Fortress Venture Refinances Lower Manhattan Supertall

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After months of searching, Fortress Investment Group and its partners found an answer for its refinancing needs at 125 Greenwich.

Fortress, Bizzi & Partners and Bilgili Holding scored a $350 million loan to refinance the Financial District condominium building, which is approaching completion. Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Property Trust provided the debt, the Commercial Observer reported.

The joint venture began the year looking to refinance the supertall luxury development, The Real Deal reported in January. They were hoping to replace an existing $313 million construction loan from Northwind Group with cheaper financing, as well as replace the construction loan with a condo inventory loan.

A Newmark team including Jordan Roeschlaub and Nick Scribani arranged the loan alongside an Arrow Real Estate Advisors team including Morris Betesh and Matt O’Hanlon.

The planned 88-story project in Lower Manhattan became notorious for for the years it spent stalled. Construction initially paused around 2019 when the Rafael Viñoly-designed tower was about 85 percent finished.

Fortress, which held the debt, arrived as the project’s lead developer in 2023 and restarted the project with the Northwind loan. It formally launched sales last year.

Plans for the skyscraper date back to 2014, when a group led by Michael Shvo, Bizzi and Vector Group subsidiary New Valley paid $185 million for the site at 22 Thames Street. At the time, top out was expected by 2018 with a projected sellout of $875 million. A year later, Cindat joined as a partner and raised $194 million in EB-5 money from foreign investors.

But things started to turn in 2016 when Shvo was sidelined following an indictment for tax evasion; he was ultimately bought out in 2018. Sales failed to take off, which was blamed largely on the location of the building.

The developers closed on a $473 million construction loan from United Overseas Bank and Bank of China in 2018. But the Bank of China stopped funding the loan, which was then sold to BH3 in 2019, which in turn sold the loan for Fortress for $230 million in early 2020. Fortress wound up converting its debt to equity, rather than foreclosing on the property.

The saga could be nearing a new phase. Douglas Elliman Development Marketing is leading sales of the 271-unit property, slated for completion this year.

— Holden Walter-Warner