Arch Companies signs $48.4M refi loan with CIM Group for office in Greenwich Village

Arch Companies through the entity 88 Tower LLC as borrower signed a refi loan with lender CIM Group through the entity Cim Real Estate Credit, LLC valued at $48.4 million for the midblock office building at 88 University Place in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
The deal closed on May 23, 2022 and was recorded on June 21, 2022. The prior lender was Mack Real Estate Group which held debt that had an original loan amount of $50 million. The property has 70,642 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The loan price per built square foot is $684 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The owner bought the property on July 30, 2015, for $70 million. The signatory for Arch Companies was Jeffrey Simpson. The signatory for CIM Group was David Thompson. The Real Deal reported the total financing was $70.2 million. Simultaneously with the financing, there was a sale event between the original owner entity and itself and two new entities, all in care of Arch. The property was part of a controversy, since the property was partly owned by Adam Neumann of WeWork, and WeWork was a major tenant in the building.

The property

The 88 University Place parcel has frontage of 31 feet and is 110 feet deep with a total lot size of 6,750 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C1-7 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 6.02 times FAR for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $21.3 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $3,432 in ECB penalties and $9,482 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Greenwich Village, the bulk, or 35 percent of the 34 million square feet of commercial built space are residential elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Greenwich Village has the 10th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.3 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Greenwich Village has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 445,850 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 1 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the 16 commercial properties representing 6,816 square feet of the 154,589 square feet. The identified owner is Gould Investors. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 54 percent of the 428,571 square feet of built space are residential elevator buildings, with office buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space.

Surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 88 University Place, PincusCo identified 13 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those 13 items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit application filed on March 31, 2021 for a 55,474-square-foot R-2 building with 28 residential units at 64 University Place.
Of those 13 items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit issued on October 26, 2021 for the $750,000 renovation of 7,479-square-foot R-3 building with one residential units at 29 East 11th Street.
Of those 13 items, eight were sales above $5 million totaling $145.4 million. The most recent of the eight was Kaiaulu LLC which bought the 8,562-square-foot, one-unit townhouse (A4) on 27 East 11th Street for $35 million from Steve Ells on June 16, 2022.
Of those 13 items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $124.7 million. The most recent of the three was Penn South Capital which borrowed $13.6 million from Midcap Financial secured by the 6,002-square-foot, 10-unit rental (C7) on 18 East 13thstreet and one other property on March 15, 2022.

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