner of securitized commercial real state debt for the fourth consecutive year.

Among Mr. Pollack’s biggest transac-tions this year, was a $1.34 billion acqui-sition loan to Ivanhoe Cambridge for its $2.2 billion purchase of 3 Bryant Park—the largest single-manager, sin-gle-asset financing ever done in New York City—as Commercial Observer Finance previously reported.

Bloomberg Business first report-ed the news of the Deutsche Bank vet-eran’s departure on Friday. Deutsche Bank “remains firmly committed to maintaining our leading position in structured finance,” said Tom Cheung and Daniel Pietrzak, the firm’s co-heads of structured finance for Europe and the Americas, in a memo sent to Bloomberg.

Matt Borstein, who has served as Deutsche Bank’s head of commercial real estate for North America since February 2015, will assume leadership of its U.S. CMBS business, while other executives at the firm will oversee its global CMBS deals, a person familiar with the matter told COF on the condi-tion of anonymity. Mr. Borstein joined the bank from Eastdil Secured, the commercial brokerage subsidiary of Wells Fargo, in 2010.

Mr. Pollack, who ranked among Mortgage Observer’s 50 most impor-tant people in commercial real estate finance three years in a row, holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern University.

“Looking forward, Jonathan’s talents and experience will help accelerate and enhance our growth, as we become one of the preeminent real estate fi-nance firms in the world,” Mr. Nash of Blackstone said in prepared remarks.

He noted that Blackstone’s real estate debt group manages nearly $10 billion of investor capital through its public-ly traded mortgage REIT Blackstone Mortgage Trust, its private mezza-nine debt funds and its CMBS investing platforms.

A spokesman for Deutsche Bank declined to comment. Mr. Pollack could not immediately be reached for comment.

The national lender and private in-vestment firm Greystone launched a new division to provide EB-5 financing for developers.

The new platform is the indus-try’s “first EB-5 sponsor with the ca-pabilities and financial strength of a full-service real estate lender, inves-tor, fiduciary, servicer, developer and advisor,” according to a release from Greystone.

The New York-based firm’s CEO, Stephen Rosenberg, told Commercial Observer Finance about his plans to enter the business in an April interview.

Greystone will manage the entire EB-5 capital-raising process on behalf of its clients. That includes deal struc-turing, document preparation, market-ing and loan and investor servicing.

The firm tapped former Justin Gardinier, former vice president of investments at CIM Group, to lead the new division out of Greystone’s Midtown headquarters.

In his previous role, Mr. Gardinier established an EB-5 capital-raising platform that sourced EB-5 funds for CIM’s development projects. He holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.

“Greystone’s experience as a real es-tate advisor, lender, servicer and de-veloper positions the firm to become a model for the next generation of EB-5

sponsors by offering a higher level of service and risk mitigation to EB-5 bor-rowers and investors,” Mr. Gardinier said in prepared remarks. “Greystone EB-5 is entering the market at an ex-citing time, and has the opportunity to make a real difference in the way EB-5 capital is sourced and managed.”

RealtyMogul.com, the online mar-ketplace for real estate investing, received $250 million in direct com-mitments from institutional investors with sizable balance sheets, the firm announced this week.

The commitments will allow the Internet investment and lending firm to offer a new three- to five-year, float-ing-rate bridge product in the 4 to 6 percent interest range and a fixed-rate program that follows the standards of CMBS securitization priced at about 4 percent.

“This is the first time an online mar-ketplace has introduced a product on-line in the 3 to 4 percent range,” said RealtyMogul.com CEO Jilliene Helman in a prepared statement. “We are very proud to be redefining real es-tate lending online.

“Although CMBS loans have exist-ed offline for some time, this is the first time an online marketplace is able to offer a competitively priced CMBS loan,” she added.

The U.S. Department of Treasury has provided a $55 million New Markets Tax Credit award to CEI Capital Management, a wholly owned subsid-iary of the New England-based lender and investor CEI. The firm will deploy the credits to economic development projects in rural, low-income commu-nities around the country, according to an announcement on Monday.

CEI Capital Management has allo-cated New Markets Tax Credits for 88 projects since 2004. Those credits have led to the creation and preservation of 4,553 permanent jobs for positions in-cluding paper mill and saw mill opera-tors, child care providers, health care providers, dairy production staff, hos-pitality professionals and clean tech-nology engineers.

“We are grateful for the longstand-ing support from our congressional delegation,” CEI Capital Management CEO Charlie Spies said in the release. “This significant allocation allows us to continue our work to diversify rural economies.”

Workforce

Jonathan Pollack

11 | june 19, 2015

The Takeaway“1710 Broadway is back on the severely distressed list with its updated maturity date approaching next month,” said Sean Barrie, an analyst at Trepp. “The borrower has apparently provided a refinancing com-mitment for a payoff in the next 45 days, rendering this default a mere technicality. JLL has been market-ing the building, and is negotiating with four different buyers. JLL says they’re looking at a sale for almost $300 million, which is surprising considering the property was appraised for $44.6 million upon loan se-curitization in 2005. If the sale price is anywhere in the arena of $300 million will be a phenomenal grab for the mixed-use property whose loan has been through a number of hurdles.”

