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In Manhattan, where a surge of construction has led to a glut of luxury apartments, Blackstone extended a mortgage originally made for $285 million on a condominium tower being built by Gary Barnett’s Extell Development Co. when the developer couldn’t pay off the loan on its Aug. 9 due date. Barnett, juggling financing for multiple high-end developments, struck a deal with China’s SMI USA to buy extra time to secure a construction loan for the Central Park tower, slated to be New York’s tallest residential building.
Michael Nash, chairman of Blackstone’s real estate debt strategies division, declined to comment on the Extell deal. He said property-debt investments now include more equity and aren’t as risky as in the previous boom, when there was too much leverage and thinly capitalized deals.
“We feel pretty good about where we are, with persistently low rates, a good growth profile in most asset classes and this relatively benign economic environment,” said Jonathan Pollack, global head of Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies.
Nonbanks also make smaller loans that can be troublesome. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance Inc., managed by an indirect subsidiary of Apollo Global Management LLC, last quarter recorded a $15 million loan-loss provision tied to a mortgage on apartments, rental homes and land in Williston, North Dakota, the epicenter of Bakken shale drilling. Rents for apartments in the area have plunged after a slide in crude oil prices.
Though the $58 million loan made on the property, which is owned by private equity firm KKR & Co., hasn’t gone into default, the cash reserve isn’t expected to last through the end of 2016, Stuart Rothstein, CEO of Apollo Commercial Real Estate, told investors during a conference call in July.
Charles Zehren, an Apollo spokesman, wouldn’t comment.
Starwood Property sees an advantage in its ability to underwrite large loans individual banks can’t match, said Chief Operating Officer Andrew Sossen. In 2013, Related Cos. was weighing a loan from a collection of banks for its Hudson Yards development in New York before it got $475 million in debt financing from the REIT to start construction of the first tower.
“A borrower finds it much easier to transact with a single lender versus having to negotiate with multiple banks,” Sossen said.
Manhattan Payoff
Betting on Related and their partners turned out to be a worthwhile gamble. The debt on 10 Hudson Yards was paid off last month when Related and its partners recapitalized the property, which is now fully leased. The financing, underwritten before the foundation was poured, carried an interest rate of about 8 percent.
Starwood’s outlook is cautious on certain property types and areas of the country, according to Dennis Schuh, head of originations. It turns down multiple condo projects every week, though it doesn’t rule anything out, he said.
Nonbank lenders “trust their own instincts,” said JMP’s Delaney.
“Blackstone is the largest owner of real estate in the world,” he said. “They don’t need regulators and the Fed to tell them what the state of the real estate market is.”