Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On December 1, 2015, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) entered into a $75 million USD land acquisition loan agreement with Brookfield Property Partners L.P. — a Bermuda-headquartered commercial real estate firm that is part of Canada's Brookfield Asset Management — to finance the acquisition of two vacant sites on Commercial Street in Greenpoint Landing. The proceeds were to be used to finance the purchase of two vacant sites, worth $59 million ISD and $46.5 million USD respectively, from Park Tower Group located on Commercial Street on the East River waterfront as part of the 22-acre 10-building Greenpoint Landing development in northwest Brooklyn, New York City, New York, that the borrower sought to develop two rental buildings for $600 million USD. The acquisition was completed on October 19, 2015 and allowed Brookfield to create a joint venture with Park Tower Group. Record ID#106492 captures the $75 million USD loan. One of the vacant lots became host to 37 Blue Slip, also known as One Blue Slip, a 30-story, 369,843-square foot 359-residential unit tower that opened in August 2019, and the other vacant lot became host to Two Blue Slip at 41 Blue Slip, a 400-foot, 40-story, 448,412-square foot 421-residential unit mixed-used development with 813 square feet of commercial space. In June 2018, ICBC entered into a $89 million USD loan agreement with Brookfield Property Partners for the acquisition of the six parcels at Greenpoint Landing. This loan carried a maturity period of three years and a floating rate. The proceeds were to be used by the borrower to finance the $148.497 million USD acquisition of Park Tower Group's ownership stake in a four-parcel Eagle Street site (later developed as Eagle and West) for $106.508 million USD, including 1 Eagle Street, a planned 435-foot 39-story 387,896-square foot tower with 335 residential units, 221 West Street, a planned 336-foot, 29-story, 287,519-square foot tower with 302 residential units, and 15 Eagle Street, a planned 67-foot, 7-story, 175,431-square foot development with 108 residential units, and a two-parcel, 49,200 square foot assemblage site for $41.889 million USD, where the 1 Bell Slip development (formerly 65 Commercial Street), a planned 311-foot tall, 31-story 379,803-square foot mixed-used development planned to include 408 residential units spread across 292,029 square feet and 992 square of commercial space, both located at Greenpoint Landing in Brooklyn, New York City, New York. The acquisition was completed. Record ID#106494 captures the $89 million USD loan. On December 20, 2018, a syndicate of four banks — ICBC, the Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank), TD Securities, and Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. — entered into an approximately $217 million USD syndicated loan with Brookfield Property Partners for refinancing purposes and the 41 Blue Slip Project. This loan carried a maturity period of three years with a one-year extension option. Each lender contributed evenly ($54,250,000 USD each). ICBC served as lead bank and Scotiabank served as lead administrative agent on behalf of TD Securities and Intesa Sanpaolo. The proceeds were to be used to refinance a portion of the 2015 $75 million USD ICBC loan, with a $45 million USD project loan to fund soft costs and construction and a roughly $130 million USD building loan associated with the construction of 41 Blue Slip, also known as Two Blue Slip, a planned 39-story 448,000 square feet 420-unit residential apartment tower situated next to 37 Blue Slip on Brooklyn’s East River waterfront in the Greenpoint Landing area. Record ID#106494 captures ICBC's $54.250 million USD contribution. Handel Architects was responsible for the design of 41 Blue Slip. The building was planned to be completed in the second quarter of 2020. Construction was completed around July 31, 2020.
Staff comments
1. It is plausible, if not likely, that the specific borrowing institution was a special purpose vehicle subsidiary of Brookfield Property Partners. It is also possible that Park Tower Group, which formed a joint venture with Brookfield Property Partners, was involved in the borrowing institutions, those sources refer to Brookfield primarily. This issue merits further investigation.