Source:

Balance ($) Property City/ County Prop. Type

Delinquency Status

FCL Start Date REO Date Origination

DateMaturity Date

$3,000,000,000 Peter Cooper Village & Stuyvesant Town Pool

New York MF REO 20140603 20140603 20061117 20161208

$225,000,000 Riverton Apartments New York MF REO 20090202 20100311 20061221 20120101

$33,511,936 The Shoreham Hotel New York LO Foreclosure 20061101 20161111

$32,506,271 1710 Broadway New York MU Non-Performing Beyond Maturity

20050501 20150501

$31,000,000 1865 Burnett Street Brooklyn MF REO 20090227 20120629 20070215 20120301

$30,000,000 300-318 East Fordham Road - A note

Bronx RT 90+ Days 20070301 20170311

$25,699,964 1604 Broadway New York RT REO 20070329 20120401

$24,249,142 Cross Island Plaza Rosedale OF 90+ Days 20060810 20160811

$14,557,352 110 West 32nd Street New York MU Foreclosure 20040818 20140901

$12,344,969 4320 Broadway New York MU Non-Performing Beyond Maturity

20050401 20150501

$9,685,293 4234 Bronx Boulevard Bronx OF 90+ Days 20070515 20170601

$5,507,843 770 & 780 Garden Street Bronx MF REO 20091203 20121106 20070901 20170901

$5,408,164 1500 Astor Avenue Bronx OF Foreclosure 20040714 20140811

$4,530,885 47-30 29th Street Long Island City SS Foreclosure 20041025 20141111

$3,297,896 Eckerd Plaza-Slane Portfolio

Woodside RT Non-Performing Beyond Maturity

20050415 20150511

$2,621,852 509 212th Street New York MF REO 20120702 20071101 20171101

$1,917,201 1735 Lafayette Avenue Bronx MF Non-Performing Beyond Maturity

20090422 20061121 20131201

$1,865,355 3126 Coney Island Avenue Brooklyn MF Foreclosure 20130130 20050913 20121001

$1,402,927 4878 Arthur Kill Road Staten Island RT Foreclosure 20060310 20160311

COMMERCIALOBSERVER.COM

12 | june 19, 2015

Q+A

Commercial Observer Finance: Where did you grow up and graduate from?

Ms. Barry: I grew up in Madison, Conn., and graduated from the University of Connecticut as an accounting major. I went there on an athletic and academic scholarship.

How did you get started in banking?

When I graduated from college, I took a position at Ernst & Young in Boston. I spent a couple of years in accounting and got my CPA, but realized I wanted a posi-tion that had a few more dimensions to it. I interviewed with different banks and took a job in the training program at Fleet Bank in Rhode Island, which launched my bank-ing career. When I stared there it was a $2 billion bank, which is actually smaller than my book of business now. Fleet had a lot to offer and all sorts of departments and sub-sidiaries. Around 2000, I joined the bank’s community development team.

How did you transition into your current role?

In 2004, Bank of America acquired Fleet. At that point I was responsible for running the Northeast team, which cov-ered New York to Maine. In 2009, my role expanded to cover the country.

What does your position entail?We deliver financing for affordable

housing development to clients across the country. Most of our financing includes debt and tax-credit equity. When needed, we also provide our clients with all of the bank’s products, including treasury man-agement, interest rate protection and em-ployee benefits.

To what extent can you talk about your client base?

We work with affordable housing devel-opers, including developers of workforce and supportive housing, as well as charter schools. Some of our repeat clients include Winn Development, Beacon Partners and Michaels Development Company on the East Coast, and Meta Housing, Mercy Housing and BRIDGE Housing on the West Coast and Central regions. Our char-ter school clients include DC Prep and Turner-Agassi, among others.

Can you talk about a significant East Coast deal you’ve worked on in recent years?

In December 2013, Bank of America Merrill Lynch provided financing to Tropical Foods, a family-owned ethnic grocer in Dudley Square, Boston, for its new 44,000-square-foot supermarket. Tropical Foods needed fi-nancing to support the development of this new, full-sized, modernized facility that ad-equately met the needs of the area’s diverse low-income community.

We provided financing using the New Markets Tax Credit Program, which pro-vides an upfront subsidy for developments in low-income neighborhoods that create jobs and services for local residents. Bank of America Merrill Lynch provided $14 mil-lion in new deposits and tax credit equity of $3.6 million to the project, paired with $8.3 million in debt financing from the bank. The new store will expand its retail space by over 300 percent and this development is the first of a three-phase project.

What are the bigger political and finan-cial issues you see in creating and pre-serving affordable housing in big cities like New York?

One of the biggest challenges right now is the cost of construction. Where clients aren’t able to get 9 percent tax credits to fi-nance their deals, they are going after bond allocations, which are in the 4 percent cred-it range and require more subsidies. As a result, we’re definitely seeing more preser-vation requests.

What’s your take on the New York market?

New York is a very important market for us and there is a huge need for affordable hous-ing there. We are 100 percent committed to figuring out ways to make that happen. We want to be a part of the solution.

Maria BarryCommunity Development Banking Executive at Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Maria Barry

321 West 44th Street, new York, nY 10036

212.755.2400

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