Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On December 4, 2015, a two-lender syndicate — the Bank of China (BOC) as senior lender and SL Green Realty Corp. as mezzanine lender — entered into $197.5 million USD loan agreement with 1-10 Bush Terminal Owner LP — a Delaware-incorporated special purpose vehicle (SPV) and joint venture of Cammeby’s International, FBE Limited LLC, Jamestown L.P., Angelo, Gordon & Co., L.P., and Belvedere Capital Partners, LLC — for the Industry City 2015 Refinancing Project. This loan carried a maturity period of three years with two one-year extension options. $220 million USD was provided at closing ($197.5 million USD by BOC, the other $22.5 million USD provided by SL Green) with the other $183 million USD to be disbursed over time as the property was redeveloped and leased (as a so-called "good news facility"), which was indeed disbursed. Iron Hound Management Company helped arrange the loan. Record ID#107712 captures BOC's contribution. The proceeds were to be used by the borrower to refinance existing debt on, recapitalize, and provide financing for further upgrading of Industry City, formerly known as Bush Terminal, a 16-building 6 million square foot building complex located between Second and Third Avenues in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York City. The existing debt was a $190 million USD A-note (remaining balance of $158.3 million USD paid off fully) and a $110 million USD B-note from April 2012 (remaining balance of $84.5 million USD liquidated entirely) by lender LNR Partners. The complex was under a $1 billion USD long-term renovation plan to revitalize the waterfront complex, previously an industrial center in Brooklyn, into space for offices, shops, restaurants, and a hotel and creative, technology, advertising, media, and information tenants. The redevelopment was planned, though still required funding from the City of New York and an approved rezoning. Circa December 1, 2017, a two-lender syndicate — BOC as senior lender and SL Green Realty as mezzanine lender — entered into a $244 million USD syndicated loan agreement with 1-10 Bush Terminal Owner LP for the Industry City Renovation Project. BOC committed $196 million USD loan as part of it, consisting of two mortgages ($133 million USD and $63 million USD) apparently collateralized against portions of the Industry City complex. SL Green committed $48 million USD in mezzanine financing. The proceeds were to be used by the borrower for leasing and development costs at Industry City, as in fall 2017 the sponsors had applied to facilitate a planned $1 billion USD redevelopment of the office-and-manufacturing complex. Record ID#107714 captures BOC's contribution. In December 2019, a syndicate of four lenders — BOC, Blackstone Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, and SL Green Realty — entered into a $720 million USD syndicated loan agreement with 1-10 Bush Terminal Owner LP for the Industry City 2019 Refinancing Project. Blackstone led the financing. The debt included a mezzanine component. The proceeds were used by the borrower to replace and refinancing the previous two loans BOC and SL Green had provided in 2015 and 2017 ($647 million USD in total) for Industry City. Record ID#107715 captures BOC's contribution. The $1 billion USD rezoning plan stalled in September 2019 after a City Council member demanded another concession, namely giving more time for community input. In October 2019, seven-month land-use review process for the rezoning was launched.
Staff comments
1. This project is also known as the Sunset Park Complex Project. 2. The individual contributions of the four lenders to this $720 million USD syndicated loan are unknown. Therefore, to estimate BOC's contribution, AidData assumes that each lender contributed equally ($180,000,000 USD) to the loan syndicate. 3. AidData assumes that 1-10 Bush Terminal Owner LP, as the special purpose vehicle borrower of the 2015 loan, was the specific borrowing institution of the other loans as well.